Biltmore Village

Hello, today is Part Two of my husbands and my Romantic Getaway to North Carolina.  In my first post  I talked about our visit to the Biltmore Estate.  Today I'll show you pictures of Biltmore Village.  Believe it or not, George Vanderbuilt created a picturesque village just about a mile from his home for some of his estate workers to live in.  He wanted it to be a nice community for them, so he built a church, a train station, and a town square too.  Today, these homes are now gift shops and restaurants.  The houses were so adorable and the entire village reminded me of an Thomas Kinkade painting.  All the streets were lined with bricks and every corner had an old fashioned lantern.  At night the lanterns are lit up, and there are white lights strung on the eaves of every house and business.  In the picture below you can see one of the lanterns, the brick path, and a street trolley in the distance that gives tours.

Here is one of the homes.  I couldn't believe these beautiful homes were built for his estate workers.  I would love to live in one these today.

 A side view of the neighborhood.

 Another house.

 One of the houses was a Christmas Shoppe that sold Christmas decorations all year long.
 That's me in the distance standing on this beautiful tree lined street.

 This is a restaurant.  We found out later that President Obama and Michelle dined here when visiting Asheville.

Love the Azaleas in front of this house.

 That's my husband, standing in front of my favorite shoppe.  It contained mostly decorative pieces for the home and garden.

 And here I am standing in front of the sign of that same shoppe.

 And finally, if it were in my budget, I would have loved to have brought one of these beauties home with me.  They are glass blown ornaments that cost about $800.00  I love the color they bring to a garden.  We stopped and asked the shoppe owner if she was worried that they would get broken by the strong wind, and she "no, they are heavy and the wind goes around the round sphere".  You have to have a very strong cable to hold them up though!

Have a great day! Amy