Our Last Day in France - Chateau Fere and Surrounds

We decided to have a quiet last full day in France after such a packed holiday and knowing how exhausting the flights home would be. Accordingly, other than a drive to the nearby village of Tardenois for lunch, we spent the day exploring the chateau and relaxing before enjoying a delicious multicourse meal in the chateau restaurant. The current chateau is next to the ruins of the original castle. The building of this original chateau began in 1206 and not a lot remains from that period. In 1528 more work was done before, later in the century, the renaissance bridge which originally had a covered gallery was added. The ruins make a fabulous view from the existing chateau although, sadly, it was not the kind of weather to sit on the terrace with a glass of wine gazing at them. we did enjoy walking around them though.
Tardenois is not a tourist village but most villages in France have some interesting points and we passed the covered market place as we wandered around looking for somewhere to lunch. It was quite nice to eat in a cafe that was patronised by the locals during their lunch break and we again had to navigate a menu that was not translated into English. However, we had picked up enough food words to be happy with our choices.
We headed back to the chateau to start packing, although the pressure to be packed to leave early next morning was lifted when we heard we had been changed onto a different flight later in the day. We enjoyed an afternoon glass of champagne in the lounge followed by a game of cards in our room while we finished off some of our wine purchases before putting on our glad rags to enjoy our last dinner in France with, you guessed it, more champagne.

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