During our drive l was reminded of the past history that France experienced....... war, The Battle of the Aisne and Oise, 1914-1918. It was along the side of the road a cemetery stood, filled with soldiers that died during the battle.
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| 1914-1918 |
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| Approx 1,000 soldiers lay to rest in this cemetery |
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| Pierrefonds Castle |
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| Near Compiegne, France |
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| Originally built in 1391 by Charles's V's second son, Louis of Orleans |
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| 1616, Louis XIII laid a fatal siege against the castle and sections were destroyed |
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| Front steps to the chapel |
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| In 1810, Napoleon I bought the ruins. |
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| Inside the chapel |
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| One of two spiral staircases. |
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| Original paint and wallpaper decorate the walls in the reception room. |
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| The study |
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| Paintings along the ceiling in the emperor's bedchamber |
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| Entrance to the Salle des Preuses |
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| The courtroom where feasts took place during the Second Empire. |
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| Inside the Salle des Preuses, looking out the hallway. |
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| Statues of the Empress Eugnie and her ladies in waiting |
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| One of many statues throughout the castle. |
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| In the basement of the castle there is over 25 tombs and statues. These three are the first ones you see as you walk down to the lower level. |
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| This is what it looks like where the tombs are located, picture taken without flash. |
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| Some of the tombs |
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| Philippe IV (Lebel) King of France from 1285-1314 |
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| More of the tombs and statues |
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| One of the lists of names of statues and tombs |
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| View from the castle |
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| Down spout for the rain water |
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| View from the front steps |
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| Creatures that greet you on the main staircase |
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| Over looking the village |
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| L'Alambic |
Philippe found this lovely little jewel and a jewel it was!
www.restaurant-lalambic.fr
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| Enjoyed a lovely dinner in the "Cave" |
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| And of course, if you are in the Champagne capital you have to have Champagne!!! |
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| Just some of the Champagne that was in our hotel, plenty to choose from! |
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| Our Hotel |
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| Very old building equals very old elevator, small elevator! |
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| Looking down the elevator shaft from our floor... So this concludes are first day of our North/east trip of France. Tomorrow we will explore some of Reims and hopefully visit a vineyard before we leave. After visiting Reims, we will be making our way to Philippe's aunt's place where we will be spending the night. |
BONJOUR AGAIN .feb.18/12
ReplyDeleteWell another day of travelling haha the buildings are beautiful I like whe wallpapers,paintings and statues ,imagine lasting that long and still in good shape. The tombs are something else and indoor cemetery,the statues look huge they would cost a fortune today.Lots of champagne which I love .The cave looks neat .well off to the next place luv mj xo
The buildings are beautiful and you are right, hard to imagine that wallpaper in most cases actual cloth wallpaper has lasted hundreds of years. Try to get a wallpaper from today to do that!Reims is a beautiful city indeed but god it is a pain in the butt to drive around in. Way too many one way streets for my liking. Hint to anyone who may go there in the future, try to obtain a street map of the place especially if you want to find your hotel without any major problems! Yes it took us a while to finally find it because it seem almost every bloody street we turned onto was a one way street!!!! :) It was worth all the frustration though.
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