The Gothic dwelling house | ©Harrie Gielen / CC-BY-SAIn 1500, Tournoël belonged to Françoise de Talaru, a young and pretty lady from an old and noble family from Lyon area.
She liked splendour and life’s pleasures: after her marriage, she was forced to live in this dark and old fortress of Tournoël, with her mother-in-law Jeanne de la Vieuville (Agnès Sorel’s cousin) and her brother-in-law Antoine de La Roche.
Whoa… no way! In the castle, Françoise made gorgeous parties, delicate diners and wonderful dances… But she quarrelled with Antoine, a very greedy man…
He accused her of spending all the money and she accused him of misappropriating her daughter Charlotte’s heritage…
Antoine was, with Françoise, Charlotte’s legal tutor! She decided to expell him away from the castle.
Guichard d’Albon, bailiff of Montferrand, was called to solve the problem: he accused Françoise of everything, described her as “a Circe, Mélusine, magician and witch”!... then he finally agreed she was right.
Françoise married her daughter with the bailiff’s son and she married… the bailiff!
Anyway, Antoine de La Roche and his grand grandfather Hugues transformed the castle: the first one raised the Gothic dwelling house on the courtyard and the second one added stables, dwellings and a covered way.