Unexpected Estate Living in French Chateaux Country

“Surprised by joy – impatient as the wind.”

--William Wordsworth, Surprised by Joy

As a youngster, I thought that an old country estate set among beautiful gardens would be the greatest place to live. The closest I ever got to one, however, was reading about them in novels.

I was as surprised as you probably are to find my wife and me as the sole occupants of a large and elegant country home in Normandy, France. There was a staff who came in to clean the house and take care of the lavishly landscaped grounds. Each room was filled with huge hunting trophies such as stuffed animals on the walls and skins as rugs on the floors. The rooms were also filled with gorgeous furniture that was so fine I was reluctant to even touch it. In every direction, beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers gently swayed in the breeze and beckoned from gently terraced fields. When we went into the nearby village, everyone seemed to know who we were and eyed us with respect.

It was almost like being lord and lady of the manor.

How did this all occur? It was a total accident as far as I was concerned. The year before, my wife and I had volunteered to serve as a host family for two French graduate students. Dominique and Yves were attending the masters program at HarvardLaw School where I was also a student. My wife and I enjoyed our time together with the students, and we continued to participate in the program in future years with other students. Our new friends knew that I had never been to France and very much wanted to go there. I had majored in French history in college and done original research from French newspapers for my undergraduate thesis. They said to be sure to look them up if we were ever in Paris, and they gave us their telephone numbers there.

By that summer my wife and I had saved enough to take a cheap charter flight to Paris. We remembered our friends, of course, but didn’t contact them until we arrived in France. We couldn’t afford to pay for the long distance calls from Boston which werequite expensive then.

When I did call, one of the men immediately invited us over to visit his family.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at a huge apartment with elegant furnishings on the Left Bank and had a lovely visit over tea that afternoon.

While we were chatting, our friend’s mother asked if we were traveling south at all. We mentioned that we planned to take a train to the Loire Valley, rent a car there and go see the chateaux (the French word for castles). She smiled and asked if we would mind taking a little detour to Normandy. They had a “little summer place” there that they would be glad to loan to us, and we could easily take day trips from there to see the chateaux. They just needed to have someone get their place ready for us.

Although we had no plans to go to Normandy, a free place to stay sounded very good. We were living in a disgusting Parisian hotel room where the floor looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in ten years. Not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings by declining the unexpected hospitality, we glanced at each other and quickly agreed to stay at their home.

That’s how we arrived to find ourselves as the sole occupants of a totally unexpected country estate. Our French hosts must still be laughing over our amazement when we called from Normandy to thank them for the remarkable gift they had given us.

Now, you may be thinking that you could not have the same experience. Why not? Every community of over 10,000 people probably has some exchange students attending local high schools, colleges or graduate schools. These students need a place to live, someone to help them and sympathy. If you don’t know any foreign languages, you can borrow tapes from your local library and develop a basic vocabulary that will make aiding the students easier. We can all help in one or more of the areas where exchange students want to be with local residents. Chances are that these students will welcome you to enjoy their hospitality in their country. And who knows what that hospitality might involve? While not every exchange family is a wealthy one, you are bound to experience warm and sincere hospitality.

Further, many towns, organizations, and church and temple groups have exchange programs where individuals and families take turns visiting one another in their countries. You live with your exchange family there, and they live with you here. Who knows what their homes might be like or what experiences they can share with you? The expense is usually modest, a bargain airfare during a time of the year when air fares are low and some food. If you have enough frequent flyer miles from traveling for your job, the tickets may cost you almost nothing.

Having been to Europe a few more times since then, I learned another secret for the live-large-and-free lifestyle. You can often stay in a country estate or a castle for less money than a chain hotel. Our family has done this in Scotland, France and Spain . . . and enjoyed every minute of it.

Not to be outdone, one of our children taught us an even better lesson. He has a friend whose parents worked in the diplomatic service. Naturally, these diplomats had a pretty nice home to use while representing the United States. The parents were often happy to invite their friends’ children to visit while they were in the country . . . and some nice diplomatic residences to enjoy visiting while they were serving abroad.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell