Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Chambord, encore

Here's another black and white treatment of a portion of the Château de Chambord. It's a view of the roof over the central section of the castle. Those chimneys are impressive. The lantern is built over the castle's central stair, a double-spiral thought to have been designed by da Vinci. Since I took this photo, most of the roof has been cleaned and restored.

The lantern that lights the central staircase in the Château de Chambord. You can see people behind the lower balustrade for scale.
Digitized color slide, Fall 2000.

I've visited Chambord numerous times over the past 19 years, both inside and out. Visitors used to be able to park for free and wander around the grounds outside of the château. That has changed and now all visitors pay to park. 

Another thing that's changed and that I have yet to see in person is the new formal garden that was planted on the north side of the building and opened about five years ago. The original garden, built under Louis XIV in the 18th century, was neglected for years and the remaining trees finally replaced with grass lawns in 1970. The gardens were restored starting in 2016 and were re-opened to the public in 2017. One of these days I'll get up there and have a look.

6 comments:

  1. The little boy on the left atop the central chimney is reminiscent of the Manneken Pis in Brussels.

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  2. The intricate (beautiful) roofline lends itself to black & white photos. Those gardens must be stunning.

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  3. Ken came with Betsy and Doug and me, to see the gardens (and the château), back in 2017 :)

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  4. Another gorgeous picture, Walt! Sometimes "black and white" is so much better then "full colour"!

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  5. You have captured all those intricacies with the black and white! I have to agree that this would not be enhanced with color.

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  6. chm, hmmm... I'm not sure I see him.

    mitch, the gardens are relatively new and looked (in photos) kind of sparse at the beginning. By now they should look better.

    judy, it was an eventful day!

    jan, it's certainly gives a different perspective.

    mary, there's not much color in the original to start with. I think it's better without.

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