Anyways, I got up, and it didn't take long before my mom and I were out on the road, headed towards the Chateau de Cenevieres. We stopped for some croissants on the way, as well for pictures:
I am just going to use pictures from the castle to tell you about my time there!
Here is the view walking up to the castle!
And the entrance
Here is the wall of the court yard
An a balcony
The castle is situated on the river. It is on a cliff and wall, so there is a 60 meter drop from the courtyard to the ground. Obviously this was good for defense purposes. This is one view from the courtyard.
This is another view from the courtyard.
The balcony from below.
On of the few remaining stone carvings of the current owner's family crest. Mot of these types of things were destroyed in the French Revolution.
A hunting Tapestry. It made me think of my books!
This ceiling is actually very interesting, because it had been covered in plaster, but when they removed the plaster due to water damage, they found the original ceiling.
Another tapestry and the paintings on the wall.
These painting are of Istanbul. The lord or the castle at the time had an alliance with someone of importance from Istanbul, and these paintings were mad to show the strength of that alliance.
A hunting table. When the men returned from hunting trips they would put their spoils on this table as a display. This was largely to "impress the ladies" with their hunting prowess.
A really old book.
Letters from the king of France to the lord of the castle. Well, photocopies of letters.
Weapons! This is actually a small cannon that they would place against doors to knock them down. The other is one of the first designs for guns.
More Weapons! I got to hold this one.
A chair for one of the lords. He was apparently very fat and could barely walk, so this chair was made for him. There is a hole in the bottom for if he needed to go to the bathroom, and spikes come out of the arms to hold trays of food.
The previous few pictures were of the stables. It was two levels, and could hold 100 horses, until WWII when A plane accidentally dropped its load on it, destroying the roof.
These walls are actually very interesting- the wallpaper is five cm away from the actual wall, to prevent water damage!
Now this bit is cool! These pictures are from an alchemist's room- one of the very few that remain in France. It was kept as a secret room, and thus wasn't destroyed when alchemy was looked down upon. The paintings on the wall were of Greek mythology- stories to remind alchemists that they could not attempt to take the place of Gods. Unfortunately at one point a resident of the castle decided to make the room into a bathroom, and the humidity from the bath destroyed many of the paintings.
An old fashioned toilet.
This was a man's spot to put on his wigs. A woman's would be larger.
The stairs are an interesting design, based off of an illusion designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. The tops of the staircases are significantly smaller than the base, giving the illusion of more depth.
The Dining hall (which they still use today)
They would store salt in this. It had a false bottom, so when tax collectors would come to collect the salt tax they would use a stick to measure how much salt they had. Since much of the salt was hidden under the false bottom, they would have to pay less for the tax.
The Kitchen Fire.
This is what they used as a 'Refrigerator.' It was two cellars (a total of 12 meters deep). The first cellar was for the food for that day or time period (the castle could hold more than a hundred servants, so they needed a lot of food). The deeper cellar was for wine. They would get things out of the cellar using a pulley system.
This was the chapel. It was hidden, and the entrance was through the kitchen. This was due to the religious wars, and the fact that they often had to hide their religion. It was also used as a place to pass judgement. The most notable example of this was a murderer who was sentenced to sixteen years in the dungeon.
Speaking of- this is the dungeon! There was no windows or light, so once someone was locked in here it was pitch black, and only maybe five feet around. Dungeons like this would often drive people mad, or leave them in a vegetable like state.
This was a room used for preparing food. It was also used to practice fighting later on.
some original hand blown wine bottles. (Some with Wine still in them!)
The entrance! There used to be a moat as well.
Here is the inside of the front door. The two holes in the sie (one with wood jutting out of it) is where the planks to bar the door with are.
The drawbridge mechanism (though the drawbridge and moat are gone). It took two men and about fifteen minutes to close the drawbridge.
Holes in the ceiling to drop boiling oil or water from on attackers.
A slit in the wall. It was aimed at the average neck level of the time (which is a lot shorter than the modern average). This is also in the entrance. They could push blades/ swords through here to kill attacking soldiers.
The oldest part of the building.
Altogether the castle was really cool! I learned a lot (and our guide no only lives in the castle, but also spoke English!) After that we drove into a nearby town. I bought some juice for my mom and I (as well as a kinder egg! It was exciting, because I was having a hard time finding any so far). We took a bunch of pictures here as well.
Next we drove down to another town. There was a walk we could take (about 1.5 five kilometers one way) that would take us through some really cool forest and right on a path carved into a cliff edge on the river! It was really cool!
Mobile food van in France- hand rolled pizza dough and a legit pizza oven where they make your pizza fresh.
A carving on one part of the path
After that we headed home for a nice nap. The family was fighting a lot today over stupid things, but I think the rest of the day was so good that it didn't matter! Not much happened for the rest of the night, but I do have a nasty headache, so I think I will take my leave! Goodnight!
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