Château d'Ussé

Reputed to be the château that inspired the story of Sleeping Beauty, or in French, Belle au Bois Dormant, it certainly does have that fairy-tale look about it, with all the turrets.

A view taken from about the level of the entrance.

From further up the pathway leading to the castle itself, the wall looks as though, at the very least, it could do with a sandblasting.

As you walk around, although it is very pleasant, you become aware that it's quite shabby in places.

And mannequins turn up here, there, and everywhere.

The gardens from above.

A view from the road which looks very much as though it was once the driveway, better seen from this shot in another blog, which has some lovely photos.

Apparently, the building was once a quadrilateral and the front wing was demolished to give a better view.

This was one of the more expensive places to visit, but as you wandered around, the impression was of faded grandeur, even crumbling grandeur. It didn't have any of the opulence that other chateaux had, and there were few flowers.

Their efforts to provide an attraction by staging scenes from Sleeping Beauty didn't appeal to me at all, in fact I found them tawdry. We didn't manage to take any decent photos of them because they were behind glass panels, but you can see an example here. They had no atmosphere about them, they looked just like the mannequins from a shop window but dressed up in Disney costumes. Perhaps I was having a bad day.

Without a doubt it must cost a fortune to maintain a place like that. It is privately owned, but I have the idea that many of the Loire châteaux are, (some research needed there) though most of the others I have seen appear much better maintained. It would be a tragedy if beautiful buildings were to disintergrate and eventually be lost to future generations.