The Beautiful Biltmore Estate

The friendly lion who greeted us at the door.

The gardens, nearest to the estate home itself. Such a lovely flower carpet....now I want one in my yard too!

I love the architecture of the balconies at Biltmore......they made me start daydreaming....which is unusual that any piece of architecture would do such a thing! haha



~ St. Joan ~

~ St. Louis ~

The old horse stables where we ate lunch. How cool is it that we ate where one of the Vanderbilt's horses ate at once upon a time?

French Dip.....more like Heaven on Ciabatta bread! Yum-o!

Ummmm......



Lily pads.......




This is the side view of Biltmore House from the Carpet Garden.




Now that's an estate. The man who designed the gardens and landscaping for Mr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, also designed the landscape for another large icon.......can you guess what it is? *Hint: it's in the middle of NYC*

The greenhouse and other garden areas are also very lovely. Vibrant crimsons and greens bring this seemingly dull place to life.

I have recently noticed that whenever and where ever I go on a trip I typically try on a hat. ;)

I love old tins! I have a few in my room....and while we were in a store in Antler Village (which is still on the Vanderbilt estate) I had to take a pic of them.
  • We arrived at the Biltmore Estate only to find the weather to be slightly overcast, but with a lovely temperature of 65 degrees. Fall was in the air...
  • I was able to truly appreciate all of the architecture on the outside and inside of the estate....and learned exactly what a cantilever actually means/is.
  • I was able to get a fairly decent shot with my camera of my favorite Saint....set in stone...she's lovely.
  • I got to glimpse, yet again, one of the loveliest libraries that I have ever seen. The ceiling is covered in a mural that was painted by the Italian artist Giovanni Pellegrini. The painting once looked down on a ballroom in the Pisani Palace in Venice. Mr. Vanderbilt had the piece cut into 13 long strips and then glued it and nailed it to the ceiling of the library. How awesome is that! The mural depicts Aurora the Roman goddess of the Dawn and is simply breath-taking! I would love to sit there in the library surrounded by the partial book collection (the Vanderbilt's had more than 23,000 books and only about half are actually kept in the library) and just gaze at Aurora and day dream forever....
  • I was able to pick out more of the Latin words and phrases hidden inside the tapestries and carvings of the Estate. Da~Pacem~Domine
  • While in the basement of the Biltmore House I glanced up at one of the walls and saw a portrait of Nike of Samothrace which was odd because just the night before I had done the 'Crown of Creation' post and used that art piece in the blog entry. Coincidence? I think not!
  • I ate inside of the old horse stables, and had the best sandwich on planet earth, also known as the French Dip. My mother, grandmother and I also shared a serving of Strawberry Shortcake which was superb....so much in fact that we had it devoured before I remembered that I hadn't snapped a photo of it!
  • I got really close to Koi fish at the courtyard garden pond (even snapped a pic of them), and no, I did not faint I am happy to report. Even taking and posting pics of fish makes me squirm....trying to face it though. (I am an ichthyphobic.....weird I know!)
  • I saw a woman cut leather the good ol' fashioned way, a man blowing a glass bulb, and another woman making a candle stick on her pottery wheel.
  • and etc.............
I so very much enjoyed my day trip spent at the Biltmore House alongside my momma, sissy, and Oma. I hope you all enjoyed perusing through what my eyes beheld... Have any of you ever been to the Biltmore House before? If so what were your favorite rooms? By far my two favorite rooms were The Winter Garden and The Library.  I cannot wait to go back to the Biltmore again....and next time I hope to take the guided tour...the one that takes you up to the rooftop.

Phew! I am so glad that I caught up...


P.S. .....and while there in the Garden Shoppe I tried Wassail for the first time...and I fell in love immediately!

8 comments:

  1. We've been to the Biltmore before during Christmas time and it's amazing! The HUGE trees they put up and decorate in that house are just fabulous! The library is absolutely awesome, I wish I could spend some time there....I was also so impressed with their dining room with those MASSIVE fire places and that magnificent table! Gloria Vanderbilt's room is stunning as well with all that purple and gold! It's really a cool place to visit, takes your breath away to think someone actually lived their life there!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful! Looks like a lovely place to visit, I haven't been on any fun trips like this since my family moved out of CA, there's just not a lot in MT when it comes to this kind of thing. Makes me want to go on trip, and see some new places!=)

    ReplyDelete
  3. So Lovely! I went once when in grade school, and cannot wait to go back!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a gorgeous estate! I love the history and the photos were so beautiful. :) Looks like quite the lovely place.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a beautiful place! I hope to visit there someday. My mom used to make Wassail in the winter, and I always loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So beautiful! Last year I was able to visit another one of the Vanderbilt houses and it was so impressive

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love all the pics, especially the one with the fountain in front of the estate! Just beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lynnie: That photo was actually not taken by me, but rather by my dear lovely little sister Mary!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.