The castle of Bosmelet

Ideally located between Rouen and the Côte d’Albâtre, the Château de Bosmelet and its park are a must-see for any stay in the Terroir de Caux! On the heights of Auffay, this site, classified as a Historic Monument and Remarkable Garden, welcomes you during the season to present its collections dedicated to the performing arts with the Alain Germain Fund, the rich history of the place, and to offer you an ambitious cultural program.

Getting there

A little history...

Built on the foundations of a fortress inhabited by Sir John Falstoff, Governor of Normandy under Henry V and Henry VI of England, the Château de Bosmelet is a worthy representative of the architecture of the reign of Louis XIII.

It was the home of the Duke of La Force who, in 1715, called upon Le Nôtre’s first gardener at Versailles to create a French garden, of which the large green carpet is the most beautiful testimony.

The architectural ensemble allows one to discover the facade of the former sixteenth-century orangery as well as the eighteenth-century chapel with its polychrome altar.

The visit

The tour of the château, led by the owner himself, reveals its historic rooms, a large classical vestibule, the canopy room, the room and library known as the “Archbishop’s”, the grand salon with Aremberg flooring, predating that of Versailles, and the grand staircase built in the remains of the 13th-century fortress.

It continues on the second floor with the large exhibition Fragments de Mémoire, which traces the world of Alain Germain, and the rooms with 18th-century woodwork. Through this pathway, it provides an opportunity to discover the permanent performing arts collection of choreographer and opera director Alain Germain, classified at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

The cellars present the remains of German installations as well as a Roman bread oven dating from the Hundred Years War, as well as an exhibition by painter Andreas Jäggi, Portraits from before birth.

The park

The park, composed of long avenues of three hundred year old lime trees unique in Europe, a walled garden, chestnut trees nearly 500 years old and vestiges of the Second World War, invites you to a bucolic and historical walk. Visitors will be able to walk along the nearly one kilometer long tracks that were used to transport V1 missiles, discover the Grand Blockhaus that houses the Espace Michel Hollard as well as the bunker where the missiles were fired.