Courances

Jeremy and I are lucky enough to get to borrow our friends mini-van while they are vacationing in the U.S. for a few weeks.  The first place we felt we were obligated to go was to Courances, since we were french-fried trying to get there the week before!  We stopped at the town Milly-la-Foret for lunch before heading to the Chateau.  It was cute and had one of the oldest food market stalls.  We are talking 1479!  Vendors still come a couple times a week to sell fresh everything.

We ate a typical 2 hour lunch overlooking the market and then had some delicious, authentic gelato in the middle of the french countryside.

The Chateau de Courances was unique in that it is still owned and occupied by two families.  So, it is only open on weekends and holidays for 4 hours/day.  You can go inside but we have seen so many that we now just go for the gardens and outside.  The grounds were beautiful but not as groomed as some other castles, so we felt like we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes and other bugs.  We ended up hauling out of the grass by the end of our little walk around the back of the chateau.

We liked the look of this chateau because it seemed a little more English looking, something different!

I love that they have a mix of different patio furniture....

Jeremy found the only un-mossy place to sit!

The "derriere" of the chateau

Doesn't this look like the perfect place to have a summer party with waiters walking around serving delicious hors d'oeuvres?

This is my favorite picture from the day.  This is a little creek that runs behind that house which is now a cafe on the grounds.

They even had a Japanese garden.  You weren't allowed to walk around in it though, which I don't like.  What is the point of an outside space if you can't walk around in it?  

Don't you wish that were your house back there?  I do!

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but these are mini - for kids!