One of our French guides, Marilou, planned a get away to a chateau close to here called Chateau Flaugergues. She reserved a tour for us and also a wine tasting, and it was all free, so who could say no to that?

About 15 people from my program went to see the Chateau, and it was so cool. It is a house that was built in the countryside of Montpellier for the most prominent families to live in, and all of the original furniture is still left in the house, even though there is a family living there right now!

Descendants of the Colbert family! We got to tour around the house first and see the magnificent French gardens (which are known for being symmetrical) and also the English garden that was next to it which was an “all senses” garden with things corresponding to each of the five senses. That was really cool because they had a forest of bamboo that we got to go inside!

In the house, we got to see all the rooms; the bedrooms, the living rooms, library, and dining room. Our tour guide was really nice too and explained each room very slowly so that we could all understand everything. She quizzed us over something in every room, asking us questions about the objects she would explain. In the dining room, she asked us if we knew what this special spoon was used for. We were all guessing things like sugar, medicine, etc. but it was really used for eating bone marrow.

I was kind of grossed out. One room had a bunch of rifles from the time and some original outfits on display.

It even had a letter from Voltaire written to the family that lived there about some poetry that one of them had written. After we were finished touring the property, we went next door to a small wine tasting party. There were several red wines and a white.

I still find it interesting to hear what people can smell/taste in the different wines since I cannot distinguish any sort of aroma/flavor. My friend Brian guessed that one had jasmine in it and won a free bottle of wine!