The Chateau

After leaving the farm, monsieur, S and I stayed the night in the charming Burgandy town of Saintes, before heading to Nantes to rendezvous with E, who had been travelling in France on her mid-term break.  We met E at the train station and spent a blissful afternoon together wandering Nantes old town.  E had a ticket to a music gig that night and after dinner I found myself doing what I have long been familiar with at home....delivering teenagers to music venues and collecting them late at night.  I  enjoyed the opportunity to drive around Nantes late at night listening to my newly acquired Chansons Francaise cd.  E  enjoyed the gig and kept me entertained on the drive home with her  interesting comparisons between French and Australian gigs.

From Nantes it was six hours drive to the chateau that monsieur had rented for us all for a week over Easter, and only six hours until we would meet up with the newly engaged couple!  We were excited to arrive at the chateau and to all be together again and to also have brother-in-law B from Carlilse join us.  It was an interesting six hours - our expanded touring group of four tested Cecile's capacity of people and luggage; 28 degrees and a traffic jam on the autoroute which had us progress only three kilometers in 60 minutes;  one passenger with a sore throat and developing temperature and another who had a mild claustrophobic attack in the back seat of 2-door Cecile!

Despite the challenges of the journey we arrived at the beautiful chateau at the arranged time of 4pm and any discomfort was immediately forgotten when L, PJ and B arrived and our group for the week was complete.  So lovely to see beautiful L and PJ - they looked so radiantly happy.  And so lovely for monseiur to have some male company -  a change from our usual family holidays!

We made a visit to the supermarket in nearby Hesdin to stock up for the Easter week ahead - French wine, champagne and ingredients to indulge our desire to try some Julia Childs recipes in the large and well equipped country kitchen.  By the time arrived back at the chateau  we were seriously concerned about E.    She was weak, her temperature was horrendous and was not responding to panadol, her throat was so sore she could not speak or swallow.   Unanimnously we agreed that it was too late to find a doctor, and friendly locals provided us directions to the nearest hospital.  At 6pm on Easter Saturday we arrived at CHAM - Centre Hospitalier de l'Arondissement de Montreuil-sur-Mer.

The Chateau

Spring lunch

Dancing and cooking, we did lots of both

French doors thrown open - we settled down to Easter dinner.

Happy Easter!

Games in the garden.

In the bulbs at the Jardin de Valloires

The local restaurant, opposite the Chateau. 

The beautiful Abbaye de Valloires, Argoules.