France 2008

[georgswa (Georg Ruf) (RIP)]

I am sure she will not mind LOL

[georgswa (Georg Ruf) (RIP)]

I am sorting pictures from France

Here my favorite castle and the best photo from the trip

[Paula Gottsch (Willson)]

People, this is my hangout that Dadswa has here!

 



Imagine staying in there all on your own over night, think it could be a wee bit spooky.
 

[georg ruf jr.]

Just letting you know, we are back from France....

Will go through all my pictures and videos and make a blog

At the near end of the trip we visited the Verdun Region, Battle fileds of  WW I and part of the Oranjemund Players " Oh what a lovely war "

We now found and visited may Grandftathers grave. Way back in the mountains and woods, well preserved and looked after. So many years have passed since 1916 and i am the first of the family visiting there, thanks to the internet i was able to find the location near a place Apremont, about 40 km NW of Verdun.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~aur/layout/frames.htm?Cemeteries/GER_APREMONT.htm

The cemetry was established by the german army during WW 2, the crosses carry the names of the fallen with the dates. A visitors book is laid out with the names and the locations. A relative small site with about 1.000 graves.

The larger sites are near Verdun, graves and bones stored in cathacombes of hundred thausends of fallen.
A very emotional visit looking at all those young fallen soldiers from different countries.

The area is full of army cemetries, French, German and American.

From here we drove home and arrived at night after a safe journey of about 2500 kms

Again the chateaux de la Loire with lots of history, gothic cathedrals going back to anno 400

Clery St Andree with kings resting Place
Tours, Grave of 2 children of the french queen Anne the Bretagne
Reims where the first French King was babtised about anno 400

Chateaux: Chambord, Fougere, Blois, Villandry, Chenonceau, Langeais, Amboise, Chinon, Loches, Talcy, Usse, Azay le rideau, Chaumont, Fontainebleau and many others

Bold Names are Kings residences

That was in brief the stations

Blog will follow soon

I've been to Verdun myself as a teenager. Very depressing seeing all these human bones piled up....

[Gordon Brown]

A magnificent photograph George. What a beautiful castle. You truely are a gifted photographer. Keep them coming. Kind regards
Gordon

[georgswa (Georg Ruf) (RIP)]

@ Gordon

Thanks for the compliment

That was truely a lucky shot, light was perfect, what you dont see is the people standin in the picture, removed them with editing leaving the castle as the attraction

Of all castles on the Loire, that is my favorite. Saw it first time in 1952/53 as a child.

In the eavening was a sound and light show about the history. Very fond memories of that. Since then i visited 3 times.

This year the show was complete different, not so much what i expected, mor like a stage show but done well with Laser, the castle beeing the the show screen.

I am working on the pictures and videos, once uploded i will post the links but also some direct in the board via photobucket.

The next picture will come now from Azay le Rideau, a small castle in the Touraine....Wait and see. 

[georgswa (Georg Ruf) (RIP)]

Azay le Rideau, a small castle in the Touraine

[Bertie Horak]

Wow, also beautiful!  How old are these castles?  Must be an amazing experience if you know a bit of the history of the people who lived there.

[Michael Alexander]

WHo owns the castles? Are you allowed to wander around them inside? How much must you pay?

Nice photo's also....

[georgswa (Georg Ruf) (RIP)]

The Chambord Castle was started in 1519

Azay le Rideau was a fortress 1189, 1528 rebuilt as a renaissance Chateaux by a financier of the king

Some of the castles are State owned others are private

We visited also the insides of many, entrance fees about 10-15 € / P

On one of our visits there i counted 43 castles on the videos, dit not go in all of them LOL

Some have no acces at all, others dit not allow me in with the camera, so why should i pay ???

The interiors are mainly, some furniture, Goblins on the walls, lots of paintings ( reproductions) Beds, chimneys
Some also have beautiful gardens

Versailles is not far away, never been there.....I prefer the Loire


There is guided Tours and free walks which i prefer.

On some castles people queu up for 1/2 hr waiting to get a ticket

I saw tourist from all over the world, much more then in the previous years

France is an ideal travel country well prepared to lodge all the visitors.

The daily highlight is the dinner in the evening, its not cheap but affordable and was all worth the money.

It will take some time to finish my first blog and videos. The first 3 videos ( Clips sorted) are ready for private use, once they are complete i will shorten them for public view and upload, hopefuly some of you can watch them

[Michael Alexander]

Hey Georg, Michele just remembered we had this, she thought your castle looked familiar...so we took a pic of Cameron holding up her Jigsaw.....

[georg ruf jr.]

Hey wow. That's it Mike. A reason you Alexanders should make your way to Europe.

[SandyB]

Truly beautiful pics Georg ...

[georgswa (Georg Ruf) (RIP)]

Hey Georg, Michele just remembered we had this, she thought your castle looked familiar...so we took a pic of Cameron holding up her Jigsaw.....

Great Mike, i made a video clip with one of those boats in 1992. They also used them in evening sound and light shows.

[Bertie Horak]

@ Georg Snr - Thanx for the info - I find castles very intriguing!

@ Mike - When I saw the first photo, I thought - What a beautiful jigsaw picture!  And there you are, you have one already!   I loved puzzles when I was Shannon's age, staying in Oranjemund.  I collected a few through the years, will build them when I'm old and have nothing else to do.