Hosted by a Baron & Hunting Hound “Demonstration”
We should have left at 6:30pm but you-know-who were a few minutes late again so conversation happened about times again.
We headed over to Chateau de Champchevrier which was about a 30 minute drive. Upon arrival we were greeted by the baron, his son & daughter-in-law along with their two boys who were dressed as knights. We were given a glass of champagne and some passed appetizers while the baron spoke to us all.
We then began the Hunting Hound Demonstration which was basically a march of the French/English hounds to a Stag Skin and then the skin was removed and their food was underneath. There were French Horn players showing off the different songs which mean different things during a formal hunt. We then got to watch the hounds eat and then it turned into some dogs misbehaving and peeing on each other. I was actually kinda disappointed in this as I thought we would see how they interacted to the music or go out to the fields, etc. The hounds are gorgeous though.
We then were led inside the house where we toured some of their first floor. After I took one photo, we were asked not to take photos for ‘insurance purposes’ so here’s my illegal picture:
Their home hosted two Kings before the French Revolution but they didn’t have too many problems during the Revolution or the World Wars there somehow.
We then were led to the dining room for dinner. It was a set three course menu. The chicken was pretty decent as was the dessert. The salad was just ok but I’m not a raw tomato fan.
After dinner, we saw the original kitchens before we headed to the bus where headed back to the hotel for the night. This is where I rearranged our luggage so we were no longer mixed up between the two. During the bus ride back I had asked our tour guide where would have best laundry and was told none of the hotels have guest laundry available so we would need to pay to send stuff out or do it ourselves in the sink. Guess what I did that evening with our unmentionables or my husband’s running clothes.