Looking Inside le Château

I promised you that we would explore one of my favourite areas of Parc Disneyland, at the Disneyland Resort Paris. Well, today we're going to start! Inside le Château, on the second floor, is La Galerie de la Belle au Bois Dormant (The Gallery of Sleeping Beauty). A beautiful area which portrays the story of Sleeping Beauty using stained glass windows, tapestries and sculptures.

Each window or tapestry also has a small 'book' illustrating the scene that is being depicted, in French. The windows were crafted in England and overseen by Peter Chapman, who had previously worked on the restoration of windows in Notre Dame de Paris. While the tapestries were created in an area famous for their tapestries, Aubusson in Central France.

This gallery is very thematic, and with a lovely atmosphere it's a brilliant area to walk around. Climbing the spiral staircase to the gallery really helps to set the scene of being in a fairy tale world - a Fantasyland. It can get quite busy, however, so a good idea is to visit it first thing in the morning or towards the end of the day. Of course, it's best to go when there is a lot of sunlight outside, to really appreciate the stained glass windows. Once you have followed the story round, you exit onto a balcony, leading around the back edge of the Castle and to the edge of Fantasyland.

The picture above shows the main stained glass window, showing the start of Sleeping Beauty and the gifts being presented to baby Aurora. The picture below shows one of the final sculptures, Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip. Sorry that it's not the best quality - I was still learning the 'night' function on the camera.

I've got some more pictures to share, so pop back to see those tomorrow!