February, 2012 Archives

Garden of Love at Château de Villandry: Most Romantic Gardens in France [40 PICS]

February 17th, 2012 Permalink

While researching castles built for love, we stumbled upon another castle located in Villandry, France. But it was the magnificent gardens that were built for love — and even the French name jardin de l’amour sounds divinely romantic. While these gardens have serene elements like Chinese gardens, the Château de Villandry gardens have been called the most romantic and beautiful gardens in France. There is a love story behind Love Garden and the entire estate was designed with romantic symbolism from the Renaissance era. The Villandry has three garden styles, a formal water garden, a 2-part ornamental garden with topiary hedges ripe with symbolism for love including for the “Garden of Love” and the “Garden of Music,” and a huge decorative kitchen garden (potager). The gardens of Château de Villandry are an UNESCO World Heritage Site. We’d never seen anything like it. Welcome to the most romantic gardens in Loire Valley, France! [40 Photos]

Jardin d'amour - jardin de 'l'amour tendre' Garden of Love -- Tender Love

Jardin d’amour – jardin de “l’amour tendre”. Garden of Love — Tender Love. Château de Villandry has a great love story to go along with the breathtaking Renaissance gardens that embody romance. A young Spanish doctor, Joachim Carvallo, met and fell in love with a young American medical research intern, Ann Coleman. She was the daughter of a master blacksmith from Pennsylvania. They sunk all of their money into the castle of Villandry and worked tirelessly on their passion of restoring it. They converted part of the estate into a hospital to take care of the wounded during WWI, but after the war, went back to their passion of transforming the romantic park at Chateau de Villandry, originally created by Jean Le Breton, into a stunning design of romantic gardens that still exist today. Photo #1 by hamadryades

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Romantic Architecture? 15 Castles Built for Love

February 12th, 2012 Permalink

Love is the most powerful force that exists. In the throes of love, your feet are nowhere close to the ground but floating in the clouds. Love has inspired all types of art, poems, novels, plays, music and paintings. After Cupid shoots an arrow through the heart, some people are so inspired as to erect architecture. We’re not talking about building a Love Shack, but of big-scale and divinely romantic architecture such as castles built for love. Margaret Anderson once said, “In real love you want the other person’s good. In romantic love you want the other person.” Castles built by love seem like both. There are many examples of architecture built for love, but to celebrate Valentine’s Day we wanted to hone in on castles love built. While this amazing architecture seems like something out of a fairy tale, and a wonderfully romantic way to say I Will Always Love You, not all end with happily ever after. The irony is that almost all of these grand displays of love ended in tragedy. [15 Castles presented in 83 Photos]

Aerial view of Boldt Castle and some of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River - Castles Built for Love

Happy Valentine’s Day! If you are a bah-humbug type of person on this holiday of romance, then perhaps you can at least appreciate all this architecture that was constructed for love? As many of us can appreciate beautiful castles, perhaps even saying “I love it” there are some castles that are divinely romantic since they were built by love and to honor love. This is an aerial view of Boldt Castle and some of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River, near Alexandria Bay, New York. George Boldt had this five-acre castle estate built out of love for his wife. He planned to give his wife Boldt Castle on Valentine’s Day 1905. As you will see in many of these castles built for love, there is a reoccurring theme of tragedy striking at the heart of love. Photo #1 by Teresa Mitchell / Howcheng

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Abandoned Snowy Post-Apocalypse? 41 Photo Scenarios of Snowpocalypse or Snowmageddon

February 4th, 2012 Permalink

Snowy landscapes can alter a viewer’s perception of the scene, sometimes making it seem deserted and surreal as if the world has ended and a blanket of white descended. This had us musing on what a post-apocalyptic Earth might look like IF the world didn’t burn, but the people disappeared for some reason or another. In some of these photos, it seems as if the few lone Apocalyptic survivors are out and about to view the rebirth of the world 2.0. While this is a bit bizarre to be pondering, all of these winter snow photos struck a chord with us in harmony with what the world might look like after the Apocalypse. Most of the people would undoubtedly be gone, so seeing ‘survivors’ would be few and far between. In our Snowpocalypse or Snowmageddon scenarios, buildings would be abandoned and a quiet world would be wrapped in a heavy white blanket of snow. Some people love winter, the cold and the snow — perhaps even the photographers who captured these unbelievably beautiful and snowy landscapes that seem to us as if they could portray a world after the Apocalypse. [41 Photos]

A Snowy Ski lift on top of Åreskutan, in Sweden

Sweden: A snowy ski lift on top of Åreskutan. Photo #1 by Anders Carlsson

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