Briis-sous-Forges, Île-de-France, Address available on request

A 14th-century keep where Anne Boleyn lived as a child and a detached house, 40 km from Paris, near the Haute Vallée de Chevreuse regional nature park. Near a church, a tall wooden gate in a crenellated stone archway leads to a keep that towers, unrivalled, over its village and surroundings. This keep is the only remnant of a medieval castle that once stood here. A drawbridge-crossed moat would have encircled the castle, which was built in the 14th century.

In 1506, England's ambassador to France entrusted one of his relatives - the village's lord - with looking after his daughter, Anne Boleyn. The 'little Boleyn', as Archduchess Margaret of Austria would call her, lived in this castle until she was old enough to be presented at court. She returned to England and became a maid of honour to Mary Tudor, a sister of King Henry Viii of England. She accompanied Mary Tudor in France when the latter married King Louis Xii of France in 1514. Years later, back in England, Anne married King Henry Viii. But the king soon repudiated her, claiming that she was unfaithful. Anne's fate then made her a legend: she was beheaded on 19 May 1536.

It was in this edifice that the ill-fated future wife of King Henry Viii - and mother of Queen Elizabeth I - spent her first flush of youth. Her long stay here left its mark on the property: Anne Boleyn's name is still associated with the place today.

In 1772, Guillaume de Lamoignon, the count of Montrevault, ordered a demolition of the castle, which was falling into ruins. He only kept the keep and part of the annexes and two turrets, which were later demolished in the 19th century. In 1885, the keep was restored and converted into a dwelling. An adjoining tower was added to the initial keep during this period too. This tower contains a spiral staircase that connects to the different floors. In the same century, a detached house was built beside the keep.

The pair of buildings form an axis pointing south-east. The two edifices are different to each other in style, but each one has a slate roof, stone walls punctuated with windows with pane bars - in openings that are tall and rectangular in the keep and slightly arched in the detached house - and a range of stylised structural features.