Explore #3 of the Operation Baguette tour

The last of our successful explores on Day One of Operation Baguette was this marvellous derelict Chateau, nestled in the midst of a very affluent suburb. After a drive-past recce, followed by a McDonalds to recharge our energy levels, we returned and made our move and were soon inside.

As you will see the Chateau is in a perilous state of decline, and has reached the stage where it must be highly doubtful whether restoration is realistically going to happen. The beautiful front marble staircase and baby grand piano are real highlights of this place, and we spent an enjoyable hour or so looking around.

[As always click on a photo to VIEW LARGE]

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Soon it was time to bid farewell to Chateau Verdure and move on to our fifth and final target of Day One – yet another Chateau! Unfortunately we had to make a swift escape from that one before we could get inside as the owners just happened to be paying a visit that day and walked around the corner and spotted us – talk about bad luck! Still we had managed three great locations on Day One of our tour, and most importantly had a lot of fun doing so.

And so I gunned my trusty Ford Focus across rural France for a couple more hours to our cheapo motel for the night, arriving at about 8pm. After a shower and some BBQ chicken washed down with a couple of cold pints of 1664 (courtesy of the rather ropey ‘Buffalo Grill’, but we were far too tired to be picky) I was feeling almost human again.

I finally crashed out for my first sleep in 38 hours and 650 miles at about 10pm, with camera batteries charging and alarm set for 3.30am for our stupid o’clock departure to our next location – the stunning Chateau Lumiere, the jewel in the crown of our trip, around which everything else was planned. The report for that is coming ASAP, so sign up to follow this blog if you haven’t already done so and you will be notified as soon as it is published.

Thanks for visiting, and any comments and feedback always gratefully received.

Cheers
Adam X