Chateau de Vincennes

Finally, got to this sight from last week.  This place started out as a prison but became a castle/residence for Charles V in the late 14th century...think around 1370.  If he were living & ruling today, I can just see his Twitter feed: @Chuck5.

Here is the main entrance.  It gives no indication of what lies behind the main gate.  BTW, this facility served as the German military HQ during the WW2 occupation of Paris.

Once inside the main courtyard, here is the castle with the tower dungeon.

And what's a castle without a moat?  Castle on the left.  Just try clambering up that incline without accumulating a few arrows.

Dungeon close-up.

















 

Interior room.  No central heating, so a big fireplace which on a good day might radiate the heat  out 6-10 feet. 

The column supports the arches, next shot.

Room ceiling.  There they are, those darned Gothic arches!

Chuck5 was a very religious king, prayed several times a day.  Now if you're a pious king, you need a place to pray & devoting one corner of the castle...no way.   So you need a chapel built.  If it's just you, the wife, er, I mean The Queen & the kids, you don't need a very big place.  But royalty never thinks that way.  So here's the royal chapel.

Closeup, note the gargoyles.  We'll visit them a bit later.

The interior of our little chapel.  It's nothing really...only worked a couple of hundred craftsmen to death in a couple of years.

Stained glass windows. What's  a Gothic chapel without lots of windows.  Here's just one panel.

Note the angels.  Lots of divine intervention going on up there.

Looking back towards the entrance of our humble little prayer-place.

A small neighborhood of Gargoyle City.  Love our 10X lens.













And that, dear blog-reader, concludes our mini-tour of Chateau de Vincennes.  You gotta see it to really see it.