authentic medieval castle hotel near paris or avignon

You may enjoy the town of Carcassonne near Avignon, if you're going to be in that area.

With "authentic" medieval plumbing (or lack thereof)?

Carcassonne is great but is not very close to Avignon...it's over two hours away by car.

I've stayed in a castle before. I recommend staying at a nice B&B and visiting castles.

I'm with Tom and Lisa. If it's an authentic castle it's probably not particularly comfortable and if it's been renovated to a comfortable hotel it's not really authentic anymore. If your definition of authentic is only that it was at one time in the past used as a castle, then it's a little more likely that you'll find something to your liking.

I've stayed in castle hotels in Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and France. They were wonderful places to stay but they were no longer 'authentic' castles.

Visited Pierrefonds last September.......village is lovely and untouristed and Cathedral magical.....it was used as Camelot in BBC series Merlin.....highly recommend a visit as you are not trampled by hordes of people.

After doing a brief google search, Chateau de Trigance near Avignon looks really nice. There isn't much near Paris, but there are bunch in the Loire Valley. Here is a website I found with recommendations on some of these hotels: http://castleandpalacehotels.com/countries/france/france_home/castle_hotels_france.html

I hope this helps some.

That looks like sensible info Abe. It’s not easy to find this kind of castles at a convenient distance of Paris or Avignon to my opinion. I know you can also stay in the castle of Sedan, a real big one, but that’s 250km north-east of Paris. You have to compromise or being prepared to cover the necessary distance to stay in the place of your wishes. If medieval castles is really your thing, think about a visit to Guédelon, some 50km south-west of Auxerre, where they construct a medieval castle the original way from scratch. Good luck!