An evening in the French countryside

Guests assembling in the Chateau de Courances before dinner. Photo: JH.

Thursday night, two nights before the Bal Marie Antoinette, the guests of the American Friends of Versailles were invited to a black tie Diner Exotique at Chateau de Courances. The chateau is located in the village of Courances about 38 miles, almost an hour, outside of Paris in terrible bumper to bumper traffic.

Courances is the home of the Marquis and Marquise de Ganay. The family has occupied the 16th-century house since the 1870s. They’ve been very well publicized in magazines like Quest, W and Town & Country and the shelter magazines.

American Friends comes to Courances through Anne-Marie de Ganay, one of four daughters of the present Marquis and Marquise. The present Marquis is one of five brothers, very famous in France and in other parts of the world especially in the Argentine where more than one of them lives most of the year.

Once off the highway from Paris, the roads give way to idyllic countryside and tiny ancient villages in impeccable condition. Our first stop was at the Chateau Fleury, a 17th century chateau (not open to the public) and owned by one of the de Ganay cousins.

First stop: Chateau Fleury, owned by Charles de Ganay.

The grandeur is something to behold, striking chords not played for many of us since childhood. The ancientness is also something to behold for those of us who’ve left our childhood fantasies behind.

Once again, the trays of champagne, orange juice or sparkling water. The interior of the chateau is impressive for its size and proportions but nevertheless it is clearly someone’s home. The man I talked to who was a de Ganay and who lived there was quite proud of his property but in the most modest way. There is no arrogance detected in this pride. The chatelain was obviously a guardian of something larger than himself.

After about forty-five minutes of visiting and champagne quaffing, the black-tied and bejeweled crew walked back down the long gravel driveway to our buses. Which transported us down a few more winding country roads to Courances.

A view of the chateau's surrounding buildings and the now defunct moat

Looking around the grounds of the chateau before entering the crowded reception room.

Comte Charles de Ganay at his chateau Fleury.

Barbara de Portago and DPC

Kay Krehbiel (right)

Lois and Buzz Aldrin

Carole Holmes

Cynthia Olsen and Matilda Stream

Ruth Levy amongst friends

Bonnie Deutsch and friends

Betty Conner (left)

Tanya Brandes, Ruth Levy, and Sandy Getz

David and Libby Horn

Sharon King Hoge and Bonnie Deutsch

Left: Chris Walling and Princess Nulifer. Above: Olivier de Rohan, Juan Pablo and Pilar Molyneux, and Barbara de Portago.

Adrien Meyer, son of Anne Marie de Ganay

The arrival at Courances would be perfect for a movie about the Musketeers. Beautiful allees of massive trees with a corral of horses on one side of the road. And on the other, at the end of a long and imposing driveway, the chateau.

To an American, it is a fancy, a dream, a fantasy actualizing. You are draw to this brick and stone edifice on the other side of a now defunct moat. Before you are women in silk, chiffon and taffeta gowns and men looking spiffy in black tie and dinner jackets. All heading toward this imposing chateau which is accessed by a grand stone double staircase.

The de Ganays’ ancestry reaches back, on a maternal side to the powerful families of 17th and 18th century France – the de Noailles and the de la Rochefoucaulds. This chateau which was built for another and occupied by more than one other family, was acquired by a great-grandfather (a Swiss named Haber) in 1870. It had been previously owned by the Nicolay family. In the early 1850s, so the story goes, one of the young women in the family was raped by the chef. This scandale was so great that the family left the chateau, abandoned it and moved to Switzerland. In other words, it was still viewed as “her” fault.

The chateau suffered from decades of neglect. By the time it was purchased by Mr. Haber, in 1870, trees were growing through the living room floor, the ponds and canals were dry and the place was falling apart. Mr. Haber spent a great deal of time and money restoring it to former glory. His family was as committed. His granddaughter loved the house and married a de Ganay. It became their home. That marquise de Ganay worked assiduously at making her home more beautiful. In the second decade of the 20th century she began a Japanese garden. It remains today and in its maturity is serenely beautiful.

In the sitting room of the house is a piano covered with framed photographs of family members and royalty – like The Queen Mother, and Charles as a young man. The pictures are inscribed and although on display, not conspicuous. You have to be bit of a snoop (hardly) to see them. On this day there was a large bouquet of flowers also on the piano and dominating the view.

Countryside bales of hay on the way to Chateau de Courances.

Guests arriving at the chateau.

After more cocktails in the main house, and a look around -- everyone becomes a tourist at this juncture – we were directed out of the back of the chateau with its views of “the Park” and over toward a barn like building where the dinner was to be served.

The pictures tell the story. The early mid-evening, the light, the ladies in their long dresses, and the men looking more stylish than usual in their tuxedos.

When it was over at midnight, it had begun to rain again. Umbrellas were passed out for the ladies --- the umbrella which covers almost the top half of the body. The de Ganays are a very friendly family. It must be in the family personality.

In the billiard room of the house is a very large portrait, covering most of one wall of the large room, of the five brothers (father and uncles of Anne Marie). It looks as if it might have been painted a quarter century ago when the brothers were still youthful but no longer young men. The portrait speaks to the visitor. Here we are, it says; just happy to be here; even proud of it. You don’t even know them, but you like them.

Anne Marie, the daughter most associated with the American Friends of Versailles, has a very friendly personality, although still very French to this American sensibility. She was effectively the evening’s hostess.

Two nights before at the Molyneuxs’ I was at the same table as Madame de Ganay. When the opera singers came into the room, she was horrified. She had planned the same “surprise” for this dinner at Courances.

The Park, originally laid out by Le Notre.

The chateau from the front

Serge de Ganay and Laure de Ganay

On the steps of the chateau

The Marquis de Ganay greets the guests

Brinkley and Patsy Dickerson

Champagne and fruit juice.

The interior of Courances

Alan Fox, Katie Fox, Amb Stapleton, and Katie Stapleton

Stonington Cox and Diana Odasso

Lisa Falcone and Zaldy Gocco

Matt Bromley and Brittany Horn in the garden

More chateau interiors.

Portrait of the five de Ganay brothers at Courances

Guests walking through the gardens laid out by Le Notre, on their way to the dinner.

The dinner was set up in the building that in former times had been used for pressing the grapes – the people standing on them, and pressing them. It was decorated with an Indian theme. It is a large room and there must have been at least 200 dining. In the center of the room along one wall was a grand piano – to accompany the opera singers who appeared during the first course and reappeared until after dessert

The menu included a papaya salad; the main course was a curried chicken and coconut milk served in bowls, and strawberries and ice cream for dessert accompanied by iced green jasmine tea.

Guests were all very pleased to be there. You would have been too. The singers were a great success. It was other-worldly. It was European and French in a way that Americans almost can’t imagine. The grace and the grandeur tamed by the reality of supporting a big piece of property which to several people is also “home.” We don’t know wealth, or at least most wealth, that lives with this style. It may be the de Ganays’ wealth is not great (the house is open to the public at certain times) but the style prevails and dominates.