Day 4--Chateau de Chillon

 After the lake you'd think we would have been tired and needed a rest, but there is no rest when exploring, so off to our next stop we went. We were just a few minutes drive from the Chateau de Chillon, which is one of the 8-9 castles on the shores of Lake Geneva. I was so irritated that they had some refurbishment work going on, really cut into my ability to get a great picture of the castle.

 There were so many nooks and crannies all over this castle, we could have spent hours and hours exploring.

 The Great Hall, was also accompanied by a cook book from one of the chef's that lived and worked inside this very castle. For me nothing beats the entire wall sized fireplaces in these castles. Providing the only heat I can't imagine being the guy that had to be in charge of those, such a mammoth task.

 My favourite little treasure, okay one of the favourites, was this room that had chests from throughout the centuries. They had some dating as far back as the 10th century. I loved the detail of the dragon or whatever creature that is suppose to be acting as a lock on one chest from the 15th century.

This was the Lord's chamber that Taylor and Brennan are playing in. When I first went in I thought to myself, "why is there a giant pulpit in this bed chamber. Then we soon realized that is was a fancied up heating source. The coals would be placed in there and heat up the whole of the structure, making the heat radiant that much more.
 One of the other gathering rooms we went to had this gorgeous art feature on the walls. Different shields and crests adored the walls, I wouldn't have minded putting something like this in my castle when I get one. ;)

A family favourite past time, using the toilets in the castles. 

We could not stop laughing at the phrases and pictures they had on display in the garderobe. I wish I had a picture of them all, but this seemed to be the most fitting for certain people in our family, both immediate and extended. 

Caught Carter playing and just love that he LOVES castles so much. 

 I really love the Chapel, because is was one of the better rooms when it came to original features. Including the ceiling paintings. No picture I have is ever going to give it justice, but it was so peaceful and serine in there. The paintings were very faded, but you could still make out what most of them were, and it made it that much more beautiful.

Another heating source, they really were fancy ways of heating the rooms. 

 Mason having a little rest. We think he was a little tired from the excitement at the lake, he kept wanting to sit on the different benches throughout the castle.
We also found more toilets. I mostly love that there are two of them, as if that was expected and normal to sit right by someone else. Can't imagine being that close and personal. :) Mike find of the exploring was this trunk that had the most intricate design for a lock. If you can get the picture and zoom in you might be able to see some of the detail in the lid that made up this amazing craftsmanship. You'd think we would have got a close up, but it wasn't until we were looking through the pictures at home that Mike said, "What I didn't take a picture of the lock itself!"

We saw a sweet looking couple and noticed they were speaking English so we jumped on our chance to get one big group shot. This was the dining hall, and there was plenty of room for us to fit. We came to find out that the couple we asked were on holiday from Utah and were also members of the church. What a small world. :)

 Mike was trying to be 'sexy' I don't think we pulled it off that well. :) We were waiting for the kids because we wanted one more family shot--they were pretty much done with pictures at that point.

Couldn't stop the giggles when Toni wanted a picture with her and Jacob. Jacob sat down on the other side of the window seat and we were debating on 'background' our choices were 'cute little window' or 'scaffolding', Jacob just didn't get why the choice was easy, his choice was clear.  Then Mike and Jacob decided they also needed a 'couple' shot in the window seat, mostly because they like to make fun of Toni and I with our demand for pictures.

I don't know what I was going for, but Mike was clear on his purpose.