After our strange day in The Twilight Zone and cider redemption at Rapunzel's castle, we headed, with a few apple burps, towards Chateau D'Aumont, where we would spend the night. Here is a view of the back of the chateau from the garden.I don't remember whether it is in Galadriel's guide and needed inspection or if it is new and she needed to decide if it would go into next year's guide. But if I have anything to say about it (and as you know, I will always have something to say about everything), it should be in the guide with a 4-girl rating. (I have no idea if Galadriel's guide has a rating system, so I'll just invent my own: If 4 of my girlfriends would like the place, then it's the bomb.)
We got lost getting there, which isn't unusual on this trip. Out in the country, mobile networks disappear and Mister GPS has a hard time finding his way. (Perhaps we need to find him a Missus GPS...or a guide dog.) But we finally got there and were greeted by the owner - a tall, elegant blond woman, and her two young sons.
First, we toured the guest rooms, which were located in a renovated building off the side of the main chateau. Every room was beautiful. It was modern, calm, quiet and comfortable. Here's a picture of our messy room, which I took the next morning. That bathtub was fab-u-luss. You can see pictures of all the rooms on their website. (The English translation is pretty terrible, but oh well.)Here's the very cool thing about our stay. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and this Chateau is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Galadriel asked Stephanie Danzel d’Aumont, as we sat in her chateau kitchen sipping tea, if it was possible that they had any food that they could throw together for us for dinner. We didn't care - cheese, bread, snausages. Whatever. Oh, and they wouldn't happen to have any natural wine, would they? I thought Galadriel was pushing our luck with this request. Madame d'Aumont looked a bit stressed. But she said she would see what she could do.
So, me and Galadriel unloaded our suitcases and then ran out to the back "yard" so we could jump up and down on the trampoline. Now, if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I won the prestigious award of Third Place Tramp when I was in Junior High (read it and weep). But I haven't been on a trampoline for 30 years, so this was going to be interesting. I remembered how to "mount" by rolling onto it and within seconds I was jumping as high as a mushroom and then maybe a carrot and soon I graduated to the height of a small dog. et voila. It was damn good fun. Galadriel joined me and we almost jettisoned each other off into the stratosphere, but finally "dismounted" without breaking our teeth.
Then, Galadriel wandered off to speak to the trees and I decided to speak to the big white bathtub in the sky. While I was lounging in a thick white robe, smelling like a daffodil, Galadriel took her bath. I could hear some rustling going on downstairs in the breakfast room and figured the d'Aumonts were setting up our cocktail weenies, Cheez Whiz and Tab. To hell with all of this "natural" stuff. I had ordered real food. I'm an American, damnit.
So, we descended to the breakfast room (which looked like this the next morning) and there, all set up as if by elves, was a really nice dinner. Fresh, cold vegetable soup, a baked dish of ham and cheese-filled crepes rolled up and covered with Béchamel sauce and shredded cheese and baked in the oven - a local specialty. There was bread and cheese and a chilled bottle of local rosé. I don't know if it was natural, but I liked it. Much better for my teeth than Tab, I must admit.While we were eating, naked under our fluffy robes, the owner's husband came in. Er. Hi! He was very cool, though. He works for Disney, marketing children's food. I'm afraid to ask what that means, but I can imagine that it's awful.
We slept like babies and the next morning the elves delivered a beautiful breakfast. We couldn't leave the place. We sat down in the breakfast room and geeked out on our Macs until Galadriel reluctantly said we had to leave. Onward and downward! Next stop - the 12th century Abbeye de Valloires, an amazing Japanese-style B&B, another gaycoco B&B and restaurant that we really liked and a not-so-amazing B&B where we stayed the night, hoping that the owner's wife wouldn't wander the house late at night, dressed in high boots and a dog collar and carrying a whip.
