Thursday 23 June 2011

Chateau de Balleroy welcomes bloggers!


Yesterday afternoon the Senior Partner and I headed over to the Chateau de Balleroy to meet English blogger Jackie (Jackie's Life in Surrey) and her husband Phil for the first time.
They are spending a few days here in Normandy and they drove down to the Chateau from Bayeux where they had spent the morning looking at the Cathedral and the Tapestry.

The deep moat which surrounds the Chateau has always been empty!

The Chateau was built in 1631 by celebrated architect François Mansart for Jean de Choisy and was owned by the Balleroy family until it was sold in 1970 to the American publisher Malcolm S. Forbes.
He founded the world's first hot air balloon museum at Balleroy in 1975.


We had a little time to spare before our tour of the Chateau began and as Phil was keen to see the Balloon Museum they headed upstairs whilst the SP & I browsed in the gift shop, where he bought me a beautiful little tapestry change purse to replace one that I had bought there many years ago but which has since been lost on our travels.


We also had time to quickly visit the 16th century church, which is in the grounds of the Chateau, before meeting up with our bi-lingual guide and other visitors.
Me, Jackie & Ben
enjoying the sunshine
in our front garden.

Afterwards we popped our heads into the Dovecote before heading back to our home for a cup of tea and some Cherry Bakewell cake.

Click here to go to the GoodFood website for the Cherry Bakewell Cake recipe.
We had fun getting to know Jackie & Phil and hope that they are enjoying their visit to Mont St. Michel today and that the weather stays fair for the rest of their time here in Normandy.
à bientôt.


11 comments:

  1. Maggie,
    Wish I could have been there. So glad you had a nice visit.

    Carol

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  2. Your pictures are breathtaking...I would have loved to have seen all this myself!! Don't you love meeting other bloggers?!

    XO,
    Jane

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  3. I think the French Tourism office must thank bloggers such as you for all the wonderful advertising you do. What a fun outing you all had.

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  4. Looks like you all had a lovely time together.

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  5. How wonderful. I wish I could visit :D It looks like y'all had a great day. Thanks for the mini tour!

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  6. For some reason it didn't click with me as to what a balloon museum was. I just kept thinking about the balloons you would see at a birthday party! Silly! I think I need a good nights sleep.

    I think the moat should be filled but maybe that is the lack of sleep speaking.

    I am glad you were able to meet another blogger.

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  7. Just lovely. And cute dog too!

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  8. That looks like my kind of cake!
    I met a blogger today too - isn't it fun?

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  9. What a beautiful chateau - love visiting places like that!

    I'm confused though (easy at my age!) is that Jackie in the photo with you - you have that lady named as Carol? Curious because I visit Jackie's blog too.

    Glad you all had a great visit and in sunshine!

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  10. Hi Maggie, it was great to meet you and Roger and we had a lovely time and the cake was delicious!!! We enjoyed the rest of our time in Normandy and thanks to Roger we got to the British cemetery too amongst other places.

    Again, many thanks, Jackie.

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  11. Jackie is such a sweetie. I'm glad you had a wonderful time together.

    I am having a fun giveaway on Tuesday. I hope you will stop by and enter.

    Have a great week! La

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Thanks for stopping by, your visit just made my day!