Chateau and Country Life in France

A free download from http://www.dertz.in


Chateau and Country Life in
France

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Chateau and Country Life in France, by
Mary King Waddington
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Chateau and Country Life in France
Author: Mary King Waddington
Release Date: November 12, 2004 [eBook #14029]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHATEAU
AND COUNTRY LIFE IN FRANCE***
E-text prepared by Richard Lammers, Stephanie Bailey, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from images
generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France

(BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr

CHATEAU AND COUNTRY LIFE IN FRANCE
by
MARY KING WADDINGTON
Author of _Letters Of A Diplomat's Wife_ and _Italian Letters of a
Diplomat's Wife_
Illustrated
1909

[Illustration: A country wedding]

CONTENTS
I. CHÂTEAU LIFE II. COUNTRY VISITS III. THE HOME OF
LAFAYETTE IV. WINTER AT THE CHÂTEAU V. CEREMONIES
AND FESTIVALS VI. CHRISTMAS IN THE VALOIS VII. A
RACINE CELEBRATION VIII. A CORNER OF NORMANDY IX. A
NORMAN TOWN X. NORMAN CHÂTEAUX XI.
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER

ILLUSTRATIONS
A COUNTRY WEDDING A FINE OLD CHÂTEAU I LOVED TO
HEAR HER PLAY BEETHOVEN AND HANDEL THERE WERE
ALL SORTS AND KINDS FERDINAND "MERCI, JE VAIS BIEN"
LONG PAUSES WHEN NOBODY SEEMED TO HAVE
ANYTHING TO SAY THEN HE LIGHTED A FIRE I SUGGESTED

THAT THE WHOLE CHASSE SHOULD ADJOURN TO THE
CHÂTEAU SOME RED-COATED, SOME GREEN, ALL WITH
BREECHES AND HIGH MUDDY BOOTS PEASANT WOMEN A
VISIT AT THE CHÂTEAU SOLDIERS AT THE CHÂTEAU THE
MAYOR AND A NICE, RED-CHEEKED, WRINKLED OLD
WOMAN WERE WAITING FOR US THERE WAS ONE
HANDSOME BIT OF OLD LACE ON A WHITE NAPPE FOR THE
ALTAR THEY WERE ALL STREAMING UP THE SLIPPERY
HILL-SIDE ALL THE CHILDREN IN PROCESSION PASSED
THERE WAS ONE POOR OLD WOMAN STILL GAZING
SPELL-BOUND L'ETABLISSEMENT, BAGNOLES DE L'ORNE IN
DOMFRONT SOME OF THE OLD TOWERS ARE CONVERTED
INTO MODERN DWELLINGS CHÂTEAU DE LASSAY
ENTRANCE TO HÔTEL OF THE COMTE DE FLORIAN MARKET
WOMEN, VALOGNES OLD GATE-WAY, VALOGNES
[Illustration: A fine old château.]

I
CHATEAU LIFE
My first experience of country life in France, about thirty years ago,
was in a fine old château standing high in pretty, undulating, wooded
country close to the forest of Villers-Cotterets, and overlooking the
great plains of the Oise--big green fields stretching away to the sky-line,
broken occasionally by little clumps of wood, with steeples rising out
of the green, marking the villages and hamlets which, at intervals, are
scattered over the plains, and in the distance the blue line of the forest.
The château was a long, perfectly simple, white stone building. When I
first saw it, one bright November afternoon, I said to my husband as we
drove up, "What a charming old wooden house!" which remark so
astonished him that he could hardly explain that it was all stone, and
that no big houses (nor small, either) in France were built of wood. I,
having been born in a large white wooden house in America, couldn't
understand why he was so horrified at my ignorance of French

architecture. It was a fine old house, high in the centre, with a lower
wing on each side. There were three drawing-rooms, a library,
billiard-room, and dining-room on the ground floor. The large
drawing-room, where we always sat, ran straight through the house,
with glass doors opening out on the lawn on the entrance side and on
the other into a long gallery which ran almost the whole length of the
house. It was always filled with plants and flowers, open in summer,
with awnings to keep out the sun; shut in winter with glass windows,
and warmed by one of the three calorifères of the house. In front of the
gallery the lawn sloped down to the wall, which separated the place
from the highroad. A belt of fine trees marked the path along the wall
and shut out the road completely, except in certain places where an
opening had been made for the view.
We were a small party for such a big house: only the proprietor and his
wife (old people), my husband and myself. The life was very simple,
almost austere. The old people lived in the centre of the château, W.[1]
and I in one of the wings. It had been all fitted up for us, and was a
charming little house. W. had the ground-floor--a bedroom,
dressing-room, cabinet de travail, dining-room, and a small room, half
reception-room, half library, where he had a large bookcase filled