The Best Castles and Palaces in .NET framework

Drawer UPCA in .NET framework The Best Castles and Palaces

From massive and intimidating, to those who approached them unawares protective structures to ornate ch teaux that housed France s rich and powerful, visiting the country s best castles and palaces offers a studied glimpse into France s history Mus e Jacquemart-Andre: In Paris, in the swank 8th arrondissement district near the Champs-Elys es stands a mansion that s like a jewel box With its gilt salons and elegant winding staircase, it contains one of the best small collections of 18th-century decorative art in Paris A rare collection of French decorative art is exhibited, along with paintings and sculpture from the Dutch and Flemish schools, including objets d art from the Italian Renaissance You ll see works by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens, Tiepolo, Carpaccio, and the beat goes on See 12 Ch teau de Versailles: Just 21km (13 miles) southwest of Paris delivers you to the town of Versailles and a palace in the center of town that, even though unbelievably vast, is as ornately artificial as a jewel box The kings of France built a whole glittering private world for themselves here, until the French Revolution sent many of the inhabitants of this palace to the guillotine Go on one of the grandest tours of your life, taking in the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed and the apartments where such mistresses as Madame de Pompadour once romped It s a moving spectacle See 13 Ch teau de Fontainebleau: Seven centuries of French royal history spin around this castle in the town of Fontainebleau, 60km (37 miles) south of Paris Surrounded by a superb forest, Fontainebleau is more intimate than Versailles and a product of the Renaissance

movement in France in the 16th century Napol on later added many of the furnishings you ll see here The Mona Lisa once hung here Fran ois I, who transformed the site in 1528, purchased the painting from the artist Leonardo da Vinci See 13 Ch teau de Chambord: In the little town of Chambord, 191km (118 miles) south of Paris, stands the largest castle in the Loire Valley, created by some 2,000 workers between 1519 and 1545 The building represents the pinnacle of the French Renaissance Set in a park of more than 5,260 hectares (3,000 acres), it is enclosed by a wall stretching for 32km (20 miles) See 15 Ch teau d Azay-le-Rideau: This Renaissance masterpiece dominates a little village of the same name The castle lies 261km (162 miles) southwest of Paris and has a faux defensive medieval look to it It was occupied by nobles instead of royalty, and construction was ordered in 1515 by Gilles Berthelot, finance minister to Fran ois I Its Renaissance interior is a virtual museum of architecture See 15 Mont-St-Michel: Massive walls more than half a mile in circumference enclose one of the greatest sightseeing attractions and one of the most important Gothic masterpieces of Europe Mont-St-Michel, lying at a point 324km (201 miles) west of Paris, can be seen for miles around, a rock rising 78m (260 ft) high The tides around Mont-St-Michel are notorious, having claimed countless lives A Benedictine monastery was founded on this spot in 966 by Richard I, Duke of Normandy, although an earlier monastery was located here from AD 708 See 16

Any trip to France requires visits to its impressive cathedrals, often more for the views than for their places in French history Cath drale de Notre-Dame: In the Ile de la Cit (4e) in the heart of Paris, this fabled cathedral is one of Western civilization s greatest edifices It is a piece of Gothic architectural perfection not merely in overall design but in every detail, including the rose window above the main portal More than any other building in France, Notre-Dame represents the history of a nation Here, for example, Napol on took the crown out of the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself See 12 Sacr -Coeur: In the 18th arrondissement of Paris, dominating Paris s highest hill, this basilica once called a lunatic s confectionary dream has outlived its critics and remains an enduring monument on the city s skyline Built in an oddly oriental neo-Byzantine style, the church, from its white dome, offers the single greatest view of Paris that extends over and far beyond the mountain of martyrs (Montmartre) See 12