Painted galleries, alchemical coffered ceilings and unicorns: 5 châteaux in Poitou-Charentes to visit for their interiors

When the days grow shorter, châteaux take on a different face: we linger less in the grounds and more under the ceilings. Between Thouarsais and Saintonge, five residences are particularly rewarding for this upward gaze. Here, the Aeneid unfolds across fifty-five metres of walls, Latin mottos carved into stone are deciphered, and the memory lingers of tapestries that once departed for New York, alongside that of a writer who reformed French prose from his Charentaise countryside retreat. None of these interiors are frozen in time: the northernmost hosts contemporary art until spring, while the one closest to the ocean was rescued from oblivion by an academician. From the end of the All Saints’ holiday to the first Advent weekends, here is a guide to composing an autumn of interiors, from the north of Deux-Sèvres to the gates of Saintes.