What are facts about Azay-le-Rideau in France?

Answer 1

The castle is built with an aisle across the river, hosting a large ball or reception room. The river served as a demarcation line between the occupied and the free zones in the first part of the German occupation during WWII, and some people willing to escape the occupied zone were smuggled through the ball room towards liberty.

I beg to differ: The chateau that you describe is Chenonceau, not Azay-le-Rideau. Azay is built on an island in the Indre River which was NOT the border between Free France and Occupied France. In this region, the Cher River was the border, and Chenonceau does, indeed, have a large, long, grand gallery that fully straddles the river. The gallery was used both as a hospital ward for war wounded as well as an "escape route" for those fleeing Occupied France and going south into Free France.