Our home for three nights was a 1-bedroom gite in the tower of a building constructed in 1474 in La Charite sur Loire in central France. So that’s 18 years before Columbus set sail for North America! La Charite is just outside the western border of Burgundy, just a few hours’ drive SE of Paris.
Byron and Kelly Harker moved here 15 years ago from Vancouver, buying ruins in the village and converting/restoring them into vacation rentals. (www.la-charite-sur-loire.com) One of La Charite’s newer imports is Barbara Jo McIntosh, former owner of Books to Cooks in Vancouver, who is converting a property in the old village into a B&B and cooking school.
Our son and his wife vacationed here seven years ago, staying in the studio suite on the ground floor. We are in the Meneau Suite, one floor up these stairs. It has all the mod cons you’d want (as the Brits say), while surrounding you with old stone fireplaces, high ceilings with heavy exposed beams, and (be careful, Wayne!) tiny entry doors.
We ‘new world’ types have trouble imagining what wizardry it must take to bring proper plumbing and electricity into these ancient structures, not to mention how the heck one moves huge armoires up those tiny stairs. Wayne says they come in through the windows, but then, how do they get access to the windows to do that?
The old lady who lived here about 25 years ago was a healer, sitting in her tiny window on the ground floor as villagers passed by, never charging for her special powers. And our hosts have stories directly from people healed by her to verify the legend.
I’m sure her energy lingers still.
PS Byron and Kelly are ready to move back to BC, so their gites are for sale, as a group or individually. Get out your chequebook!
