Château Royal de Blois

New sound and light show at the Château Royal de Blois. History and the château like no one has ever really seen them!

One of the first sound and light shows to be created in the courtyard of a French château, the Story of Blois (Ainsi Blois vous est conté) has been illuminating the site for more than 25 years.

In 2018, the Château inaugurated a new and exciting show using the latest technologies. More eccentric than ever, once night falls, immersive special effects and monumental projections take over the grandiose architecture of the castle. A collapsing château as it quakes before Catherine de’ Medici, or the Duke of Guise more alive than ever: love stories, tragedies and secrets gracefully flutter separately or simultaneously over the four façades during a unique 360° show.

Blois, the scene of a unique light and sound experience

In a veritable festival of special effects the Château Royal’s new Sound and Light Show quite literally brings the history of France to life. Once night falls, in an audiovisual production that is as captivating as it is striking for its realism, The Story of Blois (Ainsi Blois vous est conté) reveals the four wings and the genius of the great builders of the 13th to 17th centuries. Precise 3D modelling of the shapes of the façades to dress up and animate the architectural diversity of the place, remixed music, voices floating in space, video mapping, use of film-making processes, insertion of live action scenes and so on: the technologies used to design this novel set have enabled every eccentricity never before witnessed in Blois.

The story of Blois, a tale spanning 1,000 years of history!

After being the residence of counts of Blois and dukes of Orléans, and a favourite abode of seven kings and ten queens of France as well as princes in exile, today the Château Royal de Blois is inhabited by the memory of its occupants and its illustrious visitors. Video mapping, a technique that is able to recreate movement, combined with the insertion of scenes specially filmed for the new set design, reinforce the accounts of famous episodes from the history of France, in which the main characters seem to have been reincarnated. From the citadel of Thibaud the Trickster to Gaston of Orléans by way of the festive home of Louis XII and the Renaissance castle of François I: the 12 sequences immerse spectators in the turbulent chronicles of Blois, from visits by Joan of Arc and Ronsard to the murderous plots hatched by Henri III against the Duke of Guise.

The story of Blois, 45 minutes of visual and sound effects

Lighting effects that hug the shapes of the buildings – like flames from flickering candles, glowing red embers, façades embossed with gold and illuminated like an old manuscript, the romantic effect of climbing roses that invade the wings of the château, spectacular stained glass windows for Joan of Arc’s visit, rain streaming down the walls, and blood spatter after the assassination of the Duke of Guise – combine with immersive sound effects to thrust the audience into a unique 360° spectacle. Remixed and spatialized to adapt to the new narration, the music tracks and the voices of famous French actors Robert Hossein, Pierre Arditi and Fabrice Lucchini perform the words written by Alain Decaux to captivate the audience in a labyrinth of sound and light...

Official website: https://it.chateaudeblois.fr