The other place we visited on that afternoon drive was the historic Chateau Fleury. This was quite a busy enterprise, with fields of crops and apple orchards. The apples are used to make apple juice and apple cider, which we tasted at the end of the tour. The chateau also offers accommodation and earns an income from tourist groups like ours.
Unfortunately, this chateau was taken over by the Germans during WW2 for training teenage recruits. They left it in a dreadful state, and stole all of its valuable furniture, paintings and other treasures. An all-too-common story! The current owner, who greeted us very warmly, has spent more than a million euros so far on restoring the chateau, though there is still a long way to go. He and his family have travelled around antique stops and so forth to collect pieces of period furniture, ceramics, glassware and art work that would have been around at the time the chateau was in its heyday. They have put together quite a fascinating collection, not the least of which is an amazing collection of dolls and children's toys.
My photographs will give you a sample of what we saw. I have only captioned some.
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| Chateau Fleury. |
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| The view from the front of the chateau. |
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| One of the fields belonging to the chateau. |
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| Fortunately the kitchen stove was left in place! |
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| This desk was inlaid with ivory. |
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| This cupboard was inlaid with tortoise shell. |
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| The 'privy' belonging to the bedroom, for which the lady's bed is shown above. |
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| The bed belonging to the lord of the house. |
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| One of several cupboards showing a doll's house and contents. |
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