Menthon-Saint-Bernard Castle — Attraction in Annecy

It's a beautiful castle and surroundings but we were very disappointed when we visited as we were expecting to be able to enter the castle and look around but it's completely shut from mid-November.

There's a Christmas market on the grounds which was cute and had some nice stalls as well as a mini ice rink but it was very quiet when we visited - I guess most people realised it wasn't worth driving into the mountains just to go to a small Christmas market when none of the castle is open. Seems a bit silly to have a Christmas market on the grounds and not open the castle up to visitors at the same time.

We took out the afternoon to visit it and drove about half an hour so it's a shame for the main attraction to be closed, especially when the opening hours on Google said it opened from 11 every day.

I suggested new opening hours on this Google listing immediately after we visited as it seemed very deceiving and I didn't want anyone else to fall prey to the same situation we did, but the hours still haven't been edited yet, half a week later...

I'd expect to see a different Google listing for the Christmas market if it's completely separate from the castle, with separate opening times etc. so there's...

The Chateau from the outside is beautiful. The access inside is very limited. Apparently you have to take part in a tour, which starts at random points in time of which Noone seems to be able to tell you when. The only toilet is outside, so go before you start the tour (whenever that might be).

We did the tour on Sunday, which is the performed by amateur actors. Apparently none of them speak anything but French, so if you're not a native, you just stand there for 15min waiting for them to stop babbling, after that you have 5 min to look around before you're ushered into the next room for another lecture by a different actor.

The actors were very young (around 14-21y). I have no idea whether they played their roles well, since we couldn't understand them. Apparently part of the act is to start shouting (or singing?) something at the end of the tour. It sounded awful.

The inside of the castle is pretty. You get to see 5 rooms, all of which are also present on photographs in the free flyer. There is nothing more than that.

If you speak French, it might be worth the entrance fee, but for us it was less entertaining, hence...

ATTENTION PARENTS. We took the guided tour with our 15 months old baby. Our baby did not want to stay in our arms so she complained a bit. The guide asked us, shouting in front of the crowd, to follow the tour from "the previous room". They should train their guides to learn how to deal with kids or to create a children policy.

--- You can see in the answer below the little respect they have for kids and parents. Kicking kids out of a tour is not a signal of professionalism. It is a signal of intransigeance and morronism, from older times... Kids also have the right to express themselves, overall when the guide tells neverending pointless stories. And nothing on earth gives them the right to public shame parents in front of other visitors. Wanna solve the problem? Give autoguides to visitors and let them roam free in the castle, as simple as that. Maybe it is about time to retire the countryside buffoons they have as...