For this Wednesday’s bloggers’ round-up, I’ve chosen Kathy Stanford‘s description of the highly original international garden festival at the château of Chaumont-sur-Loire, Denise from Bolton‘s visit to the Chantilly race course, which definitely seems a worthwhile excursion and Bread is Pain‘s very amusing story of an elderly woman jumping the queue at the Orsay Museum.
Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire’s International Garden Festival
by Kathy Stanford from Femmes Franchophiles, who has an ongoing passion for France and the French language
The Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire covers an area of approximately 32 hectares and is located between Blois and Tours in the Loire Valley.
The Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire is the foremost Centre for Art and Nature entirely devoted to the relationship between nature and culture, artistic creation and the impact of landscape, our heritage and contemporary art.
The Domaine not only includes the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire (15th to 19th century), its gardens and parks, but also from April to the end of October, the stunning International Garden Festival. In addition, there are many exhibits and installations by contemporary artists. Read more
PARIS DAY TWO – CHANTILLY
by Denise from Bolton, another francophile from the town of Bolton in the UK who spends as much time in the City of Light as she can
Chantilly racecourse is in a lovely setting, with the châteaux on one side, the forest in the distance. Even if you are not into racing it is a pleasant place to have a picnic, and the chateaux is worth a visit too.
20minutes on the train from Gare du Nord, it makes a nice day out. On a previous trip I watched an interesting dressage show in the famous Grades Ecuries, which legend has it, was commisioned to be built like a palaceby Henry, Duc de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, because he thought he would be reincarnated horse.
My husband had “bribed” me to accompany him, with a reservation at the stunning Panoramic restaurant overlooking the course. The set “outsiders” menu was pricey at 42 euro each, but was very good and the entrance fee to the racecourse was only 2 euro,( as opposed to a lot more for British racecourses) so we were not complaining. Read more
The Audacity of Age
Standing in line at the Musée D’Orsay with my Mother who is visiting. We are about thirty minutes back from the front of the queue. An old lady has recently shoved past us in line and we are watching in disbelief as she speedily makes her way through the five or six rows of people in front of us.
Mom: This is too good to be true!
Me: No way she is going to pull this off.
Mom: I think she is. Look at her go!
Oh what a surprise! I logged on to thank you for your hospitality and found my blogpost!
I feel very honoured. I am just an amateur blogger!
However I laughed at” the age of audacity” how true it is. I have noticed, this trip, just how much queue jumping goes on in Paris and being British this really goes against all my cultural training!……. but I might just try today… not sure if I look old enough to get away with it! (do I want to?)
Loved the breakfast. Thanks for inviting me and hosting it despite not getting home till 3am!
Love Denise. from Paris
Hi Denise, it was lovely to meet a new blogger! And I really liked your post on Chantilly. I have put it on my list. I’m seriously thinking of cultivating the queue jumping in my dotage. Despite my Australian background, I had never noticed the old lady queue jumping but I guess that after living here for 37 years, I had got used to it! Some queue jumping is seriously frowned on (in a shop or at the market) whereas it doesn’t seem to matter when you’re taking a bus or standing in line for an exhibition. Not to mention the sales which are a free-for-all.
Thanks so much for including my post in this weeks blog round-up. I really enjoy discovering new blogs. It was great to meet Denise at the bloggers’ breakfast you organised on Monday.
You’re very welcome. I’ve posted the link on the Loire ConneXion FB community.