Chateau de Val

A few weeks ago, when Pan's sister was visiting, we decided to talk a little road trip.  We wanted to see the Chateau de Val, and on the way we stopped to take some pictures of the landscape.  Isn't it just gorgeous?

In the picture above, you can see the view of the castle from the road.  Can you see it?  

Some history:

The last family to live in the castle were evicted by EDF, the French Electric company, in 1946.  EDF decided to flood the valley to make a dam, and in the process also evicted a few towns that were located in the valley.  EDF had assumed that the dam would drown the castle, but after the flooding, the castle stayed unharmed and was not touched by the water level.  EDF asked the family if they wanted to return to the castle, but they said no because the farm and gardens had disappeared.  So when you look at the pictures, you can imagine that where the water is now, 60 years ago, there were villages and farmland.  EDF didn't want the responsibility of maintaining the castle, so they sold it to the nearby town of Bort-les-Orgues.

A perfect view of what was the valley, before the dam.

The beams in the tower roof.