Tomorrow will be our 7 year anniversary...no, I can't believe it's been that long either. To celebrate, we thought we would take a weekend trip to Chambery, about 90 km away, to stay in a beautiful fourteenth century chateau. Chateau de Candie sits a little outside the city of Chambery, not far from Lac de Bourget, and is surrounded by lovely peaks. (above photo: in the minute of rain in Chambery, below: Chateau de Candie covered in red vines in August).
We were off to a late start this morning. The weekend forecast called for thunderstorms and heavy rain, so we didn't have high expectations for all the outdoorsy things we were hoping to do. It was dark and cloudy and cool, but as we drove the sun started to break through and we had a surprisingly pleasant day.
If it had rained all weekend, we would have had plenty of space to play at the chateau. For some reason we ended up in a family suite. Our jaws hit the ground when we were let into this huge suite. We started exploring and taking photos and then discovered a stairway leading up to a room with three more beds and an extra bathroom! I loved the footed tub, turn faucets, bird covered wall paper, and blue furniture.
Testing out the chairs.
The Chateau de Candie of course leaves you a bag of pretty pastel candies and macaroons on the night stand.
After we opened all the doors and found all the surprises in our room, we decided to explore the chateau a little on our way out to see the city.
Breakfast room covered with old advertisements and kitsch. Below, some chateau details and the tower staircase down from our top floor suite.
In Chambery, we grabbed sandwiches to hold us over until dinner and wandered the streets, stopping into shops and a photo exhibit featuring the Route des Grandes Alps.
We also picked up picnic snacks for tomorrow and cereal for breakfast (we're fancy like that).
Some colors and passageways in Chambery.
After some good walking, we made our way back to the chateau for an amazing dinner. At first we felt like kids who had snuck into somewhere we really weren't suppose to be...it was a little intimidating and classy with more silverware and glasses than I would know what to do with. We stated with a summery champagne appertif, radish and fennel appetizer, gazpacho, salad, main dish, and desert served with a second desert and followed by coffee with sugar sticks. They made me a beautiful salad, a vegan mushroom risotto, and the best fruit plate I've ever had- raspberries, mirabelles, red plums, grapefruit, orange, kiwi, and mint leaves and flowers. Derek had a perfect steak wrapped inside a thin croissant and baked peach with house-made sorbet on a brioche. And presentation was gorgeous. I should have taken pictures, but it was nice to sit back and enjoy a long meal. Finally a stroll around the grounds...to help settle all that food.
We really liked the windows in the turret and took lots of photos every time we passed through.
