Château Lanessan Gironde

With a little advance planning, one of the easiest chateaux to visit is Château Lanessan. Its daily hourlong guided tours take in the neoclassical chateau, its English-style gardens with magnificent 19th-century greenhouse, wine cellars, the stables built in 1880 in the shape of a horseshoe with marble feed troughs, the pine-panelled tack room and a horse museum with several 19th-century horse-drawn carriages. Tours end with wine tasting. Advance reservations, at least one day before, are obligatory.