The Drôme is the department of Drôme Provençale and the Vercors, a transitional region between the Alps and the Mediterranean, between the mountains and the lavender fields, between the north and the south. This crossroads location has given rise to a wide variety of castle architecture, from the Alpine fortresses that guarded the mountain passes to the Renaissance castles of the Rhône plain.
Crest, whose 52-metre tower—the tallest medieval tower in France—dominates the Drôme and the Valence plain, served as a state prison under the Ancien Régime. Grignan, a Renaissance castle perched on its rock where the Marquise de Sévigné stayed and died, is one of the region’s most visited monuments, with its terraced gardens overlooking the Provençal plain. Suze-la-Rousse, whose château is home to the University of Wine, Rochefort-en-Valdaine, Montélimar and its nougat…
The Drôme Provençale, with its hilltop villages, lavender fields and olive groves, offers a Provençal setting in which a few castles and fortified villages — Mirmande, listed among the most beautiful villages in France — bear witness to the medieval history of these lands, long contested between the Dauphins of Viennois and the Counts of Provence.