Le Palais Ideal

In 2007 I made a journey to the Palais Ideal, a place of dreams built by one man, a village postman in Hauterives, France, who collected intriguing stones on his rounds and using these finds, commenced in 1879 to build the hauntingly beautiful palace in his spare time. Ferdinand Cheval labored for thirty-three years to bring his palace to completion and it is truly one of the premier sites of visionary art in existence, a site beloved of the surrealists and Picasso, and a place of pilgrimage for many artists like myself. The Palais is so intricate and detailed that it is difficult to narrow down the selection of photos and since I would like to explore it in depth I may dedicate another post to the images --if you'd like to see more.