At the request of regnaD kciN; a short pictorial essay regarding the Count of Savoy...

[Adsos Letter]

The Count of Savoy may have had a nice house:




Lakefront Property, no less...




And with some pretty decent views...




And, he may have had a decent fireplace to sit by with friends, to enjoy meals, and drinks and such... (while listening to the peasants being tortured in the "torture room"...




But...when the time came...he still had to trudge his way through these doors...




And find his way to this little room...




And set his Royal Butt down on this plank, and do his business over a hole emptying into Lake Geneva...and from the looks of that set-up, things could get mighty drafty (especially in Winter...)




:D :hi: (Sorry about the quality of those exterior shots...or any of them, for that matter...)

[Mira]

1. SEVEN people have seen this and no comments. I find that hard to grasp.

I take it that regnaD kciN had memories of the place and wanted them refreshed and then you obliged him with such a visual feast into medieval times and with such clever captions.
Well, that makes 3 of us really happy now.
It's a grand slam, that's what it is.

Next time I visit my folks, I will see if they let me borrow a car and run on down there to see this myself.
Thanks, both of you!

[Adsos Letter]

2. Thankyou Mira. Yes, regnaD kciN said this was the first real castle he had ever been to...

as an American youngster living in Switzerland; he asked if I had gotten any pictures of the "toilets" while I was there.

I thought I would put this little thing togeher for him (much more for nostalgia's sake than photo quality, I assure you...)

They actually had a 3-hole privy that was for guests, and it didn't have the metal strap across the middle (I have no idea when that was added). When I was in that room a few young teens were taking turns sticking their heads down through one of the holes, while a friend stuck a camera down the one next to it to take their picture; I missed getting a shot of that, mainly because of all the teenage mayhem, I think. :D

Same setup, though...straight into the lake.

[Mira]

3. Story time:

when I was 16 I spent a summer in Sweden.
I was at a summer camp, and they had an outhouse like that, but no Lac Leman under it, just the big deep smelly receptacle.
One day I could not find my, thick cardboard, return railroad ticket to my home.
I was a skinny one, and my Dad had not allowed me to wear and own pants (fundamentalist minister)
and I had borrowed pants from a person who was larger than me.

The people there, lots of teens from all over Europe, formed chains holding hands and we combed the meadows for the ticket, which I had had in my pants pocket.

To no avail.

Finally it occurred to me it may have fallen out while I was in the outhouse struggling with the too big pants I was not used to wearing.

YUP.
We found it.

It was swollen to an unrecognizable thickness, and stank to high heaven.

I kept it in sunlight the rest of the trip to dry out and de-stench, and when I handed it to the rail road employee in the train I turned beet red and had to avert my face.

He smelled nothing, and acted normal, and needless to say I have a real love-hate relationship with outhouses.

Now don't you love having a post from me with no pictures.
:)

[Adsos Letter]

4. What a great story! I grew up camping/fishing/hiking just about every weekend...

of my otherwise misbegotten youth; outhouses were often a luxury. :D

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. "I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." Mark Twain

wondering.....

:rofl: :rofl:

[Sheepshank]

6. amazing pictorial

European history can and does set off my imagination!

[Adsos Letter]

16. Thankyou Sheepshank. Switzerland is absolutely wonderful...

your skills as a photographer would be well served there! :)

[Adsos Letter]

8. ?

:shrug:

[trusty elf]

26. Mira, your story reminds me of another one ......

Years ago, while still studying at the conservatory, I was engaged to play an early 17th cent. Italian opera in a small town near Venice called Castelfranco Veneto.
My mother happened to be there, having traveled over from the States to visit me and to see the show.

One day she dropped a diamond ring that she had inherited down the sink in her hotel room.
A maid whom she had summoned to help her had the dumb idea to use a plunger to try to suck it back out ( ! ! ! ? ) , but succeeded only in pushing the ring down the drain and into the septic tank. :-(

Can you see/smell where this is going?

Needless to say my mother was very distraught, as this ring had great sentimental value for her.

Because the opera production was sort of a big deal for the town of Castelfranco (the opera company was from New York), the mayor of the town took to hanging out with us during meals in restaurants, etc.

Since I was acquainted with the mayor, I figured it wouldn't hurt to mention to him what had happened to my mother's ring ! ! ! I don't remember what I told him, but whatever it was, it must have made an impression on him, because shortly thereafter he had a crew of city workers with shovels piling up a small mountain of excrement from the septic tank, hosing it down in the driveway beside the hotel! :-( Miraculously, after about ten minutes of shoveling and hosing they found the damn ring ! ! ! ! :woohoo:

:D

Another story..... (which could have landed ME in deep merde ! ! !) The mayor's wife was trying to put the make on me all during the production! I was terrified that I would end up with a cement overcoat ! ! ! ! :scared:

:hi:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. you don't know that...

he might have just let fly anywhere he desired and had people to clean it up

[Adsos Letter]

9. That's all for me, Photography Group .

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.
--Mark Twain


:hi:

.

[JeffR]

10. Brilliant!

:)

[Adsos Letter]

13. I don't know about "brilliant" Jeff...but I had fun putting it together.

:D

[Mz Pip]

11. I think I now fully understand

where the term "water closet" came from.

Nicely done.:-)

[Adsos Letter]

14. Thankyou Mz Pip. As I noted in my reply to Mira...

there was also a "3-seater," but some teens were busy taking turns poking their heads down through one of the holes, while another stuck a camera into another one to snap their photos. I missed a shot of that in the general hilarity. :D

[Celebration]

12. Okay, this is wonderful!

Great end! And now, I don't have to go there, because I have already experienced it.

[Adsos Letter]

15. Thanks Celebration! And you should definitely go there if you have the chance...

my photos don't remotely do it the justice it deserves. Here is a Wiki-link to an outstanding shot of the castle, taken by a real photographer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Sun_Sets_on_Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chillon.jpg

:hi:

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. This is too funy. I will have to show it to the GreenKids. LOL

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Those are awesome,

and I LOVE the one with the door and the chair.

[Adsos Letter]

19. That's my favorite also, Blue.

:hi:

[Adsos Letter]

20. Anyone seen regnaD kciN around? Just wondering if he's seen this...

Since his inquiry about those privvies sparked the idea. :D

[Mira]

21. Do you suppose he fell in and swam away? N/T

[Celebration]

22. I bet he missed it

I think he popped in to submit his entry and probably didn't see it. Why don't you PM him?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

23. Or in this case...

BM him?

[Mira]

24. You so bad! n/t

[regnaD kciN]

25. Thanks for posting these!

As mentioned above, I first visited Chillon as a seven-year-old, (practically) just off the boat from New York. It was certainly exciting, after all the stories I had read, to actually be in a real castle (an experience you pretty much don't expect to have in the U.S.), but I must admit one look at the "facilities" was enough to disabuse me of any romantic notions of life at Camelot. ;-)

[trusty elf]

27. Thanks Adsos!

I've driven by there many times, but never have been able to stop and look inside.