Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace was on our don’t-miss list mostly because it is on don’t-miss lists in all England travel guides. It is also the only country house in England that did not belong to a king or a bishop to be called a palace. It’s even on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Hence, we started our England sightseeing road trip from that place.

The palace, the residence of the Duke of Marlborough, is very grand and built in baroque style. I remember my first impression when I saw Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte in France, a very fine example of baroque style: it looked light, elegant and refined. I was kind of expecting the same thing from Blenheim, but it failed to deliver in terms of elegance and refinement. Alex says it looks underdeveloped as if someone gave up on it after second floor. I think that its main attraction is its place in English history (it is the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill).

However, if the exteriors of the palace were not very impressive, the interiors fully compensated for that. Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles interiors lost almost all of their furniture, whereas Blenheim is furnished and looks very habitable. In fact, the current Duke of Marlborough still lives there or at least visits it to entertain friends. We went on a private apartments tour and found out that the duke and his family live in a nearby village because it is hard to raise children in the palace. Indeed, it is too crowded (from all the tours and whatnot), so the lack of privacy could definitely affect family life. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to photograph inside private apartments, but they are not significantly different from the rest of the palace, except that the modern conveniences such as a TV set do not really harmonize with all the antiques.

The grounds around the palace are lovely. We especially enjoyed their rose garden.

In total, we spent about 3 hours at the palace but could have easily spent a whole day. We had some more sightseeing to do that day, so we moved on.