La belle au bois dormant - photos

A street in Chinon, a charming little town near the Chateau d'Ussé where every second building has a plaque telling you it dates from 1458 or whatever. And people just live here, imagine that...



Another street view in Chinon



Staircase ghost in the Chateau!



Sleeping Beauty gets cursed by the bad fairy



Sixties lady (or as my cousin Sarah astutely pointed out on my facebook, Angelina Jolie!) The chateau's full of crazy mannequins enacting scenes from Sleeping Beauty or depicting costumes from throughout the chateau's history



Prince Charming wakes Sleeping Beauty



Dude smoking a pipe on a Flemish tapestry. He just amused me for some reason



Apparently this shows Perrault's ability to captivate children of all generations, but I'm pretty sure it depicts a time-travelling paedophile



Peeing on a Flemish tapestry. Trying that at home would probably get you arrested kiddies



"Oh, stop it!" Hard to see, but the guy in the background is laffing it up about the wine-making process. FYI I don't *think* I'm that bizarrely orange in real life (my tan is all natural), I think the 'warmining' button on Picasa let the team down...



Trying to pretend to be Sleeping Beauty, pretty much failing. Foreshortening = not my friend. Also had to crop a lot of leg out of this one!



Me pretending to be one of the fancy ladies



Me in front of the church, doing a bad pose as usual



Me in front of the chateau



Glad to see people made out in front of perverts back in the day too



Laurent in front of the chateau



I think this is in the 'King's Room' - the Chateau d'Ussé was (and still is) the property of a noble family, but Louis XIV decided that every chateau had to have a room just for him



An iris in the garden



Hair horns! Why, I don't know.



View from one of the castle's windows



The gardens, laid out by André le Notre, who also did the gardens at Versailles (and I know this due to my tenure as Liaison Librarian for Landscape Architecture!)



Male-model footman mannequin



A room full of flappers



Inside the chapel



The church at Ussé



Room in the chateau



Playing around with special effects...



The chateau