Monday 11 June

Maria was feeling unwell  today, the late nights and the excitement around the wedding most likely had nothing to do with it!  So we decided to spend the day recovering and try and catch up with our travel blog.  The weather was not looking good, and later in the morning it poured with rain.  It was quite chilly so we had to get a heater for the room.  There were two other couples in the hotel, but they had gone out for the day so the central heating was not on at this stage.

Maria took some photos of the hotel we are staying in.  Rachael and Alan have a great hotel and wonderful service.  It is an old building which they have modernised as best they can, we thought they have done it very well.  It is peaceful and fortunate for us, we are on the ground floor with a balcony.

 Maria loved how Rachael had set up the breakfast room, using traditional English style crockery, including tea pots.
 

The cottage where Christopher & Ludivine spent their first night as husband and wife

The chooks favourite spot next to the carpark

Having lunch between the rain periods

Pouring with rain in the morning

A little history about the chateau as told by Rachael.  Rachael and Alan have a background in the hotel industry, when they started a family they were looking for something different and Alan want to return to France to raise their children.  Alan is French and Rachael is English.

They were looking in the area of Saint Fargeau in 2004 when the Chateau became available.  It was ideal for redevelopment, constructed as a home back in the late 1800’s it had become run down and in need of a great deal of attention.  They also saw the need for accommodation as construction at Guédelon Castle (Wiki) was well underway and there we as a lot of tourist interest.  This presented an ideal business opportunity for them.  So they made an offer and purchased the property from the farm owner.

They had to move in as they needed somewhere to live, and redevelopment began.  It took 18+ months to complete and get the necessary approvals to operate as a 2 star hotel.  They also completed the redevelopment of the farm building next to the chateau into a new home for them to live in.

They opened the hotel in 2006 with most of their guests being international tourists and visitors to Guédelon Castle.  They were recently reclassified as 3 Star.

We were there for 10 days, the longest anyone has stayed with them, while we were there, they had at least 3 other rooms occupied and was full for 3 nights.

Maria loved Rachael’s homemade marmalade jam, we bought some jars to bring back with us.