The Biltmore

One of the reasons I've been away from the blog is that Francisco and I took a little tour through the south--Nashville, Asheville, Charlotte, and Charlottesville (with a stop for lunch in DC on the way home)--to see friends and cities. Really, sadly, the main place that I took pictures was in Asheville. The first thing we did when we arrived was tour the Biltmore

Sadly, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside, and outside it was raining, so I just sneaked some pictures from underneath the umbrella.

The house was interesting. It was very American--even the price tag. In Europe, there are plenty of lovely homes, and it isn't too expensive to visit them. In America, gigantic houses are not the norm, so you can charge an arm and a leg. (Plus, it felt a bit like Disney World--there's a deer park and a winery and an inn on the property, all for additional charges. They try to take your picture as you're walking through the house and sell it to you at the end, pasted on t-shirts or mugs or endless other souvenir options.)

The house is also different from European estates insofar as it was built from scratch by one man with a lot of extra money, by one architect and one landscape architect (who also did the Capitol grounds and Central Park, among other projects). In Europe, the architect is often less important, because these estates were made by many architects over many years.

The inside was amazing, but rather hodge podge: the dining room tried to look like an over-sized setting for a medieval feast and added in a pipe organ and some chairs that look like church pews.

There were loads of engravings on the walls throughout the house--Francisco speculated that their more valuable art was sold or perhaps the house was never fully decorated (several of the rooms were unfinished).

The library was spectacular, as were the views. And I love how the Biltmore looks from the outside--although that facade was evidently put on after the house was built with traditional methods of the time (including steel).

Apparently when George Vanderbuilt built the Biltmore (ha!), he also decided he needed a little town at the foot of the hill where he lived. So he built one of those, too.

Lovely old greenhouses.