How did a château find us?

Or what can happen when you dare to do the impossible.

In a recent podcast, the hostess asked me,

“How did you find the property for the Camp Château summer camp for women?”

The answer is, it found us and made us fall in love with it.

This is me, with my two daughters, my non-binary child, my granddaughter and two of my children’s partners. We are standing beside a 12th century château, with a stunning view of the valley behind us and a rainbow sweeping across the sky (its actually coming out of my left ear — I was so blissfully happy in that moment that perhaps I manifested it?).

This picture captures a magical day for me, possibly the most magical day of my life.

By the time this photo was taken we had all already fallen in love with the château and its twenty sprawling acres and its beautiful farmhouses and outbuildings and its attics and its dungeons and its history and its splendour and all of its promise. We had only been there 3 days but we knew there was something special happening.

I have always wanted to own something in France and I have always dreamed of running a summer camp there. Every Sunday, an email would arrive on my phone from frenchproperty.com and one day in late Spring of 2021 this beautiful property popped up. Of course, it was beyond something that I could ever do. I am not someone who has the financial resources to buy a château. But … fortune favors the bold and if you don’t try, then it can’t happen and sometimes its ok to just jump and see. This property was not possible for me, but I felt like I needed to go there anyway. It’s hard to explain.

My family were aghast at my audacity.

“You can’t afford a château, do you even know how much it costs to run a property like that, why are you going to see it, what the $%#^ are you thinking?”

But the owner said,

“if you’re possibly interested in buying it, you should stay for a few days.”

I knew I couldn’t buy it. I said, “thank you” and invited my children to meet me there,

“I know we’re in the middle of COVID. I know it’s in France. But how about we try and meet at this château and just see how we feel about it. We go and we see. And then we work it out from there.”

My kids live all over the world, one in New Orleans, one in Vienna and one in Berlin and I was in the UK that summer. We went through complicated COVID protocols to make this trip happen — we arranged testing, we gathered our vaccine proofs and we filled out a myriad of forms so that we could gather from four different countries and meet at this unknown château in France.

As we drove up the driveway we were all overwhelmed, because as many pictures as you have seen, it is so impressive when you arrive and so beautiful that it knocks your socks off. Everyone bounced out of their cars and there was squeeling and hands clasped to mouths and joyful little skips as we all felt a wave of amazement rush over us. We felt childlike joy. This was everything, this was incredible.

We each had a massive bedroom filled with four-poster beds and antique furniture and paintings and stunning views across the valley. We ran from room to room, we ran up and down the spiralling stone staircase and we poured outside and explored the grounds and outbuildings, giddy with excitement.

Roy, the 84-year old English gentleman owner was there, staying in his usual accommodation in the Conciergerie building next to the château. He told us that he wanted to say goodbye to the property, because that autumn he was going to mothball it for ever. He’d owned it for 35 years and he wanted to say a proper goodbye.

He had invited his children and his friends to join him for the final farewell, but nobody could make it because of COVID. So he invited my family instead. Would we like to join him for a small soiree the next evening? There would be aperitifs, dinner and then a small concert.

A group of Oxford professors had won a stay at one of the buildings in the grounds in a raffle and he invited them along too. They were much better prepared for this than we were.

The next night we ransacked our luggage for anything respectable to wear, and shuffled downstairs in a hodge podge of tee shirts and summer dresses and jeans. The Oxford dons and their partners turned up in tuxedos and cocktail dresses. Much more suitable.

The evening began with champagne on the terrace (rainbow photo op) and then we all went inside for a delicious French meal in the incredible Grand Salle (translation — Enormous Harry Potter Style Dining Hall). There were three tables in the Hall. My family shared one with a charming French woman, and while we hid our flip flaps and sneakers under the table my eldest daughter made heroic attempts to engage our guest in conversation. At another table sat the Oxford party, confidently guffawing and chinking their glasses, while the musicians and the owner sat in deep conversation at the third. The room was filled with laughter and with the contented sighs that go along with a sumptuous meal.

After dinner we were all invited to retire to the salon for the classical concert. Are you feeling Jane Austen/Bridgerton meets Marie Antoinette vibes? If so, you understand how we were feeling.

The musicians had been playing at the château for the last 20 years, and they gave this little concert to thank the owner for all of those years. It was beautiful. A pianist, violinist and cellist played, and our french dinner companion turned the pages of the music.

Pause. Join us there if you can. Imagine the wooden shelves of the library wall at the end of the salon, the ancient tapestries on the walls, the solid gleaming mahogany of the tables, the embroidered material of the armchairs, worn at the edges. Imagine the sound of the musicians and the hushed respect of the guests. And there, curled up in armchairs is my family, in the salon of a 12th century chateau, surrounded by history, and emotion. My grandaughter is sitting on her mother’s lap gazing at the musicians in awe. We can all feel that there’s a deep connection between Roy and the building.

After the concert, Roy stumbled a little over a short and heartfelt speech and we all blinked back a tear and toasted him and his time at the château.

When the evening was over, I looked at my children, and they looked at me and we knew there was something wonderful here and that somehow we were going to be part of it. And we also knew that it was breaking Roy’s heart to leave and we were already a little bit in love with him too.

And so the next morning, I said to Roy,

“I’m not sure how, but we definitely want to have this château in our lives — not to live in, but to share with others. We also know that you’ve been here 35 years and we think that you shouldn’t leave. So what we’d like to do is to put together an offer for you, that includes you staying here in the conciergerie for the rest of your life.”

And the next day we left.

And this summer we have our first summer camp for women in that beautiful château — designed by women, for women and owned and funded by 60 women. Because sometimes you dare to do something impossible and sometimes you find women who want to come along with you. But that’s another story. For another day.

PS Hear more about what inspired me to start a summer camp for woman in a château in France by listening to my recent podcast interview here.