French National Trust?

[Premonier]

Does anyone know the name of the french equivalent to the National Trust? I am assuming that they have one; bound to - all those wonderful treasures. Unfortunately, I need the information for week-end. I suppose a web address would be useful.

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

I've not seen anything that appears to be like the National Trust, but some monuments seem to be linked together under Monum. But that doesn't seem to mean anything much - they just hand out information about each property. Their properties seem more along English Heritage lines actually. I've been to quite a few places under the Monum umbrella, but they don't seem to have memberships.

I do seem to remember seeing a joint ticket to some of the castles in the Loire Valley, but that was about 10 years ago.



Jill (99)

[Liz]

I am afraid the week-end you wanted the information for has been and gone, but perhaps for next time? There is no such thing as the National Trust, more's the pity. But there are many houses and gardens open to the public and there are a number of publications with lists in the book shops. The best way I have found to track down what is open is to go in the local tourist office and ask them for a leaflet. Don't be shy, I find they are sometimes reluctant to leave these out on the counter, someone might take them , so go in and ask.

There are often also publications/newspaper type things that list what is on in the locality for the next week or fortnight, usually these are published from about Easter to September.

There is a government body called something like Monuments Historiques, and they control publicly owned properties. I haven't ever checked if they have a web site but it might be worth doing a search for something like that.

One of the problems in visiting historic houses in France, apart from the really well known chateaux, is that they often have a guided tour usually in French only and the best you can hope for is a leaflet in English that you can take round with you. Some of the best places I have visited are privately owned and the tour is done by the owner. On one occasion I spent 3 hours going from cellar to attic of a small local chateau guided by the octogenarian owner. It was so fascinating I went again the following year.

Liz (29)