Chateau d'Oiron

Doesn't this look like a regular old chateau?
Hey kids, pose for a picture before we go inside.
Little we did know, it is not just a big old house with empty rooms.


I am glad that I have pictures of this chateau. It is hard to explain. Pictures will help.
So the French have all these big old empty chateaux. I don't think they know what to do with all of them. At Chateau d'Orion, they invited one artist for each room to come up with some type of artwork for that particular room.
I can tell you that I have never discussed art so much with my kids.
I can also tell you that they got in trouble for racing ahead. They wanted to see what type of art would be in the next room.
Here are pictures from the chateau.

One of the first rooms is the battle room. In the battle room is this pile of bones and skulls.
Battle room. Bones. Get your philosophy on.


The kids just raced on ahead to see what would be in the next room.
In this next room, the brochure invited visitors to meditate on the excessive payment demanded by time. okay dokey.


This next picture is the dining room. On the wall are plates. Each plate has an outline of a townsperson. Under their individual plate is their wine glass and a napkin with their fingerprint. Every year on June 30th the townspeople get together for a dinner and use their plate, glass and napkin.


If you stand just right and look down in the mirror, the blue lines on the walls form a circle. The hallway of illusions.



And there was a unicorn. Why not? Why wouldn't there be a unicorn?


Grandma and Katie looking at artwork in what was once a chapel.


Next are pictures in the Renaissance Gallery. No modern art needed since the original art is still there.


The kids thought the long walkway would be a great catwalk. Gabi and Georgia are posing for a picture on the catwalk.


To me, this room was taxidermy gone wrong. Jeannette, on the other hand, found this room hilarious.



Joey liked the armor made into artwork.


Dinosaur bones and pitchforks in the wall. Ok. Definitely something to talk about.


And here is a dragon.



And last but not least. . . a BEAR! The kids were pretty excited about this. You had to look through the door to see a bear chained up. The first question they asked . . was is it real??




No, the bear was not real.

There were at least 36 rooms. I haven't even covered half of them.
What a curious chateau.