Summers in France by Kathryn Ireland

Author:Kathryn Ireland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Published: 2011-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

With the swimming pool built and now more guests than the main house could handle, my brother Robert spent from February to June of 1995 rebuilding and renovating the Pigeonnier.

I have what I call a barracks mentality. I don’t think in terms of individuals; my baseline unit of measurement is the platoon. When I saw La Castellane for the first time, I didn’t covet it for my own exclusive pleasure. Without even realizing it, I immediately saw it as a place where my kids could bring their friends, and my friends could bring their kids, and we could all share the unpretentious French country way of living. Fortunately, with the pigeonnier conscripted into service as a guesthouse, the estate can now sleep twenty guests at full capacity. I keep my ten guest rooms as simple as possible because a lot of people want to personalize a room with their own possessions.

To me, the successful guest room is one that functions like a hotel suite—a clean, neutral space with good mattresses, good pillows and empty closets and dresser drawers. You don’t want a guest to find your winter wardrobe stuffed in the closet or extra table linen crammed into drawers. Always have more blankets than you need. I don’t mind frayed towels but I can’t bear dingy or stained. It’s nice to have a couple of good books by the bed and I insist on good reading lamps. Because I spend half my year traveling, I help myself to hotel courtesy soaps and shampoos from all over the world and recycle them in my guest rooms.

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