Ladee's Travels

  Golden Hour at Château Marouatte After dinner, I looked at the time and realized the light outside was changing. Golden hour. For a photographer, that is enough of an invitation. I grabbed my camera and went for a walk around the grounds to see what the evening light might give me. The château looked completely different from the way it had earlier in the day. [IMG_4323] From the drive, the entire complex spread out in front of me—the round towers, crenellated walls, pointed rooflines, and the tall central spire rising into a pale blue sky. The sunlight was low enough now to soften the stone and pick up the texture in the walls. Instead of simply photographing a château, I was beginning to photograph its shapes: circles, vertical towers, rooflines, openings, and shadows. The evening sky was almost as interesting as the architecture. [IMG_4325] I dropped down low into the grass for this one. Suddenly the château disappeared and the landscape became the subject. A tiny yel...

  Dinner in the Great Hall: Wine, Bangers and Mash, and Stories That Went Everywhere By our second night at Château Marouatte, dinner was already becoming more than a meal. It was the place where everyone came back together, compared notes from the day, passed the wine, told stories, and gradually learned a little more about one another. We gathered again around the long table in the château’s extraordinary dining hall. The room itself is almost distracting because there is so much to look at. Heraldic shields line the walls, banners hang overhead, stained glass catches the light, and the elaborate fireplace dominates one end of the room. At one point someone looked up and said exactly what I had been thinking. “There’s so much to look at. It’s like eye candy.” That started a whole discussion about the château itself. Someone had discovered another room near the wine cellar filled with beautiful old tiles. “Oh my God, the tiles you’ve got there.” There was immediate interest...