Country fayre - part one

Sunday was the day of the country fayre at Château de Vaux - a castle situated in the small village of Fouchere about 20 minutes from us.

The chateau, and its attached farm, had long been in disrepair, but in 1970 it was bought by Philippe Vallery-Radot, who had a passion for heritage. He immediately set about restoring the farm buildings, and with the help of the Ministry of Culture (the chateau was designated as an historic monument in 1980), he was able to protect the structure with the installation of hundreds of metal sheets, which were temporarily installed on the roof of the castle in 1995. In 2015 Edouard Guyot, with bank support, purchased the estate. He was just 22 at the time. A major renovation program began, and for the first time, the castle became open to the public.

Once a year, the Chateau now hosts a massive country fair, with stalls, displays and demonstrations of horse skills. We arrived around noon, during a short break in the programme.

There was a rather impressive itinerary at the entrance

I love it when there are vintage cars at our fayres, and this one didn’t disappoint. I always like to take a look, especially when they have a few of my favourite old french Citroens.

As we approached the chateau we could here lots of horn blowing from the courtyard, so we wandered up to the main doors to take a look at what it was all about. We arrived just as they were finishing the ceremony of Saint Hubert - a peculiar saint, whose calling was to ensure the adoption of certain rules and ethics in hunting. It finished with the release of a flock of homing pigeons, and a number of very smartly dressed hunters playing their french horns.

It was all a rather spectacular start to the day.