Two kilometres south of Amboise, the curious Pagode de Chanteloup was built between 1775 and 1778. The ‘Duke of Choiseul’s Folly’ or ‘Friendship monument’ was built after his exile from King Louis XV’s court as a token of his gratitude towards his loyal friends who stood by him. Clamber to the top for glorious views of the surrounding park and the forested Loire Valley. Picnic hampers are sold in summer, and you can while away the afternoon larking about in a rowboat or playing free outdoor games.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.