Guided tour
The day you discovered LA VARENNE,
you saw only the trees, a funny wooden gateway roofed over with flat tiles, and a never-ending drive : it was like a green bower to refresh you, the day was so hot !
You hesitated by the vast outbuildings, and then you found the house : you entered a wide inner courtyard where the outdoor pool reminded you that you had run out of sun cream.
A warm welcome from your hostess awaited you,
you quenched your thirst in the garden, in the shade of the hundred-year-old lime tree, and you looked with her on the menus to find the restaurant you were going to choose for the evening, and which she would reserve for you if you wish.
Your room was calling,
you returned to the hall where the thick walls maintained a soothingly refreshing temperature.
Curiosity encouraged you to snatch a passing glimpse of the suite of ground floor rooms. You took in the sitting room with its fireplace, and spotted the breakfast table. An ancient edition of the Melodies of Schumann sat shamelessly on the piano next to ragtime scores and Renaissance songs.
Right at the end was the XVII th century kitchen,
which also opened onto the garden. There must have been a sleeping cat on a chair, no, two!
Did you have the ‘‘Garden Room’’, at ground level, with its acient timberand cool tiles ?
Did you admire the view from the balcony of « ‘‘Annie’s Room’’, where the walls were adorned with pictures of the little child’s sleepy face ?
Or perhaps you relaxed in the ‘‘Summer Room’’, so spacious and light with its six windows, its pastel shades toning with the bathroom ? What luck, you were dying for a bath, and the sunset was an added bonus.
Next morning,
your host explained to you that LA VARENNE was not just a "guest-house", but that in this former wine-growing property, the cultivation of walnuts, once widespread in the region, had been brought back into the limelight.
Precisely, you had tasted them at your breakfast which was varied and very greedy. You have kept such a good memory that you brought back lots of homemade jams!
The grassy orchards extend over 2 ha, you will walk along one of them on your way to your car park.
And when you left for other horizons, you said to yourself :
I’ll come back, no doubt about it…..maybe in the winter ?
