Tuesday, June 12, 2007

IN THE HEART OF SAVOY!

CHAMBERY - MAY 2005

Chambéry was founded at crossroads of ancient routes to Burgundy, Switzerland, and Italy. Its history is closely linked to the House of Savoy and Chambery was the Savoyard capital from 1295, when Amadeus V of Savoy made it his seat of power, to 1563, when Duke Emmanuel Philibert moved his capital to Turin. During this time, Savoy included a region that stretched from Bourg-en-Bresse in the west, across the Alps to Turin, north to Geneva, and south to Nice. Chambéry was also known for the Savoyard weapons used by many of Europe's mightiest armies.


"THE RUE DE BOIGNE, bordered with porticos, was opened between 1824 and 1830 thanks to donations of the general of Boigne. This street brought salutary ventilation to urban space, in spite of the regrettable disappearance of historical buildings… The new street became the centre of the city, where noble families settled… Stendhal wrote in 1837 in the Memories of a Tourist: «Such a convenient place becomes soon the meeting point of all that are bored and want to be distracted from a rainy day; cafes, luxury boutiques, literary salons, where one will spend one hour or two when the north wind blows or when one is bored at home… It rained today. I spent all my day under the porticos of the beautiful street of Chambéry. I thought of sweet Italy..."


"THE ELEPHANTS' FOUNTAIN, built in 1838 to honour Benoît de Boigne's feats in India, is the most famous landmark in Chambéry. It represents four elephants truncated in a column in the shape of the Savoy cross and though it was first hooted by the residents, it appears to have been accepted later. Remembering the dislike, the statue kept its nickname of «Les Quatre Sans Culs» (the four without arse(s)) sounding like the title of the movie of François Truffaut «Les Quatre Cent Coups» (The 400 Blows), one of the defining films of the French New Wave..."


"THE CHATEAU DE CHAMBÉRY is the old residence of the Counts and Dukes of Savoy. The first counts of Savoy settled into an existing fortress in 1285 and expanded it in the early 14th century to serve as residence, and as stronghold for the House of Savoy. As a fort it quickly became obsolete, and so remained purely an administrative centre, until Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy, returned to hold court in 1640. It is composed in particular of three towers built in XIV and XV centuries, of medieval dependences and a large main building of XVIII and XIX centuries built in the place of the old apartments of the counts. In the bell-tower, a Great chime is installed that sounds seventy bells. Today, it hosts the political administration of the department of Savoy"


"OPEN AIR SHOPPING - The old city is made up of a great number of old hotels of the Savoyard nobility. At the end of XV century, the noble families undertook the demolition of the old wooden houses and built new in stone which took later the name of «hotel», where the host receives his hosts. Here, however, we see mostly buildings of the twentieth century with shops..."




"PEDESTRIAN ZONE - The metropolitan area of Chambéry extends from the vineyard slopes of the Combe de Savoie, almost to the shores of the Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake in France, and has more than 100,000 inhabitants. On a week-end, the pedestrian zone may become very busy"

27 comments:

Shionge said...

Beautiful streets, lovely weather and most importantly with the one you love :)

Thank you for sharing this and cool to see the elephants there :D

Peter said...

First, thanks for regularly visiting my blog and for your (honest) answer to my question in your previous blog!

I have visited Chambéry, but not with your "eyes". All the info you give is really interesting. I have a feeling that with new "blogger eyes" and a digital camera in the pocket, you start to visit places differently.

Zannnie said...

ohh your site looks cool with a pre-digital and a post-digital era ;)

Thank you for your visit and comments on budapest dailyphoto :) About your question, the new season after the Hungarian National Theatre's summer break is from 21st August. Perhaps you may want to plan a visit then :)

In the coming posts, I will blog about how to get there but basically here's the address :
Bajor Gizi park 1., H-1095 Budapest
Phone: (+36 1) 476-6800

Have a wonderful day ahead...

Raghu Ram Prasad said...

Chambéry is one of the beautiful place.... now only i came to know by your wonderful pictures...thanks

Irina said...

Amazing photos and inetersting narration - as always, though. It must be a very pleasant place to have a walk.

Kalyan Panja said...

Some beautifully captured shots form Chambery and it was nice reading the documentary of that place!

TeamSplashi said...

We like that photo with elephants.
Great read on your journeys.
We cant go to many places , but for sure we are lucky to have your blog(s) to take us places.

Miss Kim said...

I sure would have liked to have travelled with you! (But at least with your photos and stories I feel like I've been there).

Cheers!
Kim in Albania

alice said...

A very nice city in a wonderful area. Mais il faut écrire en français sur la France!

Sally said...

Oh I SEE what you mean by St Anthony of Lisbon. LOL! *hits forehead on keyboard* !

Nazzareno said...

Thank you for your visit and comments on my blob.Your site is lovely.

lv2scpbk said...

I love that elephant fountain. I've never seen anything like it.

Aditi said...

oh i love the elephants fountain... that and imagine the history the town is dripping with if its administrative offices are located in such an ancient bldg

marie6 said...

What a beautiful city!!! Thanks for complimenting my cake on Maltadp.

Nathalie H.D. said...

Thanks for your regular visits to my blog in Sydney.
I hope your rain finishes earlier than mine and you can enjoy a sunny summer.

Anonymous said...

Shionge,
Thanks! The weather was not pretty nice (though not so bad as today in Lisbon), but the life companion (who happens to have her birthday today) was there!
Loved to read your posts on Girlfrenz and Boyfrenz!

Peter,
Forgot to say that, though the primary reason to visit Stockholm was the Swedish girlfriend, I fell in love with the city, which (in summer) is one of the most beautiful cities in the world that I know; another, for the benefit of Sally and Nathalie, is Sydney…
I think you’re quite right about the "blogger eye"!

Zannie,
Thanks for the visit, the comment and the tip. I’ve some pictures of Budapest and Hungary on Blogtrotter 70s & 80s under the label Hungary; hope to have made at least partial justice to the beauty of the country. Some more will come from the 2006 visit...

Raghu,
Irina,
Kalyan,
Thanks you all for visiting and commenting. I truly love reading your comments!

Teamsplashi,
I’m glad you’re back posting and commenting. Much enjoyed your Windy City pictures!

Kim,
Thanks. You’re warmly welcome! I’m learning a lot on Albania with your blog...

GMG said...

Alice,
Tu as raison et en fait j’ai essayé de mêler la langue française dans ces posts. J’en ai même écrit un entièrement en français (http://blogtrotta.blogspot.com/2005/11/reunion-une-le-cinq.html - un jour j’aimerais aussi apprendre à introduire des links dans les commentaires) ; mais j’ai trouvé que la plupart des visiteurs ne comprenait pas le français et, je dois l’avouer, je n’avais pas envie de produire un blog bilingue! En plus, les gens de Blogger sont devenus confus et m’ont envoyé un email en demandant quelle était la langue du blog… j’ai renoncé! Mais maintenant, tant qu’il y en a des visiteurs francophones, j’y retournerais un de ces jours. Merci de tes visites régulières et des tes commentaires; j’en apprécie énormément...

Anonymous said...

Sally,
So now you know that the bald guy with the kid in his arms, who became an Augustinian monk at the age of 15 and ten years later, joined the Franciscan, is OF LISBON! For your further information, the March of Alfama (one of the Lisbon’s smaller administrative units) won St. Anthony’s March Contest for the third year in a row; and Alfama was the Sardine Heaven for the night of June 12th… Luckily, because the weather got worse after that...

Nazzareno,
Thanks. I loved your Rome blog. For some reason painters and architects say that Lisbon and Rome have very similar luminosity: the best! Though a bit dull today...

Lv2,
Aditi,
Thanks. The elephants’ fountain is quite odd. Even the residents found it bizarre when it was shown, according to the available information...

Marie6,
Thanks. The cake looked great; may I borrow one for Guida’s anniversary today!!

Nathalie,
Thanks. I also hope the weather improves in Sydney (one of my favourites, as I mentioned in the answer to Peter)!

Raghu Ram Prasad said...

very nice photographs...... thanks for visiting...keep on visiting

lyliane six said...

C'est amusant de connaitre mon pays avec les yeux d'étrangers (vous, Hyp et Peter),on le voit différemment et j'ai vu Madère certainement avec d'autres yeux que vous, car quand on connait un endroit, on n'y fait plus attention.
Je suis allée à Da Balaia en 1993.Mais je vais aller à Lisbonne et Porto que je ne connais pas.

Anonymous said...

Raghu,
I'll keep visiting!

Lyliane, merci.
C'est vrai que normalement on ne fait pas attention à ce qu'on connait bien. Ce n’est pas mon cas avec Madère, car je suis parti très tôt, en fait à l’âge de cinq ans... et ne suis retourné qu’une seule fois quarante et un ans après...
J’ai quelques photos de Balaia dans le post Balaia, Algarve (http://blogtrotta.blogspot.com/2006/04/balaia-algarve.html)...
Vous serez très bienvenue à Lisbonne!

Sigma said...

What a beautiful and charming place this is. For this old a city, this is remarkably well kept. We have so many ancient monuments and buildings in our part of the world, but unfortunately they are not half as well preserved.

Anonymous said...

Sigma,
There is also an economic trade-off in keeping your monuments; in the long term it pays back... Unfortunately the awareness of such a result is not widely divulged...

Dsole said...

Hey I really love the elephant fountain!!!! it's amazing! And the place looks reaelly beautiful in your pics! great trip!

Anonymous said...

Dsole,
the elephants fountain is astonishing; it's true that Hannibal Barca had already brought elephants to the Alps and that De Boigne spent some time in India, but anyhow, it's a surprise to find elephants in Chambéry...

Daniel Chérouvrier said...

J'ai connu l'un des anciens et jeunes maires de Chambéry, Francis Hampe quand nous fréquentions la Communauté ouverte de Montreuil après 1968.
Chambéry est une belle ville et dispose d'une bonne clinique pour les accidentés du ski.

Anonymous said...

Communauté ouverte après 1968 devrait être très intéressante...
Chambery est très belle, mais le ski... non, merci!