Le Chateau de Craon
If you have ever wondered what it may have been like to live centuries ago in a grand chateau in rural France now is your chance to find out.

Le Chateau de Craon, a magnificent white stone confection, built in 1770 just prior to the French Revolution by the Marquis d'Amaille opened its doors to the public for the first time 3 years ago and now invites you to come and live the life for one night (or more) within the boundaries of its private domain.

The main part of the Chateau containing the former state rooms and most of principal bedrooms has been reserved for the use of guests while the present family, the Comte and Comtesse, Loik and Helene de Guebriant, live a cosy family lifestyle with their six instantly likeable children in one of the wings. A kind of modern day 'Upstairs-Downstairs' arrangement but in reverse.

You will wake each morning in one of its soaring, elegantly furnished bedrooms each with its own en suite antique bathroom cum dressing room. All the bathrooms have retained their original fittings installed in the 19th century and are equipped with marble topped washbasins and clawed foot bathtubs so deep a wooden step is provided to help you get in and out.

The furnishings have been selected as much as possible from the ancestral stock remaining faithful to the original décor and family history. All of the bedrooms are spacious and distinctive but the Baldaquin Suite with its sumptuous canopy bed and Louis XVI salon seating is not surprisingly most often the choice of newly weds.

Loik and Helene clearly enjoy the company of their guests and their good humoured, easy going manner will soon make you feel at home in their home. This is helped not least of all by their fluent English and their willingness to speak it. In the evening you will be invited to join them for pre-dinner drinks in the chateau's beautiful Music Salon lined in red silk and furnished with an Erard grand piano which guests are invited to play.

When there is a chill in the air a fire is lit filling the room with the aroma of the park's aged oak. The Music salon looks out onto Craon's French style garden created in 1930 by the Marquis d'Andigne, step-uncle to the present Comte. When completion of the chateau's grounds was cut short by the Revolution they remained so until the dedication of the Marquis made his contribution to the history of Craon by finishing the formal layout as he believed it was originally conceived. The small town of Craon lying at the end of the vista makes an unforgettable sight at sunrise when seen through the morning mist.

Breakfast is served communal style around a large oval table in the stately dining room encouraging conviviality amongst the guests. The Music room has also been reserved for this purpose where you can relax in the evenings when you return from your evening meal.

Being a listed historical site of interest, the chateau is open from April to October in the afternoons to day visitors who wish to come and view the ornamental gardens or walk through the extensive 40 hectare parkland. Laid out in a romantic English style in 1830 it was considered the height of fashion at that time when the idea of symmetry had fallen from favour. Within the park there are over 5kms of footpaths and riverside walks in which to wander freely, a wood of ancient oaks and a small 'secret garden' containing a rare species of palm, Nandina domestica, adapted to northern climates by its particular resistance to frost.

Help yourself to a little rowing boat moored at the bank or hop onto the pedalo and just take off for a lazy meander downstream. For those who ride, horses can be arranged and for those who don't cycles can be provided to further encourage the exploration of the vast park and grounds. Having ironed out some of the kinks from underused limbs you may now be ready for a game or two of tennis followed by a swim in the chateau's pool…. Whatever takes your fancy. The byword at Le Chateau de Craon is laid back informality.

From the secret garden planted on the site of the old quarry 3 steep staircases have been cut in the rock. Here you may climb up to the Allee des Rouliers or Waggoner's Walk that leads back to either the chateau or the kitchen garden. This highly ornamental walled vegetable garden (Potager) of over 12,000sqm around which Loik delights in conducting tours for his guests is complete with three 19th century greenhouses restored in the 1990's. The first is an unheated 'lean-to' type structure while the second was heated and used for 'propagation' before growing on the seedlings in the vinery or orangery. Today the garden supplies vegetables for the household and the cut flowers that decorate many of the rooms. The original Orangerie essential to any chateau of its time for guarding its orange trees from frost during winter was converted into a house in the 19th century when the green houses were build in the kitchen garden. Today it provides additional accommodation for wedding parties or self-catering accommodation for short breaks.

A number of other old outbuildings tucked away within the grounds make interesting stops along your walking tour. Be sure to visit the Bakery with its huge oven and grinding stone and the Ice House that stored snow and ice from the river in winter to be used during summer as the Chateau's refrigerator. Every great household relied on its Washhouse to deal with its innumerable pieces of dirty linen. Here it was brought by cart to be dealt with by a team of washerwomen over a 4 day period two or three times a year before being rinsed out in the river and laid out to dry on the neighbouring meadow.

The stables built at the same time as the Chateau contain a few bedrooms above the huge haylofts used for the staff. Later in the 19th century a coach house was added to hold the family's numerous carts and carriages some of which are still in use when the Chateau hosts a wedding. A staircase between the 2 coach houses leads to the old Bakery and the Chateau.