Winter Wonderland (Part2)

During Winter, these famous landscapes take on a very different appearance than the one they like to display in magazines and TV shows.
I am writing these posts to promote this amazing region where I spent most of my summer holidays as a child.

Remember, Paris may be a must-see if you are ever in France, but it does not define the rest of France... Each region has its own very particular identity, traditions, and landscapes. One would not go to New York and say they have seen or "know" the States, or make assertions regarding culture in England just by visiting London. There can be so much variety even in such a tiny country (to give you an idea of its size, France is just slightly smaller than the state of Texas!).
I would also like to show you a side of Burgundy you may never see - Winter can often be a "love-hate" relationship for most of us living far from the equator (ok, sometimes a bit more hate than love).
Remember, beauty can be found equally in all four seasons - if you only care to look.

So put on your scarves and gloves... it's a bit chilly.

We continue our walk from part 1 into the village of Buxy, where I caught a small glimpse of sunrays briefly shining onto this 18th century castle.

Who can tell me what the small structure on the left is?
HINT: I've written a post about these last week.

Two maps to give you a better idea of where we are in the world:

Map of France source	Close-up of Burgundy region source

Main gate entrance to the castle.
In Burgundy, you will find that villages, towns and cities have their fair share of castles, manors and mansions. Due to the high market prices and the enormous budget needed to maintain such massive structures, more and more of these are left to abandonment or have a hard time finding/keeping worthwhile owners.

On the way back to the center of the village, I walked through a small forest where I couldn't help but sing "Let it go" at the sight of all these frosty branches.

The church of Buxy, to the right, looks particularly gloomy on a cold Winter day.

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These rocks, called "Chaos" can be found higher up North in Uchon and are a part of a strange granite formation caused by wind and water over thousands of years.
They are very famous as they look as though they have been purposefully placed on top of each other. You can imagine they have been key elements to quite a few local legends over the last centuries.

It's really quite funny how beauty in the same landscape can vary from one day to another... if I were to show you what these vineyards look like on a boring typical (rainy) winter day, you wouldn't be very impressed.

Moss grows anywhere and all year round	Abandoned spiderweb - frozen in time

Chateau de Sercy - one of the rare ones which is still inhabited throughout the year, and restored bit by bit thanks to national heritage foundations created to help preserve and renovate old edifices.

This is the tiny village of Chenoves which some of you may recognize from the Autumn post I made a few months ago.

Below - roses which seem to have been trapped between two fast changing seasons.

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I hope you liked tagging along with me on my Winter Wonderland Walk through the region of Burgundy.

Do you live in a country where the first snowfall makes everything look magical?

What do you do to keep your spirits up in Winter time when the days shorten and the sun rarely shines?

All photos were taken with my Canon EOS 500D, Samsung Galaxy S3 (and testing out my mom's Lumix camera)

Please don't hesitate to leave comments, share ideas, upvote/resteem. I love to hear from all of you!

To check out some of my previous posts, click on the links below:

Winter Wonderland 1	Palong HillTribe Woman
Walk with me LISBON - Part2	Landscape Photography

_{Map Location: !steemitworldmap 46.7808 lat 4.8539 long BURGUNDY D3SCR}

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“Learning is not a race for information, it is a walk of discovery” - Jane Healy