france_castle.jpg

This is a 'castle' in Northern France, just one hour up from Paris, as you can see the walls are designed to stop a hobbit invasion. You could jump over the wall and swagger in anytime you felt like it. This is more like a country estate.

Obviously just north of Paris had not see any serious fighting since the Romans (OK maybe they have) but not here.

You compare this to castles in Slovakia - now they were castles. There are castles there from 864, thats right a 3 digit date, wuckin old mate. These stood against the Hun invasion, when modern day Hungary was over run by the Mongol Empire the capital and royalty all shifted to Bratislava, some of the castles in Slovakia are fantastic defensive fortresses battle tested to keep the Mongols back, if it was not for these structures then Central Europe would have been next, Germany and Austria, that could have changed history in a major way.

The French castle I must say was very nice inside featuring unbelievable amounts of fantastic antiques and historic items. Whereas the castles I visited in Eastern Europe were bare stone monuments to what had been.

Anyway, if you want to know more search google for Slovakia Castles