Château Biron: 3rd time lucky

On our first visit the Château was supposed to be open but wasn't. On the 2nd visit we got our days mixed up: closed on Samedi. So we returned on Dimanche after our pizza outing in Monpazier. Finally, it was open, nothing like a bit of anticipation. Château Biron boasts a XIIth-century dungeon, some renaissance apartments and plenty of interesting architecture ranging from the XIIth to the XVIth century. It also has a two-storey chapel, the top chapel was reserved for the gentry and the lower was for the peasants! The site is at the top of a hill and has 360" views that are pretty impressive.

(This next section of the post is dedicated to Dr Greg Bisset)

It was very interesting: we learnt that even way back in the XIIth century they had chiropractors. These early practitioners worked down in lower parts of the castles, I suppose that if you had a bad back you wouldn't want to be walking up too many stairs. A good quality adjustment table takes centre stage in these ancient treatment rooms. You have to wonder just how many patients had been treated here all those years ago. The chap who used to work down here certainly had lots of equipment. I did ask if anything was for sale but alias no, but don't worry Greg, I will keep looking.

Above is a photo of the "Stretch-o-Back": way back in the XIIth century this was the latest innovation in clinical traction and decompression therapy. And here we have the patient's waiting room. Looks a wee bit cramped but they get lots of chance to stretch out after.

Anyway, back to our tour of the castle. While Château Biron isn't nearly as spectacular as Beynac it was still a damn good adventure. We were provided with a very detailed guidebook which was full of interesting facts and stories. This helped to bring the château to life. One example of this was outlining all the sleeping arrangements: the Lord's mistress slept in the attic tower, near the dodgy back staircase which seemed to have no other purpose than to connect to the main stateroom via the roof. Here are a few photo's to give you a taste of our outing.