Château de Sonnaz, Castle in Thonon-les-Bains, France
Château de Sonnaz is a stone manor house from the 15th century that overlooks the port of Rives and Lake Geneva. Its thick walls, narrow windows, and a single tower rise above the old streets of this French town, while simple rooms inside keep their old fireplaces and wooden beams.
The current castle was built on the remains of a fortress from the 1200s that Amédée V of Savoy raised to guard the lake. A fire in 1616 destroyed much of that older fort, and the Gerbaix de Sonnaz family later rebuilt the house that stands today.
Inside, one room is used to show sculptures by Marguerite Peltzer, a local artist who gave many of her works to the town. Visitors can walk among these pieces in the old stone halls, which creates a meeting between modern art and a building made for defense and daily life.
The building sits in the center of town, a short walk from the train station and the funicular, making it easy to reach on foot. Some rooms are open to visitors, but the upper floors and narrow staircases can be harder for people with reduced mobility.
One small display focuses on boat smugglers who used the lake and mountain paths to move goods in secret. The nearby water looks calm from the castle windows, but these exhibits show how that same shoreline once hid many risky journeys.
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