EPIGRAPH

Chavaniac is for me a temple which gathers the sacred objects of my heart.

—GILBERT DU MOTIER, MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

There are places in this world where the past still echoes in the stones. The Château de Chavaniac is such a place. There, in the heart of France—where ancient lava once escaped its fiery prison to reach for the sky—was born a knight-errant who fought one revolution and sparked another, breaking the chains of monarchy and transforming the world.

His name was Lafayette, his gleaming white castle a fortress of liberty, and after his death it would be safeguarded by Americans through two world wars, sheltering more than twenty-five thousand sick, orphaned, and refugee children.

Most castles are defended by men.

This one, by women.