Remains of the castle of Lassay

At the top of the hill of Saint-Arnoult, stands a solitary ruin that golfers can admire during their round. This wall is in fact the last trace of the castle of Lassay.
It all began in the 12th century... The first lords of Saint-Arnoult were called the "Du Mont". Their fiefdom was called Fief du Mont-Canisy. A few centuries later, Armand de Madaillan became Lord of these lands. In 1676, seduced by the unobstructed view from Mont-Canisy and madly in love with his second wife Marianne Pajot, daughter of the apothecary of Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, known as the Grande Mademoiselle, he built a Louis XIV style castle in Caen stone in only 35 days: the white castle of Saint-Arnoult. A few years later, Marianne died while giving birth to their child. Armand died at the age of 80, but he never forgot Marianne. The castle he gave her became their refuge but became his only refuge from sadness.
The estate of Mont-Canisy remained in the family until the 17th century, when the beginnings of the Revolution forced the Count of Lauraguais, a descendant of Armand de Madaillan, to flee to Paris. The white castle of Saint-Arnoult quickly fell into disrepair: ransacking, pillaging of furniture and works of art plunged the castle into a state of serious decay.

"I am here in a castle in the middle of the woods which are so old that they say in the country that it is the fairies who built it. During the day, I walk under the beech trees, like those depicted by Saint-Amant in the Solitude..." Armand de Madaillan, Lord of Mont Canisy