France has two Loire Valley regions, one of which is in the west of France and consists of five departments, and the other is called the Centre - Loire Valley region, which is in the middle of France, where Chen Xing went.

There is no additional connection between them, and they are mainly named after the Loire River.

The Central-Loire Valley was not developed a long time ago, and during the Hundred Years' War with England, the French princes and nobles came here from Paris to take refuge, and found that the land here is fertile and beautiful, and it is a great place for feng shui.

So the collective built a palace here. From ancient times to the present, the aristocracy has built hundreds of castles here as a cultural product of human history, combined with the local scenery, and has become the golden area of French tourism today, an absolute popular attraction.

But if the visitor is not a fanatic of medieval castles, then you only need to choose two or three representative castles to visit, walk slowly, and savor it.

Chen Xing chose the famous Château de Chambord among all the castles. This is the largest castle in the entire Loire Valley, and if these many castles are the pearls scattered throughout the Loire Valley, Château Chambord is undoubtedly the most shining and dazzling of the whole pearls.

However, it should be noted that Chambord Castle has multiple translations in China, such as Château Chambord, Château de Chambord, Château de Chambo, etc., and you have to pay attention to it when using domestic navigation software.

Because the current navigation is said to be intelligent, in fact, it is a bit of a staff. Originally, it took Chen Xing three hours to find a place that could be reached in two and a half hours from Paris, missing lunchtime.

Or the French name is more reliable. When the shuttle arrives, you can see the stone castle standing in the distance as soon as you get off the bus.

He's too big and too complicated. The castles that Chen Xing has seen in France for so long are all small, and there are many such plausible castles in China, but when you really see a castle where European kings live, you will feel that all the castles you have seen before are bunkers, right?

It's like building a separate tower inside a castle. But there are too many towers like this in this castle.

From the location of the parking lot, the spires of Château de Chambord are ornate and complex, like a city in the sky with roofs, chimneys and towers, but with a kingly grandeur, and these spires are scattered in a way that is unique to the European Renaissance.

Queue up to buy tickets. Since Chen Xing is a student, the entrance fee was waived, and there are many such attractions in France.

Knowing that Chen Xing was from China, the young lady who bought the ticket also handed out an introduction material, which was written in Chinese.

"It's free." She said,

"If you want to go the extra mile, then you can rent our audio guide with an accompanying guide next to you." The introduction in his hand was only a thin page, and Chen Xing didn't want to study the story of this attraction while visiting the scenery with his camera, so he walked to the place where he chose a tour guide.

… When you don't know the history of European castles, it's best to choose a tour guide to introduce you along the way, this kind of attraction is not like a landscape, everyone can understand, and it will be a lot less fun to understand the story.

Of course, you can also rent an audio guide, but it is certainly not as convenient as a real person, in the case of no shortage of money.

As soon as he passed, someone greeted him in Japanese and pulled guests, but Chen Xing refused: "I am from Huaxia." "Immediately, a Chinese-speaking tour guide came up and asked if I wanted to visit together.

Group guides are easy to find, but these bilingual or multilingual guides rarely accept individual guests.

It is estimated that more people can make money. Chen Xing, a tour guide who was willing to accompany him alone, looked for it, and it seemed that they could only speak French, but they could also speak a little English.

People around the big French cities know English, they just don't like to speak it. Chen Xing takes a fancy to a young and beautiful guide, such a tour guide may not have as high professional skills as the old tour guide, but it is eye-catching.

He smiled at her and asked, "Then I'm bothering you." After waiting for a long time, Rose finally found a guest, and said heartily: "I believe I can bring you a very good travel experience, Chambord is the best castle in France, you will feel that the trip is worthwhile." Chen Xing went to the garden to take a look first.

The garden is divided into two areas, both of which are at least the size of a football field, and there are all kinds of neatly built flower beds, as well as the delicate patterns on the lawn, which of course look like patterns in the sky, but on the ground these patterns are as large as corridors on the lawn.

It is also the best place to see the front of the castle. Chen Xing held up his Hasselblad camera and took pictures of some of the castle's distinctive decorations.

One of the great things about the medium format camera is its secondary composition, coupled with its excellent white balance function, so even if you don't shoot well on set, you can still go home and fix professional-grade photos to improve the expressiveness of your work.

Rose asked, "Sir, do you know the king François I?" ”

"Yes." Chen Xing said. This king was the most obsessed with the Renaissance style in French history, and the castle was also a palace he built for himself.

This kind of simple news is estimated to be known to tourists who come to Chambord Castle. Rose nodded when she heard Chen Xing's answer, and said while accompanying Chen Xing: "This king is also very good at architecture, and under his control, he built many medieval buildings that are very famous in modern times, but at that time, the French Renaissance was just beginning, so the Chambord castle you see now still has strong Gothic architectural characteristics." She introduced Chen Xing to which Gothic buildings were most strongly represented in this castle, and Chen Xing photographed them one by one.

There is a hardware on the outside of the Hasselblad camera that automatically detects the color temperature, and when Chen Xing tilts his head to photograph the tower top building, the white balance is automatically lowered, making the whole castle look more historical, grand and wonderful.

This is the natural color that Hasselblad is famous for. Sometimes, he may know more about what a photographer needs than the average photographer.

Walking into the interior of the castle, the roughness with a sense of history comes to you, but it is understandable that it is an old building, and in fact, it can also be seen as part of the sense of history.

… If it were brand new, visitors would probably wonder if it was an old castle or a new castle.

Inside the hall there is a cleverly designed double spiral staircase. Rose said: "This very mysterious staircase is the design of Leonardo da Vinci, although it is not clearly documented, but I personally think this statement is very reliable, because François I was a good friend of Leonardo da Vinci in the first place, and it is not difficult to ask for a design draft." The reason for the design of this staircase, the grapevine says that it was the king's attempt to avoid embarrassment and disputes when the queen and his mistress met head-on. Chen Xing circled around the two stairs below, and the two sets of stairs were staggered around a common axis, spiraling upwards, the axis was hollowed out, and those who walked the two stairs could see the opposite side, but would not meet.

The carvings on it are also exquisite. Each floor of the staircase extends into four corridors, forming a cross, and the chambers are divided into four identical living quarters.

"This is the residence of François I." Rose suddenly introduced. Chen Xing and the others in front of him came out, so they walked into this room and looked, there were several small rooms inside, a study and a prayer room, the ceiling was arched, very high, and there were carvings on it.

The brocade silk hanging on the wall is very Chinese style and can be called a work of art. Is this the silk that was sold from China to Europe in the past?

It's not broken. Chen Xing carefully photographed this piece of silk, and when he was about to go back, he asked someone first, and then considered whether to write about this piece of silk in his book, otherwise when the book was released, he would find out that it was an oolong, then he would be embarrassed to death.

Further up is the expansive terrace at the top of the tower, which is the perfect place to enjoy the view of the surrounding courtyard and the surrounding landscape, with the Château de Chambord hunting forest area in the back and the Loire River in the distance.

Turning around and looking up, he instantly found himself surrounded by various exquisite rooftops, and looking out into the distance, the entire territory of Chambord Castle was unobstructed.

Rose said, "There's a café here, do you want a drink?" ”

"No need." Chen Xing was busy taking pictures and said. That's the case in the plains, as long as you build a tall house, you have to see far away, and if there are other houses built around you, but they are all low, you will feel like the world is under my feet.

King's Experience Card – In an instant. In fact, the emperors of China were like this, at that time, the people of the imperial city could not build more houses than the imperial city, so the emperors stepped on a higher place in the imperial palace, and they could see a piece of neat houses, and wide streets extending in all directions.

When Chen Xing used to study history, he liked the Bianjing City mentioned by his teacher very much. The width of the street reaches 200 meters, it is estimated that only Huaxia can get it out in the world, but unfortunately no one in later generations has seen the style of that time, and there are Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty, and Yanjing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Yanjing is a little better, at least the age is relatively recent, and there are more things that have been preserved than the previous dynasties.

Chen Xing wandered to the back of the terrace. He saw people leading horses in the grass below, and they were all beautiful, and they didn't look like the kind of horses that were bred in captivity to take pictures, but the kind that often ran on the wide ground, and they looked strong.

… Chen Xing suddenly wanted to ride a horse. He asked, "Can I ride the horse below?" ”

"Generally speaking, you can't, but you can take pictures with them, do you want to go and see them?"

"Of course, you work here, it's better to help me tell me, I want to ride up and take pictures. Don't worry, I'll be on horseback. Although Chen Xing's technique cannot be said to be able to ride on horseback, it is no problem to control a horse that has been domesticated by others, and it is no problem to simply walk a few steps or even trot, and he will not feel afraid, let alone fall down unsteadily.

He was a man who wanted to build his own estate and raise horses. It's good that your manor is as big as this castle, just the garden in front of you can raise a lot of small animals, not to mention that there is a forest behind the castle, which is the hunting ground of the nobles in the past, and now the paradise of small animals.

The two walked down, and there were many people next to the two horses taking pictures. The blonde woman leading the horse was also dressed in ancient European guard clothing, like a guard waiting for the king to mount the horse.

Chen Xing thought that this kind of photo-taking culture was only available in China, and it turned out that Europe also had it. Merely...... It seems like it's free here.

Anyone can stand next to the horses and take pictures with the horses, but they must be more than a meter away, otherwise they will be driven away by the people who lead the horses, and because one of the female guards who leads the horses and feeds the horses is particularly good-looking, she has the most tourists here.

Chen Xing doesn't look at people's looks when he arrives here, he looks at horses. There are a total of four horses here, Chen Xing passed by them once, and finally stopped at the side of a horse next to the forest, and motioned to the tour guide with his eyes to hurry up and help him communicate, he had a good time on the horse.

Rose grimaced. She's not wrong to work here, but! But she is just a part-time worker, not a regular employee, and she usually can't get in touch with these people, how can she know each other.

I just want to explain to Chen Xing. But after thinking about it, it doesn't seem like a big deal to ask first, she's seen these people let tourists ride horses before, in case it's negotiated by herself?

Will this boss give me an extra tip? So he went up. This eldest brother is also idle, and everyone who takes pictures likes to go to the front to shoot, so that he can take pictures of the castle building by the way, otherwise how can he prove that he has been to Chambord Castle?

But he didn't like too many people, so he walked closer to the forest, and no one came to take pictures of him.

Rose went up and asked, "Hello, I'm Rose, the tour guide who works here." ”

"Hello, Gabripierre, do you need help?"

"Yes, my guests want to experience what it's like to ride a horse."

"What? Is he crazy? Gabripierre's eyes widened and he said,

"Horseback riding is dangerous, since you are a tour guide, you should tell him, and our horses can't be ridden casually, you should know." Of course Rose knows.

But she also knew that she could be accommodating, and she had seen these equestrians let tourists ride horses.

"He's a gentleman from China, he can ride horses, and he likes our equestrian club in Chambord very much, he's a very refined fan, he just wants to ride on a horse and take a picture, it won't take too much time, there will be no problem with you." The last passage made the equestrian's heart ripple a little.

He looked at Chen Xing. The Huaxia man smiled slightly at himself, and he also looked like a good person.

"Okay." He agreed, but warned,

"I can only ride up and take a picture, otherwise I can't guarantee that Anne won't be angry, she usually hates strangers the most, and only listens to me."

“okok！” Rose couldn't help but be overjoyed, and hurriedly went to report the news to Chen Xing.