BBQ at a Mansion

Our friend, Marc-Henri, French guy, and his American wife Grisel, invited us to his Mother's house/manor/small mansion for a BBQ a few weeks ago. It's about a 40 minute drive from Chenedouit. I'd never been there before but was happy the opportunity arose. His Mother, who is in her 80's lives here full time. The front of the place, and in my opinion, not the best view.

Below is looking toward the highway, down an insanely long driveway. Your back to the front of the house. There are two houses on the right and left. They are both lived in by various relatives. 

Here's a shot of the back of the house. 

That's the best view......the menacing sky does help the photo:)

And if you are standing on the patio of the back of the house.....

are you ready for it.....

the garden. 

Just a little something. 

We were all like, really? 

                        There are also two other buildings, quite impressive in their own right, 

                                            used as storage on the property. No photos of those.

Below is the side of the house. 

There used to be a sundial on the small round pedestal. 

They have an arrangement with a neighbor/farmer. He is their full time gardener. 

I was more impressed with the exterior than interior of the place, but here are some shots anyways.

This is one of the maybe 10 bedrooms in the place.  I like the hardwood floors. I didn't get any shots of the hallways, but they were my favorite part. Doors leading into neighboring rooms, zig zagging, lots of glass doors and tiny places, closets. 

 

 Shot from the  basement/cave which was enormous. 

This is/was the  kitchen located in the basement. They have since put one on the ground floor where Marc-Henri's Mom lives. She lives in part of the ground floor. 

At least the sevants who had to cook down here way back when had some windows and natural light. 

I love the copper pots....

Shot thru the basement kitchen window. 

Attic window...

The attic also had these crazy concrete storage tanks for water. Apparently back in the day they served as water tanks. I can't get over the amount of weight filled it must have been. Better have some strong beams and foundation.  They look smaller than they were. 

Misc. old shoes and clothing stored up there....

The black wooded clogs below on the right looked like a child of 6 could fit in them.

Also in the attic were maybe 20 old steamer trunks.  

Their last name is Join-Lambert, hence the J.L. initials.

Crazy staircase....(the servants staircase)

These two are whipping the liquid cream into whipped cream for their scones. I discovered that the English have a certain way of eating their scones depending on where in England you live. No one ever eats them for dessert as we did, but for tea time, it's scone/cream/jam or the other way scone/jam/cream. What touches the scone directly is hotly debated. 

Grisel (across from me) is American from New Jersy.  The others are English, a New Zealander and her husband from Hong Kong and 2 French.

This place was built in 1902, so, ha on you. Chenedouit is 50 years older!

We're just missing the full time gardener:)

And on my way home, I was stuck behind this thing. I was going so slow, that yes, I had time too take a video. It was too wide to pass, so I just enjoyed the ride.