Northern Hills Xmas 2014 December Xmas Issue 2014 | Page 43

WWW.NORTHERNHILLS.CO.ZA IMAGE: SUPPLIED The Tower also represents the magic of light IMAGE: SUPPLIED 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