Just north of Tulle, the Château de Val is a fifteenth-century fortress standing on a rocky promontory in the enormous Lac de Bort. With six battlemented towers reflected in the water, it looks like something straight out of a fairy tale — or a child's drawing of what a castle should be.
The château was built by the d'Estaing family, whose fleur-de-lys coat of arms still decorates the iron-studded entrance door. Inside, three large furnished rooms on the first floor retain their nineteenth-century decoration, while the second floor houses exhibitions of contemporary art. A Gothic chapel dedicated to Saint-Blaise stands in the main courtyard. The parapet walk on the top floor offers panoramic views over the lake and the surrounding countryside of Haute-Corrèze.
The château was nearly lost when the Bort-les-Orgues dam was built in the 1950s, flooding the valley below. What had been a hilltop fortress became a lakeside one — which, if anything, only improved the setting.