The Genius of Chambord {Look Around}

Among magic post-Christmas scenes delightfully set up in the castle of Chambord, in France, we walk and run and sing trying to guess what the next staged fairy tale will be. 

The venue is bathed in wintry sunlight: through the high windows dancing rays of light bring the characters to life. The scene is reminiscent of other castles we have visited. Life is back in the old stones. And Chambord is no exception. As far away as possible from static museums and oldish exhibitions, the Renaissance castle has decided to bring together its history and all artistic fields of expression to invite visitors into its “world of genius”; during our visit, some of the most famous fairy tales were recreated with exquisite details: lace garments and piled up plates, flickering lights and bowing characters. La Fontaine surely appreciates and probably also King Francis I who dreamed about the castle and launched its construction in 1519, taking care that his symbol, the salamander, appeared wherever possible.

Chambord has taken the dream one step further by staging at the same time the misty world of photographer Bae Bien U in “D’une forêt l’autre”. Suddenly, we leave the fairy tales of old to step right into the fairy tales of modern times, including the France-Korea year: through the dark woods, behind every tree we imagine the owl, the wolf, the eagle. Not a men’s gathering. No Dead Poets’ Society whispering. Just nature. The mysterious images are repetitive, yet different: the angles shift, the perspectives too and even though there are numerous pictures they all look like one single living forest made of multiple textures: wood, fog, wind, water... The outside world has found its way inside the castle walls: the haunting black and white photographs strongly echo the surrounding natural environment, a national forestal domain that ranks as the largest enclosed park in Europe. 

I stop, listen and look. In silence. Until the bursting laughter of my kids running wild from one spacious room to the other reverberates from the walls, is amplified and finally brings the light back in and drags me away, into the sun again.

Twitter: @domainechambord

Instagram: @chateaudechambord (great feed!)

Credits: TheDaydreamer