Well well well. On hols for a brief spell in France. Checked into the surprising Chateau Bourdaisiaire in the Loire Valley which is home to 650 varieties of toms. Amazing! I doubt I’m alone in wondering what these lil buggers are doing most of their time when all we can get is small medium and large on the high street. Anyway, the Chat was gorgeous, set amongst cedars and sequoias (dix points!) and a new al fresco ‘chef’s kitchen’ was just underway in the dahlia garden a brief walk through the walled tomato estate. The chef had finished a few years private chef-fing in California so it was all fresh fresh fresh. Apart from tomato crumble which was inspired! So yes, all you fancy heritage tomato dishes – eat your heart out, you’ve got a long way to go.
The owner of the Chat itself (aristocratic Louis Albert de Broglie) was floating about enjoying himself and making people feel at home. It wasn’t until we got chatting that things fell into place – it only turns out he is the proprietor of DEYROLLE – the best shop in the whole of France! The historic natural history establishment which peddles taxidermy and literature in Paris. Wowow. Its all fixed up after a devastating fire two years back. I’ll never get that full size moose now, it obv wasn’t meant to be. So the Chat was dotted around with a few items here and there that really enhanced the pottering experience.
As you can see from the last pic there is a door to another world: 20 000m2 of tunnels of other worldliness. And that, dear readers is the future of Deyrolle. A subterranean shangri-la of natural history. Can it actually get any better?
Chateau de la Bourdaisiere, Montlouis sur Loire, France obv. From 150 Euros per night.
Deyrolle, Rue du Bac, Paris
