Merci FRANCE!
THE LOIRE VALLEY IS LIVING UP TO ITS LUXURIOUS PROMISES FOR KERRE
The days are long in France. The sun doesn’t go down until after 10pm and rises around the time the cocks start crowing here at Chateau de la Caillotiere in the Loire Valley.
It’s been absolute bliss. When Sarah first suggested last year that we rent a chateau for a family holiday, it seemed preposterous. I grew up in small-town New Zealand. A weekend at a hotel in Auckland was flash. The notion of renting a castle – in France, for heaven’s sake – was not something
I’d ever considered. But Sarah, who is married to my daughter’s dad, and is a friend to all of us, had done her research. She had compiled a list of suitable chateaux that would be large enough to accommodate myself and Tom, Sarah and Alastair (my daughter’s dad), Kate (my daughter), her husband and baby Bart, Kate’s sister (my goddaughter), and Sarah’s mother and Bart’s sort of great-grandmother who were also coming to stay.
There are also enough rooms for various people to drop in and out during the time of our stay. She had done the sums and had worked out that a three-week stay in a chateau was much less expensive than three weeks for all of us in a nice hotel. It made perfect sense for us to stay in one place because of Bart and so the idea took root, reservations were made and, six months later, here we all are with our mad, blended, extended and mended family together under one tiled and turreted roof. Chateau de la Caillotiere is everything it promised on the website. It is a vast family home, complete with servants quarters, a chapel, drawing rooms and a grand dining room. There is a stunning swimming pool, a tennis court and beautiful tree-lined grounds where we have enjoyed picnics in the shade.
The kitchen is splendid, and it’s perfect for my son-in-law and I who love cooking. We get the freshest produce from the local markets and high-quality meats from the village butcher; it’s so easy to eat well for very little in France – or at least, this part of it. We’ve all put money in for a weekly shopping budget, and we’ve really spent very little on food and drink, despite the fact we dine like kings.
The locals are hospitable and helpful, and a combination of my schoolgirl French and their school room English means we can negotiate any transaction. However, it’s been difficult to explain our family set up. When the shopkeepers comment on how beautiful Bart is, and ask how we’re all related to him, we’ve given up telling the long story. Sarah and I have settled on belle-soeur, or sister-in-law, as our official title while in France, and that makes things simple. One week down and everything has gone so smoothly.
The real joy is being able to wake up with our grandchild and spend all day every day with him, marvelling over him and sharing the child-minding duties. He has loved roaming around the soft grass of the grounds and is fascinated with the caretaker, Tony – or more specifically, his tractor and haymaker. Every night, before our meal together and while Bart sleeps soundly in his wee room upstairs, we remind ourselves how lucky we are to be here together in this beautiful place. It seems extraordinary and we certainly don’t take it for granted. We’re appreciating every single minute.