Chateau du Fey, Burgundy

Saturday, September 29, 2007
Retournac and Chateau du Fey

Last night after we tucked Reed into bed and had a slice of potato/ham/raclette cheese pizza, Renee drove us to a town, I can’t remember the name, near to Le Puy, for a lesson in traditional folk dancing. I didn’t know what to expect and was surprised to discover a parallel universe to the folk dance world that I know and love back home: the old hands who can dance already, the uncoordinated geeks who are giving it their best shot, the wiry old coots who really know how to swing (my favorite partners), the ladies’ man who loves to squeeze you a little too close, the women who know how to dance the men’s part and the women who don’t (because there are always too many women, no matter which country you’re in). We danced some dances I already know such as the polka and the waltz and the schottische, and then two new ones to me, the mazurka and the bourree. The bourree is the traditional Auvergnat dance, I understand, and I can’t explain how special it was to discover that our music for the instructional evening would be live, not only live, but abundant: two hurdy gurdys, 4 accordions, 2 guitars, and a bagpiper. I understood a little of what was said by the instructors and was able to pick up the rest by watching. Walt did really well too, surprisingly so. Renee-Jo looked like she’d done a fair amount of dancing before, she looked comfortable and happy. She goes to dances sometimes, she said, but not often, since it is difficult to go alone all the time and Andre would NEVER dance. We drove home under the bright light of a moon just two days off of full, shining on the Loire and the many houses and several chateaux along the way, outlining the rocky silhouettes of the hills. We got home at midnight and had a small glass of sweet white wine before falling into bed, me with a sense of dread, knowing that I needed to wake up at 6 am to catch my train to Joigny and Chateau du Fey.

The Chateau du Fey is where I am now, after getting up early and being driven through the fog by Walt to the station for my 7:08 train. After riding 5 trains, reading through Anne Willan’s book, and napping for a bit, I arrived in Joigny at 2:15 pm where Kyri Claflin, my professor from the Boston U. online French Culture and Cuisine class I took last summer, picked me up. The weather is fabulously sunny, and the chateau is beautiful and has been lovingly cared for and renovated by Anne and her husband Mark Cherniavsky since they bought it in the 70s; I can tell by the way there is no dust anywhere, and the way the books are arranged and the way that the drawers and cabinets in the cooking school are labeled and well, everything, really, that Anne has an unshakeable sense of order and of course I find that very admirable. I am in a room in the “tower.” I have come during a time of transition as the Cherniavsky’s are in the process of preparing to move to California to live near their daughter Emma, and to sell the chateau. Everything has little colored tags stuck on them, indicating whether the item goes to one of the two children, or is to be sold, or kept. I interviewed Anne for an hour about her newest book (she has written dozens), a cookbook of country French cooking, and will talk to her again tomorrow at 11 am. After we finished talking Kyri got me a glass of wine and we sat outside looking at the view down over the village before it got too chilly and we headed inside for dinner. Dinner started with a warm salad of chanterelles in a dressing on top of some piquant salad greens with a thin slice of an aged cheese similar to parmesan or manchego on top. The main course was 7 hour leg of lamb that had been taken off the bone, with some carrots and potatoes and Brussels sprouts on the side. Also some cheese stuffed cherry tomatoes baked on a little round bit of pastry. Financiers, little cakes, for dessert, with coffee. I had wanted to ask Anne about the future of this chateau and of her cooking school but she was so curious about the farm where we are staying in Retournac that I was kept busy telling her about the food and how they make a living there.