On the road (2) beaches, castles and chateaux COMPLETED IN THIS FORUM - Page 17 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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Tuesday 8 June part two: youre not coming in with that... :
We took our time, getting lots of photos on the way in. Although there wasnt any restoration work here, there was plenty going on at the front of the chateau, as they prepared for an opera recital this weekend, according to the posters I later saw.
They had some very interesting sculptures here!
This chateau was started in the 16th century and its believed the design came from Leonardo da Vinci. It took 20 years and 1,800 men to construct the towers and the terraces and theyre pretty impressive, as youd expect.
We headed inside, having paid at the entrance, and were told in no uncertain terms that we werent allowed to take the tripod inside, so he had to put it into a cloakroom. What the issue was, I have no idea, but even so, we still managed to find somewhere to balance the camera in the courtyard to get a self portrait.
With the tripod while he still had it!
We headed in and wandered through the ground floor, which had various rooms in it.
The masterpiece here is the grand staircase, which goes all the way up to the third floor and is the principle way of getting around the chateau. Its a double staircase, which means that you can enter in one of two places and, whichever one you choose, youll never meet people on the other side. Its very clever.
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Tuesday 8 June part three: exploring the chateau...
The first floor was the most interesting to us, with the royal wing...
There was also the residence of Francois I....
The chapel is another beautiful sight to be found on this floor:
Some of the chateau was also used as a residence, principally in the 18th century, and we also saw those rooms.
From there, we headed up to the second floor, but to be honest, there wasnt much to interest us here. : It was all pretty much arts related to hunting, and as a vegetarian, that didnt do anything for me.
Our final stop was on the third floor, which is the terrace area on the rooftop. From here, you can see all the work that went into the towers and the turrets and, my goodness, its quite a sight.
We were also able to see the work going on below in preparation for this weekends recital. It was interesting to see it all going on beneath us.
The beds with the huge curtains around it are exactly what I picture them being like in a castle! Don't know if you watch The Tudors but it reminds me of that show.
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Great pictures, the castles are amazing, reminds me so much of the movie Marie Antionette, those bedrooms were amazing.
Jasmine has been keeping up with your TR - now you know that France is now on the list, I have to limit her reading of your TR's each time she reads one she adds another place we need to visit on her graduation trip, the way I am going she will have me traveling for weeks...LOL
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