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One of the great chimneys in Blois is emblematic of Francois I and his wife Claude de France -- whose tombs we saw early on in the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Claude was the daughter of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne. The ermine we see to the right is the emblem of Brittany to this day. To the left, we see the salamander of François I, his own personal symbol. In olden days the salamander was considered a magical creature in that she often came crawling out of a blazing fire. Born of the the flames themselves, there is no more appropriate symbol for the Renaissance king of France. In reality of course, salamanders were not born of fire. The simply crawled out of the logs where they lived when people put them to burn. |
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This page last updated on 6/26/2001 2:10:29 PM.