Forty five km. from La Rochelle in Saint-Porchaire, we arrived at Château de la Roche Courbon

Breathtaking!

I felt I was in a fairy-tale land of princessess, palaces and troubadors. There were even swans in the lake. Wine, champagne and mimosas were on offer, but I stuck with orange juice - sipping on the rarefied ambiance provided me with all the buzz that I required.

Gillian and I enjoyed the company of Baroness Haan von Habsburg ("Burgie") and her daughter Mina; it was a matter of the "foreigners" and English speakers sticking together. Mina shared a fascinating story about a cross she wore, as seen here.

The cross was a gift from Napoleon Bonaparte to his second wife, an Austrian Habsburg, the Empress Marie-Louise. At some point, most of the diamonds were replaced by garnets. But the diamonds were later recovered and fashioned into gorgeous dangly earrings, which Mina (left)wore at the reception:

Now, like a scene from one of those multi-generational historical novels, who should wander by our table but a woman who was a desendant of Napoleon Bonaparte's first wife, Josephine! So we had descendants of Marie-Therese and Josephine, both Empresses of France and wives of Napoleon, together at a wedding in the 21st century. Talk about serendipity, or fate, or freakishness - but Josephine's great-great-great-great-great granddaughter was a delightful lady who carried her new baby daughter in a Snuggli! I had never seen a woman wearing a Snuggli looking quite so chic....

This experience made me wonder how many times we encounter people to whom we are related in unexpected ways, but we remain totally unaware of our common linkages. Are there ancestors watching us who take a delighted satisfaction in these associations among their unknowing posterity? How would they want us to treat each other?

I so enjoyed the company of Gillian and Burgie.... here we are together:

The meal consisted of scallops (which I couldn't eat because of allergies and Gillian couldn't eat because she's a vegetarian), a roast pork brought in whole on a huge platter and a selection of bonbons.