I swear there was no doctoring of this photo after the fact. Just point and shoot with my little disposable camera. I must be a natural or something 🙂
Big castle
Roof
The Burgundy region of France, and maybe others, was never beset by the scourge of asphalt shingle. (I'm being dramatic, but you've got to admit asphalt is kind of bogus.) The French built with tile and slate, which lasts for a century or so. Plus, moss grows and the pigeons find little critters to eat...
Cormatin Castle
This fairy-tale castle sits in an unassuming town in southern Burgundy. It is surrounded by moat and acres of formal gardens. Insane pruning goes on in France. They even have a tower in the middle of the garden that is enclosed with mesh so the parakeets can fly around in side while you climb the... Continue Reading →
August 4, 2011
Getting down to the end of this vacation in France, and we are all beginning to turn our thoughts toward the U.S. and Milton, Mass. Yesterday, we took our long-overdue trip to Dijon, by far the largest town we've visited on this trip. Dijon has a big-town feel, with a thoroughly modern urban sprawl on... Continue Reading →
August 3, 2011
Here's a well-kept secret about this town of Beaune: on nights when the weather is clear, several short films are projected on the facades of specific buildings and other architecture around town. The projectors are housed in these unassuming silver things that resemble ATMs. The images are kept precisely within the outline of the building... Continue Reading →
August 1, 2011
We went to visit the Abbaye de Fontenay yesterday. The drive was pure Burgundy: white cows, green rolling hills, and picturesque stone villages. The abbey is 1000 years old and was founded by St. Bernard. It thrived until the French Revolution, when, as usual, all hell broke loose. Before long it was a paper mill.... Continue Reading →
July 30, 2011
Here's a thing I learned about castles and French history while exploring the Chateau Du Rochepot (pictured here), which belonged to the Duke of Burgundy in the 1700s: During the revolution (1789), if you were an aristocrat like the Duke of Burgundy, you got out of dodge as fast as you could, and you didn't... Continue Reading →
July 29, 2011
Today, we went to visit the Chateau Du Sully (pictured here), a 16th Century hunting estate. Boar heads everywhere, antler chandeliers, rhino horns — a veritable battlefield inside (the animals lost). This particular castle is surrounded by a carp-filled moat. Huge fish that lunch at the bread chunks you're given in the gift shop for... Continue Reading →
July 28, 2011
Amy's birthday today! Drove out of town for the first time yesterday. Kids are starting to crack at the seams for lack of Playstation and Minecraft. Fights galore. I took this picture of cows. Could be Vermont were it not for the medieval house in the background. We stopped in a town called Autun, which... Continue Reading →
Chananceaux
This Loire Valley castle is one of the most famous in France, and for good reason. Ever impractical and in search of beauty, the French nuts who built this castle stretched it across a wide and rapidly flowing river. The effect inside and out is magical. Everywhere are the sights and sounds of the river.
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