“The Chateau Gaillard was so magnificent, and the postcards so abominable, that I stopped there an extra day, & did nothing but photograph, from 6.0 a.m. to 7 p.m. I took ten altogether, and if all are successful, I shall have a wonderful series. I shall have to start a book. Some of them were very difficult to take, and the whole day was very hard.”
Not so for me. I can snap away on a mobile phone. I just have to avoid the crowds, which are here in droves. I wonder if there was a single visitor on the day that TE Lawrence came. Here is a shot he took of the castle from the bank of the River Seine. This image was loaned by the Society of Antiquaries, who own a number of photographs taken by the young TE Lawrence.
See more about the young TE Lawrence and his photography. And see more about the Society of Antiquaries.
It’s an interesting observation of TE Lawrence’s that ‘the postcards were so abominable’. Creating a record of the castles and abbeys he visited was part of stimulus for his taking images. The 18-year old Lawrence wrote his letter above during his summer holidays between school and university (he was due to start studying History at Jesus College in Oxford that September or October). While he was later to use all the information and images he collected in his university thesis, at this stage he was visiting these castles purely out of personal interest. And already he was interested in publishing and writing.
He was probably also quite excited to be travelling with a camera which, along with the tripod and photographic plates, had to be strapped to his bicycle. The gear belonged to his father, who had taught him photography and was accompanying him. So far on his 1907 trip Lawrence had (probably) taken an image of the Roman amphitheatre in Lillebonne, one of Cathedral in Beauvais and one of Gisors castle (from outside the walls as it was locked up). Chateau Gaillard was really his first chance really to get to grips with a castle he knew he was going to love.
The image below was was taken from the bank of the Seine River, possibly at the hotel where he and his father were staying. He writes of the hotel as though he is suggesting that the rest of the family takes a holiday there one summer:
“The hotel is cheap and very pleasant. The Seine runs near the back door & the bathing is excellent, from a little wooded island in the centre of the river. … Also the scenery all along the river is exceedingly fine. Long strings of barges pulled by a steam-tug pass the hotel occasionally, and the whole place is over-shadowed by the hills with the ruin of the Chateau.”
Wherever it was taken, I was here to recreate it. I triangulated and tried this position and that. And found myself in the middle of a car park, flat ground that looked as though it might easily have been filled in since TE Lawrence visited a century ago. Hmmm. This was getting to be a bit of a theme. Each photograph I tried to take turned out to be impossible - at Gisors because I needed to fight my way into a lion cage, now because the water had been taken over by a car park.
So, next best thing, I looked for water. I blagged my way into a campsite - and then tracked the waterfront for the most likely spot, disturbing campers in their caravans and tent pitches, each neatly sectioned off between hedges.
As chance had it, the best angle turned out to be in an empty pitch, so I strode to the shore side. But then I was stuck. With all the waterfront foliage, there was no way I could get a clear view. So I clambered out along the trunk of a fallen tree and, placing my foot on some springy branches, leant as far out over the water as I could, in order to see around a bush. And there, arm outstretched, precariously balanced, finger cramped reaching for the ‘take’ button, hoping not to fall in or drop my phone, I snapped this.
