The French Château: Life · Style · Tradition: Life, Style, Tradition - Tapa blanda

The French Chateau provides a privileged view into the special world that lies within France's grand historical houses, a view hitherto afforded only to a selected circle of the French aristocracy and their friends. These stately residences are not dusty uninhabited museums, but real homes. Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery, herself born and brought up in her family's magnificent property at Montfort-le-Rotrou, takes us across France to visit the great chateaux she knows so well, giving us an intimate view of the unique way of life that goes on in them through the seasons. In the spring we attend a wedding at Jean de Beistegui's Chateau de Groussay. We see the drawing-rooms, bedrooms, linen-room, hot-house and orangery of Le Lude in the company of the Comtesse de Nicolay. In summer we visit the Chateau d'Haroue in Lorraine as guests of the Princesse de Beauvau-Craon. In autumn we follow the hunt with the Marquis and Marquise de Brissac, returning for dinner to the Chateau de Brissac. Baron Eric de Rothschild opens his cellars to us at Chateau Lafite. We celebrate the onset of winter with a boar hunt at the Chateau de Courances, lunching in the forest in the company of the Marquis and Marquise de Ganay. The lustrous colour photographs of Jean-Bernard Naudin capture all the beauty and charm of these chateaux and the elegant lifestyle of their inhabitants.

Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery grew up at the Chateau de Montfort-le-Rotrou at the edge of the Perche hills in the west of France.