Storage area at a home in France.

The rocky promontory of Grignan has been the site of several archeological excavations during the past few decades. These excavations have demonstrated that Grignan has been occupied since the Iron Age. The site was a former Bronze Age settlement, and the Romans were also occupying the site in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, as evidenced by the archaeological findings. It has been noted by historians that in the year 1035, a cartulaire (a ledger of church or monastic property titles) from the Abbey of Saint-Chaffre in the Haute-Loire mentions an obscure castellum Gradignanum. During the next century and a half, the name gradually evolved into Castrum Grainan (1105), then Graigna, Grazinam, etc.. Not much is known about the birth of this castle or the people who built it. It has been established that there was a certain Christophe de Grignan somewhere around the year 1030. The cartulary of Saint-Chaffre, in 1035, refers to a Rostagnus, the lord of the castle at Grignan, which was titled Rostagnus de castello Gradignano.

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