My trip to La Roche Posay – the down time – photo heavy!

Earlier today I talked all about the business end of the press trip to La Roche Posay and now it’s time to show you where we stayed and holy moly it was a beauty…. When we were collected at the train station by the taxi lady, she asked where we were staying and when we told her it was Chateau Touffou, she murmured “ooh la la” under her breath and it made my day!  As we drove up the long driveway and came closer to the gate, we were all silent except for saying three little words “Oh my God… Oh my God”. Now you’ll see why.

Chateau Touffou was built in the 15th century with the Renaissance wing built in the 16th century.  It’s owned by the Ogilvy family and we were delighted to meet Madam Ogilvy herself on one of the evenings.  We kind of all fell in love with her and were hosted by her son in law, Douglas who gave us a little wine tasting class one night and in turn, we showed him how to make a crepe cake, totally delicious!

The grounds of the castle are stunning and we wandered around them both evenings pretending we lived there… Was that just me girls?!  Below is the lavender garden teaming with little bumble bees and provided the backdrop for a very important photoshoot on our last day.  Let me explain.  In the living room is a sideboard full of photos of various groups that have stayed there over the years.  The five of us wanted on that sideboard, so Rosie and I scouted some locations and did some test shots, like you do, and we’ve been promised we’ll be front and centre on that sideboard!  We are getting photographic evidence sent over for proof.

There’s Douglas in his chef’s uniform!

This was my bedroom lads…  I swear to you, I spent the first half an hour in there with my eyes wide as saucers and saying those three words again and it took me ages to go to sleep for two reasons.  

1. I couldn’t believe I was in such a beautiful place and couldn’t stop smiling.  

2. I was convinced the girls were going to come and scare me and it turned out they’d felt the same, especially Paula who’s room was attached to a nursery and we spent ages tormenting her and telling her that Ghost Baby was going to come and get her.  

We had a tour of the grounds and had student Basile showing us around and telling us the history of the castle and surrounding buildings and there may or may not have been more messing as we were taken down to the dungeons….

Below you’ll see Rosie and I having a bit of a smooch with the lion like you do and below that is the living room where we had pre dinner drinks one night and did some wine tasting the following night.  Great craic and made us all a bit giddy!

Speaking of dinner, the meals we had at Chateau Touffou were gorgeous.  Four courses but normal portions, so we were all pleasantly full after each meal.  On the day we went to the Treatment Centre, we went to Chateau Valcreuse for lunch and the setting was absolutely stunning.  We sat outside under a big tree with hanging lanterns and got to try some of their home made rosé wine.  I’m also going to start putting my dinner menu on a dinky chalkboard like this one below, how fancy!  Of course, we couldn’t understand it but it didn’t matter!

All in all, I felt like I was in a dream the whole time I was there.  Our little group laughed so hard the entire time and I couldn’t have asked for better travel buddies.  I really am so lucky to have been asked to go and have been reliving it over and over in my little noggin!  Thanks to Paula and Gill for taking such good care of us and giving me great blogging advice, Rosie and Lorraine for being brilliant “journo” pals and I can’t wait to see if we make The Sideboard!  Seriously lads, I’m shaking my head in disbelief that this all happened to me.

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