The Grand Garden Castle in Joinville

Built between 1533 and 1546 at the request of Claude de Lorraine, the first Duke of Guise, the Grand Garden Castle in Joinville, a listed Historic Monument, forms a magnificent Renaissance ensemble with its elegant main building and superb garden. Owned by the General Council of Haute-Marne, this former hunting lodge of the dukes of Lorraine is now home to a cultural meeting centre. All year round, it hosts cultural events such as classical music concerts and contemporary art exhibitions. Accessible in all seasons, the Renaissance garden, made up of carefully tended flowerbeds, squares of aromatic plants and rare fruit trees, and the romantic park filled with hundred-year-old trees and modern sculptures, are a delight for walkers and admirers of topiary art. Every year in early May, it hosts an unmissable event for all plant-lovers, Spring in the Grand Garden (Printemps du Grand Jardin), a colourful festival dedicated to plants and gardens.

After your visit to the Grand Garden Castle, discover the old town of Joinville. It's as picturesque as can be, with its Quai des Peceaux, known as "Little Venice"; its medieval houses; its old auditorium - a high court founded in 1561 by

Antoinette de Bourbon and François de Guise - which contains historical reconstructions; its Chapel of St. Anne, decorated with 16th-century stained glass windows from the Troyes School; and its Church of Our Lady, built in the 12th and 13th centuries and containing a 16th-century alabaster sepulchre.