Monday 26 May 2014

Waddesdon Manor

Today's a public holiday, it's raining and my knee isn't happy. So we went to Waddesdon Manor! We sat in insanely heavy traffic outside Bicester (still no idea what all those people were trying to do getting into Bicester) and the rain got heavier and heavier. But we persevered and got there in the end, were ferried from the car park to the gates of the Manor by a very swish shuttle bus. This is what it looked like as we walked (I limped) down the drive:

that's the back of mum with her brolly, walking at normal, non-handicapped, pace





We pootled off for a cream tea, there were huge photographs of this building on the walls and I love the combination of English countryside and modern architecture. Nothing else of note except this poster (in the loos but ssshhh!)


Enjoy that picture because when we eventually found the real thing in the house it was sooooo tiny I couldn't get a good picture of it - but more about that later.

So, restored by scones, cream, jam and real-tea-out-of-a-pot, we walked (limped) back to the house. 
Waddesdon Manor, roughly speaking, was/is owned by the Rothschilds and holds Somebody Rothschild's collection of art. Which means it's an incredibly ornate manor house stuffed with art! You can't take flash photos and all the blinds are drawn to keep the sunlight out (hah!) so it was tricky to get good pictures. Except of the lighting:





see the crafty light effects I so deliberately worked into this one? or maybe I just started limping off before someone got in my shot - who can say?!?
Now, about the lace. In the first three pictures above you can just about see some lacy stuff hanging from the bottom of the amazing (1 tonne!) chandelier. It's part of the lace exhibition as advertised in the poster which I definitely didn't take a picture of in the loo (above). The exhibition meant bits of lace/art hiding in the rooms. Mum had the leaflet but I'm pretty sure they were meant to be artistic responses to the rooms, etc. The lace was pretty but didn't photograph well, probably because of the light. Here's what happened when we found the above (poster) roses as part of an incredibly elaborate dinner setting:


my camera don't do zoom


On we went. Marble chairs:

mmm, comfy
This green vase-thing which I took lots of photos of, mostly because it was near a window with un-drawn (?) blinds:





And here's the window!



And finally. Mum had been going on about this modern chandelier she saw last time they went, made of forks and spoons and stuff, which we hadn't seen. It was in The Last Room and very impressive it was too. For reasons which are a little dull, I had by this time been declared Immobile by the volunteers and taken to the first floor by the impressively old-fashioned lift. We were, at this point, on our way OUT of the Manor, which meant back down in the lift for me. To access the lift, you have to go through the room that the Amazing Chandelier is IN!!!


crap photo taken from outside the Room of the Amazing Chandelier
Amazeballs photo taken IN THE ACTUAL ROOM!!!!
 The grounds of the Manor looked absolutely gorgeous from the road, of course it was too rainy to explore them at all but I'd love to go back sometime.

-x-

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