If it involves a driving along French country lanes, small stone villages, a brocante and food shopping, count me in!….. Livonne

Just after I signed off last night, I got up and put all my newly washed clothes away and then watched a bit of YouTube. Just as I turned it off, my son phoned, not realising the time, but all was good. I was awake anyway. Then after I hung up from him, the other son messaged. So by the time I finally lay down to sleep, I was wide awake. It took me a while to get to sleep but I finally did.

About an hour later I woke up again and took ages to fall back into slumber. Then at about 4am, the chateau door suddenly slammed shut so loudly that of course I woke up. Someone mustn’t have shut it properly when they came in and the wind caught it. After that, sleep was near impossible, though I did doze on and off till about 6 when I finally fell into a dead sleep till 8.30am.

I was too tired to get dressed so came downstairs for a cuppa in my pyjamas and Mickey Mouse oodie. Not the most beautiful look in the world, but they might as well get to know the real me. That first cup of tea is always the best. So I slowly relished it and then when the fresh goods from the Boulangerie (Bakery) turned up, I had a bite of breakfast. We got ready to head into the village for Gary and David to do some grocery shopping and for us to look around the few brocantes in town.

A bocante is like a thrift shop or even a market or garage sale I think. So I was really looking forward to it. In the van, we headed through the country lanes, into Fresnay-sur-Sarthe which is just gorgeous and has a few brocantes. We got dropped off in the main area of the stores and started to find them, but they were all closed bar one and that didn’t have any clothing in it. We wandered into a small Atelier (studio) and although it was private and closed, the wonderful artist, Nathalie, made us feel welcome trespassing on her time and space. She illustrated children’s books as well as doing paintings with other bits added. Her work was so beautiful. She also does felting which was so whimsical. I loved her stuff. It was fairytale and magical.

She had perfect English as she had lived in the UK and the US and had worked for Dreamworks and Disney. Wow! What a happy accident to walk into her studio. I googled her when we got back to the Chateau and found that she had worked on Pocahontos and Space Jam, favourites of every kid at the time my boys were growing up. What a privilege to have met her. If you get a chance, look at her website, Plumes et Cie.

She told us that the brocantes probably wouldn’t be open until Saturday, so we said our farewells and started to wander the narrow alleys and streets, admiring the archetecture and beauty of the town. A cat decided to follow Tania around but I think it was well known around town for being a bit of a flirt as others seemed to stop and greet it as they walked. We then just sat in the square and watched the never ending stream of people going into the Boulangerie to buy bread. It really is almost a religion here. They take their bread seriously. So we watched the bread hunters while we chatted between ourselves until David came back to get us. It was starting to really cool down by then, so we were glad to get into the car and back to the Chateau.

Today I am so tired and really can’t begin to get to work, so Cecile and I climbed all the way up to the turret to have a look in there (because that’s what you do when you’re tired) and see the view from the top of the chateau. It was worth the walk up the stone staircases and the tiny narrow spiral staircase leading into the gorgeous little turret room at the top. The view was magnificent from there. I felt like Rapunzel as I stood in there and imagined her throwing her hair to the ground to allow her Prince Charming to climb the round turret and rescue her. I do hope she liked skinny men, because she would have had an awful headache if he’d been a heavyweight beefcake hauling himself up using her hair as a rope.

You will all get sick of my photos from this place and honestly? I don’t care. I can’t get enough of it. Everytime we drive down the driveway to get back here, I can’t wipe the smile off my face. It is magnificent. But anyway, I took heaps of photos from the turret and then we headed over to have a look at the chapel. What a little piece of serenity. The stained glass windows and beautiful old religious statues all felt so homely and peaceful. There was a model ship hanging from the roof which while beautiful, seemed out of sorts with the reverence of the chapel. Then we tried to work out what a screen attached to the wall was and we think it was a confessional with no privacy but I suppose with your own chapel, you don’t need to worry about being disturbed while you share your secrets with your priest.

By now, I had lingered over breakfast, lingered again over lunch and when I did go over to the studio, I left my glasses in the bedroom so I decided to call today a lost day (not that it’s ever a lost day when you’re wandering in France or living in a chateau) and poured myself a glass of wine (of the wine roulette variety) to enjoy while I sat in the quiet, just listening to our evening meal being prepared by Gary. Ahh this is the life.

After a while everyone started to come in. Dinner was nearing and the cold was really settling in. The wind started to get up and everyone was feeling it tonight. The girls had another game of pool and then before it could be finished, dinner was ready. Tonight’s offering was some delicious lentil soup then chicken piccata, parmesan risotto, beans almondine and a beautiful fresh salad filled with fennel, strawberries and oranges with a yummy dressing. There was not a noise at the table as we all tucked into that meal. It was beyond tasty.

We had some discussion again around the table and it’s good to hear everyone’s stories come out. I think everyone is starting to really settle in and are being inspired by what’s happening around them. It’s fantastic to see. I will have to get myself together tomorrow and be more motivated than I was today. But regardless, I’m loving my time here. It is a dream come true and then some. I’m off to make up for the sleep I missed out on last night.

Happy catching up on sleep if you need it…. Livvy xxx