Highlights from our May 6-16, 2022 trip to France and Chateaux Lalonde. Enjoy. Mark Holler and Nanette Solvason.
Our apartment on Rue du Roi de Sicele #48 in the Marais district (the Swamp). When we woke up at 3:00am in the morning one day with jet lag we noticed an occasional rat in the street darting around the garbage cans so Nanette decided to try feeding them cheese from our second floor window. Sure enough they spotted the cheese and ate. it. We have video proof if you don't believe us. On the right is the Tiger Sugar store that sells tiger striped drinks loaded with sugar and cafeine.
Notre Dame, A long way to go to recover from the fire but still a monument.
Mont Martre, Sacre Coer.
Musee D'Orsay. Nanette went while I continued my flu recovery. She had a great lunch in this awesome dining hall. Don't tell anyone we didn't get to the Louve.
Dinner with Agnes and Renato, Nanette's old friends from Graduate School. They toured us around the left bank/latin quarter/St. German de Pres. The next night Agnes toured Nanette around some more catching the Eiffle tower while I slept trying to beat my case of the stomach flu.
Dinner at Bofinger, an Alsacian Restaurant since the Golden Age. They seated us front and center due to Nanette's fashionable Spring appearance.
Versaille's Hall of Mirrors. One of the most iconic places on the planet.
The Chateaux
This is the corner of the Chateaux where we stayed in the second floor Chambre de Persia. Awesome big room, high ceiling, spring breeze, birds singing at sunrise. The chateaux is on a cul de sac with no road noise whatsoever.
Here's another view of the Chateaux from its walled garden. I like the clouds in this picture. There is more humidity here than California. The weather was perfect although warmer than normal for May.
The Forest at the southern end of the lake, Bird song and babbling brook. Peaceful paradise.
This road is actually a dam which has the ability to block the stream and form a lake to the left as has been done in the past. At the moment the gate below the bridge is open allowing the stream to flow unimpeded. You can see the stream flowing away along the base of the retaining wall. On the right we are farther down the road on a morning walk through the French Countryside which now has new meaning for us. The flora here reminds me very much of where I grew up in the Midwest of the United States, Wisconsin. Very green in the spring and summer. Dairy cows, pastures, cheese! Many of the same plants and wild flowers.
This is a view of the lake side of the Chateaux and its Chapal from the road on the dam. Imagine the lake full, floating on a boat with this view. The stream expands out here to flow across the lake bed everywhere providing habitat for a multitude of frogs which serenaded us each evening. This view communicates to me that the original developers of the Chateaux some 500 years ago had a good sense of the land and sited the Chateaux perfectly within the natural landscape. This is one of its properties that makes it worth restoring. Another is its bones, The three foot thick stone walls which show no sign of cracking or settling after 500 years and a couple of fires. The thick walls also provide a massive thermal mass which dampens daily temperature swings inside the Chateaux especially in the heat of the summer. No air conditioning is required. It's a special place. Not hard to fall in love with.
Our Room, the Chambre de Persia. Below, Nanette thinking she had an appetite while recovering from the stomach flu. This was her last bite of the Duck that Natty was so kind to bring us in our room as we tried to keep the stomach flu from spreading to other guests. It seems we were successful. We joined all the guests the next night for an exciting dinner and birthday celebration. On the right is Her Royal Highness resting to get well. We did feel like royalty but, more than that it felt like visting family.
The Irish delegation celebrating two Birthdays the next night.
Amory's workshop. I'm Jealous. I would love to spend time there helping restore the Chateaux. Its a jem, sited perfectly, worth investing in.
Limoge Porcelain factory. We drove an hour and a half through beautiful French contryside to get here. We couldn't find the little boxes we were looking for.
When we visited Chateaux Lalonde we participated in the evening dinner and were part of the daily vlog, proof that we were actually there. We show up near the end of the video at the 26:30 point. Its in the episode of the Chateaux Diaries called "Saving our Relationship". You will encounter some You-Tube advertising. It shows the same content as my shorter screen capture above titled Lalonde Dinner and a lot more from that day.
I don't know if it is possible to fall in love with a country but, I feel like I did. The land, the history, the art, the food, the language and the grace of the people, even the newcomers combined to give me the feeling. I'm sure my experience isn't a fully representative sample but, it produced the feeling nonetheless. Je t'aime La France! Mark Holler
Last edited 5/18/22 M.H. The Family WebsiteNote there is no advertising, subscription, application download required, cookie storage or AI monitoring your clicks and dwell times on this site. It is served by a computer in my office.