28th October

I bobbed into Vendôme this morning to the supermarket. Provisions very low and no red wine left! Problem rectified and, on the way back home, I stopped to have a look in the estate agents window. There was a little “maisonette” advertised for sale, in Vendôme, for 34,000 euros. I love it here and I’m so tempted to go and have a look at it………..

Anyway, off to the Château de Cheverny today. The weather wasn’t brilliant as I set off but it wasn’t raining- just a bit dull. It’s around 11 degrees here. Poor Will (I spoke to him this evening) it was minus 2 when he set off to work this morning in Glasgow! Brrrr!

I think Cheverny has taken top spot as my favourite château so far. It is in Sologne, near Blois and was one of the first châteaux to be opened to the public in 1922. It’s been in the same family for 6 centuries and is still lived in today by descendants of the Hurault family, the Marquis and Marquise de Vibraye. It’s gorgeous!

Autumn seems to be celebrated in a big way here and the grounds, as at Chaumont, were decorated with all manner of pumpkins etc. The colours and designs were so lovely.

I do think someone had been a bit naughty with this one though!

There is a permanent exhibition to the cartoon character Tintin at Cheverny. Tintin’s creator Hergé was Belgian but he based Marlinspike Hall on the Château de Cheverny (minus the east and west wings) and so there is now a fabulous Tintin exhibition here. It’s really great. My brother Jim is a big fan of Tintin and so I sent him a message and some pictures – all the way to where he is working on the other side of the world. Technology again- amazing!

Then I went to the Jardin de l’Amour- or the garden of love……an exhibition of bronze sculptures by Gudmar Olovson who was born in Sweden in 1936 but came to Paris in 1959 and remained and worked there until his death in 2017.

The château itself is so beautiful. The rooms are just gorgeous. There are many events taking place this year to mark the 500 year anniversary of the death of Leonardo de Vinci and, at Cheverny, this takes the form of paintings being recreated in Lego bricks! There are also models of the château and some hounds on display which are all made from Lego. So clever.

I think that’s the one thing I didn’t like about the château- the hounds. They are kept for hunting and I just didn’t like seeing them behind the bars and with a “V” shaved into their coats. I’m not a hunt fan. They were huge dogs- bit smelly too. Not for me.

As I have already said, being ill last year really gave me the kick up the bum I needed to do this trip. Losing my licence was massive and getting to work and back from where I lived (and of course doing a really full on job in between that) took a big toll on me, both physically and mentally. Add to that that my lovely Mum was very unwell and I couldn’t get to see her and, yes, it was bad. My saviours (aside from the amazing people around me) were my headphones and music and, in particular, a group called Caravan Palace that Tom recommended to me. I will always equate the song “Dragons” with walking up from the bus to LSMP. It lifted me. I also listened to a playlist I’d made called “September” and on there are the songs that remind me of when my boys were babies. “Stars” by Simply Red for Rob and “Dreams” by Gabrielle for Will. These were the songs that were in the charts when they were tiny and I would dance around to them with them in my arms. I requested “Stars” to be played at Rob and Amy’s wedding and Rob and I had a little shuffle around the floor to it 🙂

One morning I was walking across in front of the art gallery in Leeds and “Dreams” came on. I sat down on a bench and rang my friend Alison. I can’t remember the exact conversation (maybe Alison can?) but it was largely around me wanting to come here to France.

Yesterday, as I set off to Cheverny, I felt the happiest and most at peace with myself that I have felt for a long time. And as I was walking along the path to the cafe at the château I heard a noise. I looked around and then I took my phone out of my pocket. Gabrielle was singing “dreams can come true” and Spotify wasn’t even switched on. I kid you not. Those exact words. Sounds a bit like mine and Helen’s double six dice moment does’t it? And a lot of you will, I know, smile and shake your head. But to me it was fabulous. It really meant something. So I celebrated with a delicious fruit crumble washed down by an equally scrummy hot chocolate!

As the clocks have changed here now I drove back for the first time in the dark- and it was raining too 😦

When I got back to Vendôme the church next door to me was all lit up and the bells were ringing 🙂

I had a FaceTime chat with Julia and a chat with Will. Two glasses of lovely red wine with bread and goats cheese and that’s me for the day.

Bonne nuit 🙂