THREW CAUTION TO THE WINDS!

Back to the farm!

To briefly re-cap:-

In 1989 , we ( my husband and I) had bought this abandoned 80 roomed Chateau in the Loire Valley France, with a next to none knowledge of the french language- Moved in with the dogs and my 82 year old mother--- Renovated the Chateau over the next year and turned it into a holiday letting business by creating 15 self-catering appartments-- bought six horses -- traded successfully for two seasons, and were now contemplating purchasing a nearby derelict farm with its 170 acres with the intention of creating an 18 hole golf course!!!

We must have been totally in cloud cuckoo land!

NO! Not that one!

Yup! That is the one --up with the fairies!

Well, I suppose you would call us risk takers-- but we did have a plan!

Our plan was 1) to get as much information as we could about creating a golf-course and everything that has to be done leading up to it. Then, 2) to buy the farm and the land. Then 3) hire a golf-course advisor(?) to create it for us on paper. Then , 4) Apply for planning permission for the course and a club house ( the farm) --and finally, 5) we would then sell the whole deal ( farm and all) to somebody who had the money and ambition to go ahead with the course! Sounds simple enough doesn't it? Yes you are right - it wasn't!

However , we threw caution to the winds, and we bought the farm! Now that was fun at first, as we set about exploring all those acres that were ours, and climbing up into the attic of the old farm building and finding things, like original wooden clogs ( goodness knows how old they were, and what a pity I haven't a photo of them) and boxes of old abandoned pairs of glasses? Wasn't that a strange find! We wondered why they were kept, there were at least 50 pairs;

We also found two fantastic huge old pots which were full of some alcoholic substance, my cousin who was there at the time sampled some and thought it was brandy! We kept those pots and they stand today in our courtyard......

Is it my imagination or can I still smell the brandy ?


These are Chris' legs , bless, to give you an idea of their size -- the pots not the legs:)

Another great joy at that time was I could take my horse up there and ride to my hearts content!

You will perhaps have noticed by now that , referring to the plan, point one was not actioned at all, i.e. we took no counselling apart from buying lots of golf magazines and visited a few golfcourses about an hours drive away! Incidentally, neither of us had ever played golf, and I still haven't, enjoyable though it looks!



I try not to let my posts go on too long as there is always so much to relate! It is getting towards evening meal time now so I had better start cooking , we have fish tonight, so à demain!