Ok, it's been done SO many times before, but I love this place, and I'd be happy to see more, so...here's my more!
Like a big eejit full of child-like enthusiasm, I did this one alone and on public transport. A long train journey from Brussels, through Dinant (well worth a quick stop for the amazing castle and church - I stuck a couple of shots of there on too - if you're in the area, you really should check out the castle) out into the Ardennes to a train station that's literally in the middle of nowhere. Then a couple of miles walking along winding country roads, beautiful countryside, nothing but birds singing, until reaching the strangely quiet hilltop where the Chateau now sits in forlorn ruin.
As any explorer knows, damn BIRDS are a bane - here it's pheasants - great crowding flocks of the damn things! It's a pheasant-rearing farm (although they're free-range) which is the main reason they don't want you around, and will eject you from this site if caught. Pheasants have an infuriating habit of waiting, completely invisible in the undergrowth, until you're a couple of feet away, and then crashing out of cover in a hail of feathers and squawking, which, after a few Richmond Superkings and the not-insignificant climb up the monumental hill this neo-gothic masterpiece stands on, is enough to recommend a change of underpants and a defibrilator to anyone.
Anyway, here's my interpretation of this place.
1) Dinant
2) Dinant Castle (if you've driven down this far, you might as well)
3) Big guns
4) The view. This is the main reason you'd do this.
5) The goal.
6)
7) So quiet here
8) And dark and foreboding.
9)
10) Not sure if other people have found the same thing, but there was the constant noise of bits and pieces falling down/off when I was there, like it was breathing in and out. I doubt that's why it's called "Chateau Noisy", but it worked for me.
11)
12) A remnant of the children
13)
14) That ceiling
15)
16) View from a window.
17)
18) Stairs considered
19) Watch your step
20) Belgian pikeys?
21) Good "grippy" boots strongly recommended. It's a long way down from the top of this stairs.
22)
23) Top floor, below the clocktower.
24) Inside the clocktower
25) The mechanism
26) Good view - 140ft up.
27)
28)
29) The classic view toward Chateau Veves. A celebratory cigarette well-earned.
A little more to follow...
Like a big eejit full of child-like enthusiasm, I did this one alone and on public transport. A long train journey from Brussels, through Dinant (well worth a quick stop for the amazing castle and church - I stuck a couple of shots of there on too - if you're in the area, you really should check out the castle) out into the Ardennes to a train station that's literally in the middle of nowhere. Then a couple of miles walking along winding country roads, beautiful countryside, nothing but birds singing, until reaching the strangely quiet hilltop where the Chateau now sits in forlorn ruin.
As any explorer knows, damn BIRDS are a bane - here it's pheasants - great crowding flocks of the damn things! It's a pheasant-rearing farm (although they're free-range) which is the main reason they don't want you around, and will eject you from this site if caught. Pheasants have an infuriating habit of waiting, completely invisible in the undergrowth, until you're a couple of feet away, and then crashing out of cover in a hail of feathers and squawking, which, after a few Richmond Superkings and the not-insignificant climb up the monumental hill this neo-gothic masterpiece stands on, is enough to recommend a change of underpants and a defibrilator to anyone.
Anyway, here's my interpretation of this place.
1) Dinant
2) Dinant Castle (if you've driven down this far, you might as well)
3) Big guns
4) The view. This is the main reason you'd do this.
5) The goal.
6)
7) So quiet here
8) And dark and foreboding.
9)
10) Not sure if other people have found the same thing, but there was the constant noise of bits and pieces falling down/off when I was there, like it was breathing in and out. I doubt that's why it's called "Chateau Noisy", but it worked for me.
11)
12) A remnant of the children
13)
14) That ceiling
15)
16) View from a window.
17)
18) Stairs considered
19) Watch your step
20) Belgian pikeys?
21) Good "grippy" boots strongly recommended. It's a long way down from the top of this stairs.
22)
23) Top floor, below the clocktower.
24) Inside the clocktower
25) The mechanism
26) Good view - 140ft up.
27)
28)
29) The classic view toward Chateau Veves. A celebratory cigarette well-earned.
A little more to follow...
