Explorer Villers-Cotterêts

The Cité internationale de la langue française occupies the Renaissance château of Villers-Cotterêts, built for Francis I, who signed the 1539 ordinance there that made French the language of law and administration. Opened in 2023 after restoration, it is a museum and cultural centre on the French language, with a permanent exhibition of some sixty installations over 1,200 m².

The Château de Pierrefonds is a castle on the south-eastern edge of the Forest of Compiègne, built at the end of the 14th century for Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and later left in ruins. From 1857 the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc rebuilt it for Napoleon III as an idealised medieval fortress, with towers, a drawbridge and painted interiors.