Maison le Resterie in Amboise

This historic property belongs to a friend of my former step-sister, Steffanie. It's the most beautiful place I've ever been lucky enough to stay in overnight.  The first picture is of a series of caves built into the hillside that used to be used as wine presses and wine cellars.  Steffanie's husband called them trogladyte caves, but they look very charming from the outside at least.

Here's at least a portion of the main house. Yeah, I couldn't fit it all in a single photo frame.

The photo above is of a "pigeonairre" - apparently, they are historically significant and quite rare. Manor houses used these stone gates as pigeon roosts,  so that they could collect their droppings and use them as manure on their crops. This one needs to be restored fully, but it's a long process filled with lots of bureaucratic red tape.

Yes, I fell down the stairs while I was there. Y'all know I'm not very graceful. Thankfully, I just lid down 3 of them and not down all 19 of them. That probably would've put me in the hospital with a broken hip or something.

Check out my lovely bedroom.

And my dressing room - what a pity that I only brought one change of clothes with me.

And my fabulous bathroom - I made good use out of that deep tub, let me tell you.

And here was my view of the countryside from my bedroom window...

I have to be honest - I hated to leave this place. It tempts me to rent a place in the countryside some year and just go into the city occasionally. Let's just say that Amboise and Maison le Resterie both charmed me completely.