Jumilhac (Zhoo-mee-yack), a large chateau surprisingly unmentioned in Michelin

"Afternoon stretching the tree shadows, we headed to Jumilhac (Zhoo-mee-yack), a large chateau surprisingly unmentioned in Michelin2. Its flyer stated that even off-season tours were available by phone appointment. So, while Nancy sat in the town square watching an elderly sextet rattle without success Jumilhac's arched oak doors, I braved the nearby pay phone. Can we have a tour? I asked in French. Bien sur. In five minutes? No, give me twenty minutes. So we sat on the fountain playing cards until the door creaked open.
Our young guide wore lavender corduroy pants, purple sneakers with white laces, and two sweaters, one over the other. Her dark-blonde hair was extravagantly hennaed, her ears multiply pierced, but she was earnest and shy, smiling and blushing when we asked questions. "Would you prefer the tour in English?" she asked in musical Midlands tones when she heard our flat American French. "I haven't spoken English for several days. I quite like to." She had the strangest Franglais accent - "I was born in Norf-hampton, but came to France at age four" - and mispronounced or mistranslated words. She was a self-taught guide, self-taught translator (she was translating her house guide into English house and struggling with words like "minegolds" and "heer-ess" (heiress)), caretaker, and probably ward. Later we speculated on her family history - parents dead unexpectedly, French cousin taking her in, life in a chateau, the stuff of Dickens updated.
The castle itself was fascinating: a thirteenth century main house, enclosed in the sixteenth century (when given to Jean de Jumilhac by Henri IV after the Wars of Religion as a loyalty reward). Residential wings were added in the seventeenth century when Louis XIII and Richelieu made it finally safe to do so. Now Jumilhac's private owners were industriously restoring, clearing out fallen plaster and lath, refinishing or replacing broken marble stairs - the pre-restoration places show how much 'reconstruction' (gutting) is involved. The rear gardens were being returned to a classical French parterre with climbing roses, low boxwood hedges, and a central fountain, plus a hedge maze which our guide let me run. The main dining room had Jacobean wood paneling with large hunting murals painted into the panels between the windows; it had been used as the setting for a historical vampire movie, Pacte des Loups.
The postcards our guide diffidently offered for sale were bundled in a huge stack secured by a crumbling rubber band. I bought one to send back to Recap and also tipped her because she was so engaging, at which she blushed again."
ã Copyright 2002 David Alexander Smith
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