Friday, September 12, 2008

La Boslavie


Here's another panoramic video from panaramaddict. I am posting this because it is the midway point of one of my regular bike rides. I ride from my house in La Sechere, through Badefols d'Ans to Hautefort and back a few times a week. La Boslavie is the name of a farm on a hill.
The camera starts pointing North and then swings east. It pauses and zooms in on the chateau of my village, Badefols d'Ans. It's very impressive, 12th century battlements with a pointed tower. It's still privately owned and was severely damaged by the Germans at the end of WW2 because it was a center of resistance activity. Members of the family died in Auschwitz.
The camera swings around and when it is beginning to point just north west, it stops and zooms in on the Chateau d'Hautefort. It is a truly magnificent chateau, begun in the 12th century by the troubador, Bertrand le Born. It was enlarged over the centuries and finally in its finished state in the 17th century. The slate domed roofs are great examples of baroque architectural detail. there is a church which is also connected to a hospital built at the same time in the same style. It is a very grand little village. The Chateau d'Hautefort was also severely damaged by the Germans. The roofs were burnt. Interestingly, the chateau was bought by an American woman who with a grant from the French Government, spent millions to restore the chateau and the classic gardens. The work was done in the late 60's. Then another tragedy, one night a cigarette left by a worker on the roof, smoldered away and started a fire which destroyed the entire roof again!
It took another 3 years of restoration to rebuild it.
Today, it and the formal gardens are open to the public. The rooms are furnished and parts of the castle are lived in.
I actually know a lot of the gossip of the last of the Hauteforts...the last Baron and the Baroness and their kinky history, but that is another tale..

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