Posted on by Peter

Rochemaure Chateau and Montélimar Aviation Museum, France

Wednesday 24th September 2025

Rather than travel on further south, we decided to explore the local area further today.

Château de Rochemaure:

The small town of Rochemaure is another “Beau Village”, but we didn’t really explore it. There is a chateau, high up on the top of the hill which overlooks the town.

As it seemed quite a climb, we decided to drive up to the car park, about 100 metres short of the chateau. But what a climb! Problematic enough in a car, but in a motorhome definitely not to be recommended. Narrow, steep roads, with sparse passing places, hairpin bends, lots of overhanging vegetation and two narrow arched gateways. At one point I had to reverse uphill for 50 metres to reach a passing place and allow an oncoming car through. Lesson learned!

From the Chateau Looking NE across the Rhone Valley and the Rhone Barrage

As it happens, the chateau is only open on certain days of the year, but immediately below, within the walled defences, are many small houses, seemingly built into the fabric of the castle itself. Of course we had to explore.

The outer walls, with dwellings inside
The communal bread oven
The Chateau, beyond the village, closed when we visited.

Musée Européen de l’Aviation de Chasse:

After a (very) careful descent, we crossed the Rhone to the large town of Montélimar, specifically its aerodrome, where there is a large aircraft museum, which has a huge collection of mainly military planes.

Although this is not really my thing, we spent a full afternoon exploring the museum which is housed both in the open air and in four huge hangars.

This DC7 nearly made it through the wall!
Inside the DC7 cockpit

You think of fighter aircraft as being small (and many are), but honestly I was surprised at the huge size of some of them.

One of the largest, a French Mirage IV, capable of carrying nuclear weapons at 3 x the speed of sound.
One of the smallest, a British De Havilland Vampire T
A wheel strut assembly from Concorde

There were some planes undergoing or awaiting restoration in a hangar:

There was also an immense military transport plane and a personnel carrier.

After completing our tour, we decided to stay in the motorhome aire in Montélimar, but despite our best attempts, the very busy town thwarted us with blocked roads and one-way streets. When we were closest, the sat-nav said turn right …into a street which does not allow motorhomes! We gave up and returned to last night’s park-up, at Aubignas.

That is all for today. TTFN and see-u-later.

2 Replies to “Rochemaure Chateau and Montélimar Aviation Museum, France”

    1. Hi and thank you for your comment.
      Yes, it was a great surprise as we only spotted it on Google maps last night and decided to go and look. Many more aircraft than we expected.
      Regards
      Peter.

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