Wonderful Waddesdon Manor

Go Steve!  Kids and sweeties and longish distance car trips are not a good mix.  So en route back home from the Cotswolds Steve looked for a National Trust place we could visit.  We're members you know! Thanks Mum and Dad - brilliant present.

Anyway - the place of choice was Waddesdon Manor, it seemed to get a bit of a plug on the National Trust site so we thought "what the heck, let's give it a go".

So off we detoured to the glorious, divine, magnificent Waddesdon Manor.  And the photos are only of the outside.  Inside was a whole other story!  We hired audio headsets and were given a run down of around 30 of the most stunning rooms imaginable.

And as a bit of background about the Manor...

Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-1898) bought the Waddesdon Estate - originally nothing but farmland - in 1874. He wanted a country retreat built in the style of a Loire châteaux and engaged the French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur, to design something for him. The foundation stone was laid in 1877. The completion of the Bachelors' Wing in 1880 and the main part of the house in 1883 were celebrated with house parties of twenty guests.

Great attention was also paid to developing the Victorian style garden. The Parterre was restored and other 19th century garden features were recreated. More recently the Aviary has been renovated and the Coach House and the Stables converted into a gallery for the exhibition of contemporary art.

And so here it is, the magnificent Waddesdon Manor (can it possibly get any better?).

Art works in the garden

A bit of a laugh

Have a look here  if you'd like to see the exquisite interior of Waddesdon Manor.  Trust me it is worth it!