Castle of Ripaille, Renaissance castle in Thonon-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, France
The castle of Ripaille stands in Thonon-les-Bains on the shore of Lake Geneva. Its main west facade has four of the six original cylindrical towers with conical roofs and hanging arches, and a drained moat runs around the rectangular plan. The exterior was rebuilt in Renaissance style, while the interior preserves wood panelling and Art Nouveau rooms.
The site began as a wooden pavilion on a stone base within a hunting reserve, built from the mid-14th century. Bonne de Bourbon enlarged it between 1371 and 1388, and Amadeus VIII added the Augustinian priory in 1410, consecrated by Pope Martin V in 1417. In 1624 Charles Emmanuel I granted it to the Carthusians, who kept it until 1793.
The name Ripaille comes from "rispe", meaning brushwood or heath, the land the first pavilion was built on. A popular tradition links the phrase "faire ripaille" to feasts held here by Amadeus VIII, though etymologists trace the word to the verb "riper". Nicoletta, a singer born in nearby Vongy, released a song titled "Ripaille" in 1973.
The visit runs through two floors: the state rooms with Savoy document reproductions, the owner's apartment, the kitchens, the large cellar, the old chapel and a projection room showing a film on the castle's history. The moat around the building is now dry. The estate also holds 22 hectares of vines and 53 hectares of forest, part of it owned by the town of Thonon-les-Bains.
The French expression "faire ripaille", meaning to feast or overindulge, is said to come from the lavish banquets once held at this site. The phrase has survived in everyday French and is still used today.
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