If you are a prince searching for your Sleeping Beauty, look no further. It is here at the Château d'Ussé that Charles Perrault supposedly found his inspiration for the famous fairy tale — and looking at the château from across the Indre river, with its towers, turrets, and white tufa walls rising against a backdrop of dark forest, it is easy to see why. Whether or not the story is literally true, the château is as beautiful as can be.
The Château d'Ussé was built from the fifteenth century onward, with later additions in the seventeenth century giving it the romantic silhouette it has today. The interior can be visited, and includes period furnishings and a sequence of rooms dedicated to the Sleeping Beauty legend, complete with wax figures enacting the story. The formal gardens were redesigned by Le Nôtre, the landscape architect responsible for Versailles.
The château sits at the confluence of the Indre and Loire rivers, with Villandry a short drive to the east and Azay-le-Rideau even closer. It makes a natural stop on any tour of the Loire châteaux.