Saturday, October 6, 2012

How to celebrate 50 years of living

I love parties. I love organising parties for other people. But in the case of my own 50th, I didn't want to organise a party for myself. I spoke to a friend, also turning 50, and she felt the same.

I have long been a Francophile- I mentioned that I wanted nothing more than to celebrate my 50th in France. Count me in, she said.

So after many months of searching I found this:














It is called Chateau de Siorac and you can see the whole delightful chateau at www.chateaudesiorac.com. It is close to Perigueux, the capital of the Dodogne area of France, famous for its river, castles, and more importantly, food. It is the truffle and foie gras capital of the world. And you can buy real champagne off the shelf at the supermarket!! For a song.

The chateau is owned by a couple who had been living (and working too hard) in NYC. They are not American and I'm not sure why that's important but it is. They bought and renovated the chateau, originally built in the 16th century, and live in a cottage on the grounds, giving up their very impressive careers for a life in the French countryside. I can see the attraction. It is beautiful and has been faithfully restored and has an interesting history. It has 6 bedrooms and bathrooms, a baronial dining room, several living areas and HUGE kitchen, also with room to seat 12. And it has not one but two towers. Believe it or not, leaving aside the airfares to get there, it was cheaper than two weeks at Noosa.

So The Lawyer and I had two heavenly weeks there- the first week with four other couples, and the second with my siblings, their spouses and some mutual friends.

We saw lots of ancient towns, bridges, rivers and castles.


























And we did a lot of this:





















Of course in order to leave, i had to prepare a four page spreadsheet of what was happening with the children, cook meals for them and Dear Old Dad, but it was worth it. We laughed. Oh how we laughed every single day. We ate beautiful food, drank beautiful wines, saw beautiful sights and carried on like silly persons.

It was the best birthday ever



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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