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The Tower also represents the magic of light
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de Chambord to be crowned Henri
V after the fall of the Second Empire.
On the 2nd floor the eerie Museum
of Hunting exhibits copious displays
of weapons and hunting trophies. On
the ground floor, an interesting multi
language film relates the history of the
castle’s construction.
In a place of such ostentatious
grandeur, it’s often the smallest things
that are most interesting: look out for the
display of hundreds of cast-iron keys,
one for each door in the château.
It’s worth picking up the multilingual
audio or video guide (audio adult/child
version €5/2.50, video guide €6), if
only to avoid getting lost around the
endless rooms and corridors. Several
times daily there are guided tours in
English, and during school holidays
costumed tours entertain the kids.
Outdoor spectacles held in summer
include a daily equestrian show .
The largest Gothic cathedral in France
(it’s 145m long) and a Unesco World
Heritage Site, this magnificent structure
was begun in 1220 to house the skull
of St John the Baptist. Architecture
connoisseurs rave about the soaring
Gothic arches (42.3m high over the
transept), unity of style and immense
interior, but for locals the highlight is
the 17th-century statue known as the
Ange Pleureur (Crying Angel), in the
ambulatory directly behind the over-thetop Baroque high altar.
Note that the skull of St John the
Baptist is sometimes exposed – framed
in gold and jewels – in the northern
outer wall of the ambulatory.
The octagonal, 234m-long labyrinth
on the black-and-white floor of the nave
is easy to miss as the soaring vaults
draw the eye upward. Plaques in the
south transept arm honour American,
Australian, British, Canadian and New
Zealand soldiers who perished in WWI.
To get a sense of what you’re seeing,
it’s worth hiring a one-hour audio guide,
available in six languages, at the tourist
office (across the street). Weather
permitting, it’s possible to climb the north
tower ; tickets are sold in the boutique
to the left as you approach the west
facade.
A free 45-minute light show bathes
the cathedral’s facade in vivid medieval
colours nightly from mid-June to midSeptember and December to 1 January;
the photons start flying at 7pm in
winter and sometime between 9.45pm
(September) and 10.45pm (June) in
summer. NH
To get a sense of what you’re seeing, it’s
worth hiring a one-hour audio guide
CHRISTMAS ISSUE 2014 / NORTHERN HILLS / PAGE 41