Chateau d'Oigny: Day 1

Upon arriving at the train station in Villers-Cotteret, we are promptly picked up by Vijay and Maureen and whisked off to the chateau, where we spend the rest of the evening relaxing and getting to know our castle-mates for the next week. This was our first view of the castle...

And some of the chateau residents...

Bronsky the happy dog

Pierre the Peacock

To select rooms at the castle, we drew from a lottery. Connie and I picked the last number, which was fine, there really wasn't a loser room in the entire place... although noone wanted to sleep alone up in the turret. We ended up choosing a room in what is billed as the children's house, across the courtyard from the main chateau. Children's House

What did we have for dinner on our first night in such glorious spendor? Chinese food! It was the only restaurant open on the Pentecost holiday.

Day 2

Today was another day spent enjoying the chateau, and getting to know each other. Total, there were 13 people in our group. We took a quick jaunt into town to buy some basic supplies (yes, the caseloads of wine were considered an essential!) and discovered Villers-Cotteret to be a quaint, quiet village with everything you could need-boulangeries, fromageries, charcuteries, epiceries, patisseries, and cafes on every corner surrounding the main square. It felt very "Beauty and the Beast"- ish... Disney version.

A statue of Alexander Dumas, who was born in the village.

The pork we picked up for dinner.

In the afternoon, Connie and I went for a bike ride in the country side, and reveled in the fresh air, beautiful fields and France! We somehow broke one of the bikes, but made it back to the chateau in one piece.

Connie and Kirin relaxing on the patio

Hanging out by the grill

Tim, slicing up the delicious grilled pork.

Vijay and Serena preparing dinner

Dinner this evening consisted of pork two ways- grilled and roasted, roasted potatoes, and a salad of butter lettuce and frisee with beet, celery root and carrot crudite.

A toast to our second night at Chateau d'Oigny.

We were lucky enough to have Maureen of Chai Consulting on our trip with us, and she gave us a great lesson this evening on how to identify and understand our wines. This lesson certainly came in handy for the rest of the trip, considering how much wine was consumed during our week long stay.

Our evening ended with Nutella and jam bruschettas, and chatting around the campfire in the courtyard.