Chateau de Savigny (and, in praise of Laura and Franck)

Bien sur, we did end up doing something fun yesterday afternoon (after working, cleaning, cooking, and (for the kids) watching French television cartoons in the morning) -- we took a drive to an amazing castle about 10 minutes away, called Chateau de Savigny.

But I can't write about that without writing first about how amazing Laura and Franck are (note: I am not receiving any kind of kickback for saying these things. I am merely giving a sense of how many of our conversations here go: "can you believe how amazing Laura and Franck are?"). Seriously -- if you have ANY plans to come near France in the next few years, you should consider a week (or more) in one of their rentals. In addition to choosing from one of four beautiful home in beautiful villages, they have collected the best information for seeing the sights and for getting a real sense of this region.

For example, yesterday, we decided we wanted to see a chateau. So we looked in their folders and found their list of nearby chateaux to choose our destination. They had described the Chateau de Savigny as being a beautiful local chateau owned by a slightly eccentric man who has, in addition to the requisite vineyards, populated his castle grounds with 80 fighter planes, nearly 300 motorcycles, 20 fire engines, 2,400 model airplanes, 30 old vineyard tractors, 35 models of a particular kind of sportscar (the ABARTH, which he apparently used to also race) and more. They said it's a great place for adults and kids.

And it *was* amazing -- perfect for the kids and for the adults, and REALLY something to remember.

And then, in another section of their thick folders, they had suggested a pretty way to get there, from Magney-les-Villers through Pernand-Vergelesses (a village we want to return to) and on to Savigny-les-Beaune. And during the drive, we were overwhelmed with the take-your-breath-away kind of beauty that I don't think John and I would have stumbled upon unless we had lived here for years. We drove up and down twisty lanes (nerve-wracking, of course, but these were not as heavily traveled so some of the danger seemed diminished), past perfectly plotted vineyards and centuries-old stone walls, into villages with historic buildings hugging the sides of the street, and down into our destination: the castle.

The kids were thrilled. It looked just how a castle was *supposed* to look. There was a moat and there were towers and then -- wait -- are those fighter planes in the distance? Yes -- 11 Russian Migs (brought back memories of Top Gun), 13 aircraft from the U.S., 4 from France, and even a RCAF fighter jet along the way.We stayed until the place closed, leaving just enough time to buy two bottles of a red 2005 (Katie and Livie's year, which was an especially good vintage for this region and for us) and a promise to return (if only to do a wine tasting of the castle's own vintages).

Oh, and if that wasn't all good enough -- it was a beautiful day and today is even prettier. 

So --here's a bit of what we saw. It's hard to do justice to the weird juxtaposition of a centuries-old castle surrounded by modern fighter jets, of what must have been stables or storage at one time that now houses sportscars, of huge gathering rooms where knights and dukes and even kings might have walked now filled with model airplanes... but this is our best attempt.