Palaces and Chateaux


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norwegianne

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I was looking around at the website for the Louvre museum, and they had a history section on how the Louvre has changed from being a royal fortress/palace to a museum. I thought it might be of interest to others as well.

The history section of the website

I remember once I was in Paris when I was younger, I was standing on Rue de Rivoli and noticed the grand building across the street. I still remember the feeling of looking at history I had. Looking at presentations like this I almost get the same feeling. :flowers:
 
thank you both so much for the links that you posted. I love reading about this place and the history of it.

I went to Paris for the 1st time when I was in my very early 20's. When I was asked if I wanted to go to the Louve, I scoffed at the person. Who wanted to go to a stuffy old museum filled with "crap".

I went again in my late 20's and pratically dragged my friend in there. She was very upset because I spent the entire day and would not leave to get anything to eat. She had been there before and was bored by it. About miday, I started sharing what little knowledge I had with her about the building itself and the paintings and stuff in there. Once I grabbed her interest, we were like to little kids in a candy store.
this place is amazing.I would love to go back one of these days and take my daughter so she can actually see history rather than read about it. But for thatI must wait until she is older and can appreciate it. I don't want her to be stupid like I was. I can still kick myself for being so ignorant the 1st time I was there!!!
 
Thanks for posting those links, I've always been interested in the Louvre. I can't wait to get home and start looking at the links ad nauseam.
 
The day I step into this greatest of European museums will be a dream come true....
 
There are definitely places to eat inside the Louvre. If you went years ago, before they opened up the actual Medieval Castle (found upon excavation for the Pyramid), it is one of the most amazing parts of the museum, which is saying a lot.

So much of it is preserved. As years went by, the moat silted in, the banks of the Seine were raised again flooding, slowly the Castle itself disappeared. But you can walk through it, look into the water wells that were used to supply the Castle, and see much of its ramparts (the upper part is mostly gone, as you look up, it disappears into the ceiling of the ground floor of the main Louvre, above). Near it is an exhibit of the history of the Louvre.
 
Was the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois the Palace Church or was their another church/chapel within the Louvre Palace?

Imagine what the Louvre would look like if the Tuileries Palace was still standing!
 
I recently traveled for the first time to Paris and the Louvre is beautiful. I can imagine the sumptuous scenes which took place there when it was a royal palace. Such a magnificent structure . . .
 
Imagine what the Louvre would be like if the Tuileries Palace was still standing.
 
funnily enough, not many people visit the older parts of the louvre - the medieval zone, the voutes... i found myself alone there, walking through extremely old rooms (barely lit) all by myself once. it was such an experience.
not only the museum is such a jewel, and it's great to get lost in it, i also loved having some intimate time by myself exploring the lesser known areas.
 
The Chateau Royal de Blois, Loire Valley

The Castle of Blois was a residence of three kings. They were Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I.
The building at the back of the courtyard was built between 1635 and 1638 for Gaston, the Duke of Orleans. Gaston was the brother of King Louis XIII.
.
 
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The Castle of Blois was a residence of three kings. They were Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I.

Henri III also resided there,his mother, queen Catherine de Médicis died at Blois on January 5th,1589.Catherine was also buried at the Chateau's church of Saint-Sauveur de Blois,her remains were later transported to St Denis Abbey.The Collegiate Church of Saint-Sauveur de Blois was destroyed in 1793 at the height of the French Revolution .
 
Chateau Mortefontaine was the property of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte's elder brother. Joseph bought the castle in 1798.

In 1800 the Treaty of Mortefontaine, the treaty of friendship between France and the United States of America, was signed at the castle of Mortefontaine.:articles:

At Chateau Mortefontaine were celebrated the weddings of Caroline Bonaparte and Joachim Murat on January 20th, 1800 and of Pauline Bonaparte and Camillo Borghese on November 5th, 1803.

The King Louis XII wing at Blois was not a royal logis (living quarters).
In December of 1501 the Archduke and Archduchess of Austria stayed there.
The royal logis of the King and Queen of France were located in another wing.

:fleurdelis::king2::fleurdelis::queen2::fleurdelis:

Philip the Handsome, the Archduke of Austria and Joanna, the Archduchess met the French King in Blois.

The Castle of Chambord was to be enclosed by a wall 20 miles long.
The wall was begun at the end of the reign of Francis I (1542) and was completed under Gaston d'Orleans in 1645.

The Cour du Cheval Blanc of Fontainbleau is also known as the Courtyard of Farewells.
The Courtyard of Farewells commemorated the leavetaking ceremony at the foot of the staircase in honor of the Emperor Napoleon I when he left Fontainebleau for the Island of Elba in 1814. :napoleon:

The fireplace in the Francis I Salon bears the signature of Primaticcio. Primaticcio was the artist from Bologna called to serve at the court of Francis I.

The initial project for building the castle of Chambord was based on the shape of a Greek cross.
Repeated on each floor, the symmetry of the apartments had four towers, four square apartments and a large hall in the form of a cross.
 
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Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile? :previous:
 
:franceflag3:

Chateau Royal de Blois

ChateauRoyaldeBlois.jpg


image in public domain

The Chateau Royal de Blois comprises several buildings constructed from the 13th to the 17th century around a central courtyard.
Each of the wings is of a different architectural style, typical of many 17th century Loire Valley chateaux.
It has been the residence of 7 kings and 10 queens of France.
Largely abandoned after 1660, it was ransacked during the revolution and later scheduled for demolition.
The chateau was saved by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 when it was classified as an historic monument and subsequently restored.


. .. .
 

The video is wonderful! :flowers: Thank you for posting it.

P.S. So much to see on this site!

BTW - has anyone used Google Maps to take a tour - on the outside - of Versailles? One can actually go down small roads - I've done it a few times - and once actually and very unexpectedly came upon Marie Antoinette's Hameau de la Reine - amazing - I wasn't even looking for it and there it was! I could spend hours doing that.
 
It was in the Chateau de Brissac where King Louis XIII reconciled with his mother, Marie de Medicis.

From the france.ff website, it was mentioned:

The emblem of the palace remains the renowned horseshoe staircase by Jean Androuet du Cerceau. This work, commissioned by Louis XIII, connects the various sections of the palace.


In Royal Palaces, it was written:

It is said that Moliere found inspiration in the rooms of Chambord for his play "Le Bourgeois Gentelhomme".
 
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It was in the Chateau de Brissac where King Louis XIII reconciled with his mother, Marie de Medicis.

It didn't last long,the queen mother ended up being banished and went into exile!
 
Amboise - so much has been lost, (fourteen or so buildings are now gone), but what remains is beautiful and dramatic looming over it's village on a stormy afternoon or under the bright light of a full moon.

And the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci, all alone in that stiking chapel perched high up on the walls, alone with that is with just me, (low season tourist) and a little red-breasted bird flitting about from the alter to the high internal arches.

A warm fire in the huge hall and again just me, (husband off doing the audio tour), sitting in those stone walls on that historic chair just looking out at the pretty autumn garden as a storm rolls over the chateau where kings and queens lived for centuries.

After seeing six of the so-called "top ten" chateaux this is still a favourite.

Cheverny - though not "Royal", important enough for the Queen Mother to make a visit - and she important enough that it closed for three hours just for her, one of only three times it's been closed since the 1920s.

Such furnishings - same family for generations - and yet some Royal connections, once owned for a while by Diane de Poitiers as she had work done on Chaumont-sur-Loire after Catherine de Medici took back Chenonceau.

(And very familiar to all Tintin fans as the inspiration for Captain Haddock's home.)

Chambord - big and bold sitting in it's grounds, perfectly reflected in it's still river water.

Full of tourists even at this time of year, but big enough to make the crowds look sparse.

An official property for the French President to invite guests to hunt, so despite it's grounds being as large as central Paris, only six ways in or out, and gendarmes stationed there.

More fires in the fire-places, (Chenonceau also, which also makes a feature of fresh flower displays in each room), which helped as it is so large and bare, really best from the outside and on the roof amongst all those chimneys.

Chenonceau - most visited chateau after Versailles, six to ten thousand tourists a day! (Yes a day.) In high season. As beautiful as it looks in it's photos, but suprisingly perhaps, the absolute best historic kitchen I've ever seen. If you like copper cookware this is the chateau for you.

Chaumont-sur-Loire - another favourite. Went around twice and didn't see another soul, felt like it was mine or something. Pretty from the river, dressed up with overflowing flowers on it's drawbridge, the location of Europe's best stables back in it's heyday.

Richly decorated rooms, with others bare and empty, and yet others in the attic rooms full of dusty bits and pieces too historic to throw away, but not able, at this stage anyway, to be restored.

I had only four days in the Loire, and didn't do any planning or research, so was suprised how much I got to see, as three of my days I just walked and used the local trains.

Some interesting insights from a local who explained why the Kingdom of France, (always much smaller than the country of France), located it's power centre here for so many centuries.

All to do with first the hunting, which the kings did a lot, then the soft easy to work local stone for building all these marvellous buildings, the river at a time when road travel was not possible, and all the forest, as wood was really the only material available to heat at that time.

Finally D'Azay-le-Rideau - not Royal, but pretty, pretty, pretty sitting on it's island with it's autumn trees drapped around, and it all reflected in the river.
 
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:previous: Sun Lion, thank you for your richly informed post. :flowers: I was there with you.
 
Here are a few of my photos. (And Hi Lady Nimue.)

Amboise -
 

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Cheverny -
 

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Chambord -
 

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Chenonceau -
 

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Chaumont-sur-Loire
 

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D'Azay-le-Rideau
 

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