I spent Christmas in Chateau du Loire, a small town 2 ½ hours from
Paris in the middle of the
Loire Valley which is a few minutes from
Tours (home of the famous bike race). My friend Anne-Cécile invited me to a Christmas day dinner at her parents house in the country and I was to arrive at 11am so that we could go bike riding to see the chateau’s that the area is famous for before dinner which would begin around 2pm. So the night before I’m trying to be responsible and get my fashion story for the magazine finished before the holidays. I was up till
4:30am working on it—despite the fact that I had to catch the
8am train to the
Loire Valley. Needless to say, I overslept and missed the
8am train so I had to take the
10am which got me into
Loire around
1:30pm… SOO bummed out.
Anne-Cécile grew up in a big old country house with lots of big rooms with high ceilings, exposed brick and wooden beams. There’s a beautiful garden and lake in her backyard. There were about 10 people present, all aunts/uncles/cousins of Anne-Cécile’s. None of whom spoke much English. But the interesting thing was, I met her cousin Sophie who, as it turns out, lives on 10th Street and 1st Avenue in New York! She works at an art gallery on the UES but because of visa issues was back in France for a couple months. She'll be returning to New York after New Years. It’s funny that we literally lived 3 blocks away from each other, go to the same neighborhood bars and restaurants (as we discovered) and probably passed each other on the street numerous times, but we end up meeting randomly on Christmas day in the middle of the French countryside. We’re planning to meet up when I get to the city next month.
As for the food—so delicious! We ate ricotta cheese stuffed mushrooms, foie gras, roasted turkey, potatoes, veggies, a special chocolate holiday cake and coffee. And of course, tons of bottles of wine and champagne to go along with every course. We had to leave to go back to the city right after dinner and I was sad to go. It was such a nice day and I was really bummed about not being able to see the Loire Valley. But her family invited me to come back in the spring to really see the beauty of the region. Apparently Anne-Cécile usually comes up with her friends from the city to BBQ, ride bikes, swim in the lake and just do nothing for the weekend. Can’t wait!
Oh, and Grapes called me that night around 11pm to see if I wanted to join him for drinks at Buddha Bar... would have been fun but I was leaving for Tunisia early the next morning and I didn’t want to have another oversleeping disaster so I declined…
Here are some pics of the Loire Valley... I wish I had taken a picture of the house, its so quintessential French, its adorable—but I totally forgot.
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