At 4am our alarm went off to get ready, pack our suitcases and meet in the hotel foyer at 5am. We then rolled our luggage up the dark streets to Victoria Station, a 10 minute walk, to ensure we were there in time for our 5.29am Gatwick Express train. Picture 14 people rolling noisy suitcases down the street outside your window at 5am on a Monday morning and chatting (some more quietly than others)…..the neighbours were probably glad we were leaving!

The queues at check in, as well as Jess not being able to get the self check-in to work, meant while we made it in plenty of time to board, we didn’t have time for breakfast or coffee. We were shuttled out to our British Airways plane and takeoff was delayed by over half an hour, but we still landed in Bordeaux an hour later at the original scheduled time.

Our cars were waiting ready for us at Bordeaux Airport. We picked out which ones were for us straight away!

We drove the hour trip to Blaye from there. We were so hungry and it was 12.30pm by then, so we stopped at a boulangerie for some lunch. Everyone selected a range of pastries, croissants, baguettes, and pizzas, and we ate them in a gazebo next to the Blaye Citadel. We might explore that later, but we were keen to get to our castle once we had eaten!

Not far from the centre of Blaye, we turned through the iron gates to this…..

Our host was waiting for us, and took us on a tour of the chateau, giving us a history lesson along the way. The house dates back to the 19th century, and there is a fountain in the backyard that dates back to the 18th century.

There is also a chapel next door that Estelle said she would leave open for us to use for Christmas. She had also offered to set up a large pine Christmas tree for us, but we turned that down at 400 Euro, so she set up a small tree and some lights and a nativity scene anyway.

Estelle has a degree in wine, and she and her brother run the vineyard attached to the chateau, producing and selling wines under their name Maison Borgeat. She offered to do a wine tasting class after we unpacked, and put out a sample of wines for us to try and a selection in the wine cellar to help ourselves if we wished to purchase them.

Belle and Ollie sat in on the wine class as well, and because of her interest in art and colours, Belle could answer more of the questions Estelle asked us than the rest of us! (Questions like whether the wine colour was a ruby red or purple; and whether the smell was woody, fruity etc.).

The only one who couldn’t relax and enjoy the wine tasting was Tom. After Estelle left us, Tim corralled the kids to take a stroll around the backyard to explore our surrounds, and Jarrod and Zac grabbed cameras to record the following events. Luke, Beck, Ross and I watched them from the balcony, knowing what was coming next, and giggling to ourselves as we saw Abi stop to explore things in a different direction to the others.

She finally caught up with them and got quite a surprise when Tom got on one knee and proposed!! (She did say later she was suspicious when he couldn’t sit still and enjoy the wine tasting, but thought she must have been mistaken during their stroll as she didn’t believe he would get on one knee on the wet grass and dirty his pants!).

So Tom proposed and Abi said yes. After all the excitement and some happy tears (even Uncle Luke who does not get too emotional had “something in his eye”), I did take them aside and said while an engagement there was beautiful, please don’t plan a wedding there – we can’t afford it! 😂

We then returned to the necessary mundane tasks – Ross and Luke went in search of a supermarket, Beck and I caught up on our washing, and the kids explored further and played games.

Ross and Luke went to both Aldi and its German competitor Lidl, but didn’t find a range as extensive as we have in Australia. Dinner was an antipasto platter and pizzas, at the end of a very memorable day!