JOIE DE VIVRE
COLUMN
The intrepid châtelaine
Autumn is Erin Choa’s favourite season, with its mild days and bounty of mushrooms and berries
A
utumn is my favourite season in France. The insidious wind-
down from a busy summer of hosting weddings and holiday guests is a breath of fresh air as we lose the heat of August and enjoy the cooler beautiful weather. Mild days of slanted sunshine end in spectacular ruby sunsets, as leaves turn from green to russets and crimsons and bring the countryside into a glorious spectra of colour. The sonorous brame du cerf
echoes through our woods at Château de Bourneau as the stag calls for a mate. I still remember the fi rst time I heard its chilling bark. It was a warm mid-September evening at dusk when from nowhere a deep guttural low roared from the forest in a long echo. I thought I had imagined it when it called again, bovine in tone but clearly emanating from a much larger beast and I wondered, for just a tiny moment, whether the Vendéen tales of giants and mythical creatures stalking the forests may indeed be true or
Erin welcomes the cooler weather A spectacular sunset mirrored in the moat at the Château de Borneau
if Bourneau was home to some kind of dinosaur in the depths of our woods! Autumn is ripe for foraging:
The kitchen is a hive of activity
mushrooms for those in the know, secret spots passed down from grandparents to grandchildren that are safely guarded and never shared. We see our neighbours heading off on expeditions, baskets in hand, to pick mushrooms and scour the hedgerows for hazelnuts. The glut of fi gs from the château garden keeps me busy in the kitchen baking goats’ cheese tarts and fi g jam and chutney, the last of the blackberries also added to the pan. Elderfl owers that didn’t make it into my summer elderfl ower cordial or champagne now bear their
110 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: September/October 2023
rich berries that bepurple the hedgerows and edge the château moat, persuading me to fi ght through brambles to gather their berries to make antioxidant-rich elderberry brandy syrup, a traditional method to fi ght off winter bugs, or an excuse to enjoy a delicious fl avoursome brandy beside the fi re that we start to light in the cooler evenings. And, of course, the wine
harvest across hillsides of golden vines brings the promise of a good vintage and we await the local predictions and reports after the fi nal grapes are brought in. Sometimes it feels as if I
am living in my own French version of Cider with Rosie, steeped in the traditions
of another century and the spellbinding beauty of the countryside afl ame with turning leaves. It is a far cry from my previous fast-paced city lifestyle and yet I feel more and more at home here in Vendée, learning crafts of the past from my local French friends and taking pleasure in the simplicity of a rural and slower lifestyle. We enjoy the gentle decline into misty mornings, watching the deer leap through the mists like our own personal fairytale, grateful to live in such a beautiful part of the world. Winter is on the cusp and despite the inevitable chill of castle-living, even this season brings its own charm: raclette beside the fi re with friends over generous glasses of wine? Don’t mind if I do! ■
London-born hospital doctor Erin Choa is the 6th châtelaine of Château de Bourneau, where she lives with her French fi ancé Jean-Baptiste and bossy cat HRH Oscar. She blogs about their château-life on Instagram @theintrepidchatelaine @chateaudebourneau
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