Villa Le Castel, Neo-medieval villa in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, France

Villa Le Castel is a pale-brick villa with red-brick trim on an irregular plan, built in 1904 to Henri Valette's designs. A cylindrical tower with a dark conical roof rises at one corner, and the main facade has a stepped gable, a round-arched ground-level opening and arched windows with red surrounds. A black metal fence and gate stand before it, with a plaque reading 50.

The house was built in 1904 by architect Henri Valette for a local physician and was originally called La Tourelle. It marked the beginning of residential development in this area of the coastal town.

Originally named La Tourelle after its corner tower, the villa was renamed Le Castel by the time it passed to the Marquise Marie Sophie Sylvanie de Montluc in 1920; it was sold again after her death in 1926. The plaque beside the gate still reads 50, the number on rue Jean-Monnet, formerly Grande-Rue.

Villa Le Castel stands at no. 50 rue Jean-Monnet, formerly the Grande-Rue, in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage. The street is a short walk from the town centre. The building has been divided into apartments since 2005, so the interior is not open to visitors; the brick façades, the corner tower and the gate plaque "50" are seen from the street.

The villa's design closely follows the Manoir de Stang-al-Lin in Concarneau, but on a smaller scale; the Méllotée building in Châteauroux, built around 1900, repeats the same architectural elements. Look for the cylindrical corner tower with its dark conical roof and the stepped gable on the main facade.