My recent trip to the Durdonge region of France (southwest, en route to Bordeaux) reminded me to what extent I remain a country girl at heart. After a 5-hour train ride through the French countryside, looking out over rolling hills and little villages, rivers and stone bridges, we arrived in the small city of Le Buisson. A shuttle bus was waiting at the train stop, and he took us to the chateau where we'd stay for the next 3 days...celebrating the wedding of Steph and Sly, two dear friends from the Café Latin family. We arrived to find those two, along with the guys from the café--Victor, David, Yann, Danny, and Guy--and Steph's brother and his girlfriend and friend. The chateau was covered in vines already turning bright red for the fall, a series of small out-buil
dings surrounded the main one, all in yellow-white stone, the back side of the chateau overlooked an enormous valley, mostly forest, with the wide Durdonge river cutting through it, the hillside opposite spackled with homes and farms and small field openings. Stunning.The guys fired up the grill, us girls set the enormous table under the tree overlooking the valley and opened bottles of wine, and we cooked out a lunch...followed by lounging in the sun around the pool. That night we all re-convened wearing masks. Yes, it was a masked ball...started with champagne outside the chateau, the cold country air cutting through our silk dresses. We had a dinner, followed by a dance with the rest of the crew w
ho'd arrived...about 60 or so...mostly all of the young friends.Saturday was the civil ceremony at the courthouse in the village. It's quite a beautiful (and obligatory) tradition in France; everyone assembles in the courthouse, the bride and groom are dressed up (the bride wearing a hat, of course), as is everyone else, and the mayor reads the official statues the govern the parameters of marriage in France. It's much more personal than it sounds. Following the ceremony, we all walked in the sun through the small village to the quaint and beautiful hotel at the bottom of the hill by the church. Awaiting were tables of pastries and tartes and chocolates, and of course, glasses of champagne and wine. We sat on the terrace and in the garden, in the sun, visiting and mingling until our stomachs were growling and we decided we needed to return to the chateau to fire up the grills. We all changed out of our clothes, the guys started making burgers, and we spent the rest of the late afternoon, once again, by t
he pool. It was then time to get ready for the religious ceremony. We all reconvened outside of the chateau, were given candles, and as the sun was setting across the valley, the ceremony took place. Stephanie was absolutely beautiful, not to mention incredibly strong, and we all held our candles and listened to the priestess and the two of them exchange vows. We all put our candles on the rock wall...champagne was popped, and two circus men entertained us with music, juggling, dog tricks, transporting one back in time 100 years when this type of entertainment was common faire for chateau gatherings.When the champagne and hors d'oeuvres were consumed, we moved once again into the other building for dinner. The dinner started at the same time as the France-England rubgy semi-final...so dinner started with half of the group singing along to the England national anthem (Steph is British)...the other half following up with "Les Marseilles", the French national anthem (Sly is French). The French lost...but dinner was animated b
y the game and loads of conversation and the consumation of fois gras (a spécalité of that region), stuffed guinea fowl, cheese plates, and of course, loads of desserts. Sly and Steph started the dancing, and once we got started, we didn't stop until 7am!Sunday involved a big brunch at the chateau for all the guests, and then nearly everybody left, except some of Steph's closest English friends and all of us from the café. So we changed into swim suits again, David found tennis raquets, we set up badmitten, played next to the pool, then Vict
or and Greg pulled out a bow and arrow...as Steph's friend Fogg said, "We are living Great Gatsby". Yes, exactly. It was increadible. Pitchers of beer and snacks and the sun and bathing suits ( or just bras and underwear....we're all pretty comfortable family at this point!)...until the sun was setting and it was getting cool. The chateau owner, who'd been cranking out the most amazing food the whole we
ekend, then prepared a dinner at the large dining room table. We all sat around the enormous kitchen fireplace (you could honestly STAND 8 grown men inside the fireplace)...drank an appératif...and then assembled for a 4-course French dinner. We all stumbled into the living room afterwards and passed out on couches and chairs watching a movie. With the exception of Steph and Sly, we all left together on Monday afternoon. Though separated with different tickets, we all assembled in the same train car, traded magazines and candy bars, retelling stories from the weekend and trying to catch a little sleep.The weekend could not have been more beautiful. I am so happy for Sly and Steph, as they are so clearly in love and have the support of so many people. And the weekend just confirmed for me, once again, how lucky I am to truly have this loving, fun, and sincere family-outside-my-family. And, the girls kept joking with me...saying that they weren't going to leave me there, no matter how many times I said, "Oh, I could definitely live here." And I meant it! The freshness, the clean air, the starry nights, nature and simplicity of life...even the sight of cows and crops and bales of hay...I was SO in my element. For many, many reasons.
