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The first time I visited Chateau de Chaumont was in the winter of 2003 - a brief visit that lingered in my imagination for years after.  Since the castle was closed to tourists, I wandered the grounds alone in hopes I might encounter the spirits of inhabitants past.   This might seem an unusual pastime unless you pause to consider the castle's rather unusual history.  Chaumont was once the home of Catherine de Medici, queen to Henri II of France.  Catherine practiced what some called "the darker arts" at Chaumont, inviting astronomers, numerologists, and a host of shady characters.   The astrologer  Nostradamus was one of the member's of Catherine's shady squad.  He  visited her at Chaumont on several occasions.  Legend has it Catherine attended ritualistic animal sacrifices in the castle's front hall (this told to me by a groundskeeper I encountered) .   On that first visit, when the wind eerily whispered thro...

Boucher when he was 38 years old and at the height of his popularity I have returned from my Grand Tour and am anxious to share some of my titillating finds, but first, I hope you will join with me in wishing François Boucher a Joyeux Anniversaire! The brilliant French painter was born in this day in 1703.  The son of a minor painter and talented lace designer, François was exposed to the Arts at a young age.  By the time he was twenty years old, he had served as an apprentice to the famed artist François Lemoyne, the engraver  Jean-François Cars, and won the Grand Prix de Rome (a much-coveted scholarship for artists). He was admitted to the Académie de peinture et de sculpture as a historical painter in 1731 and became a faculty member in 1734.  From that point, his career took off.    Using a pleasing palette in which he incorporated many shades of blue, Boucher was a master at depicting the whimsical, fantastical, and n...

  You might find this difficult to believe, but I have often been described as verbose.  (Honestly, is it my fault words flow like the Niagara from my head to my tongue?) So you would think writing an introduction to my interview with historical novelist Sandra Gulland, a writer I admire immensely, would be easy for me. That's not the case.  I literally agonized over every word I typed.  How does one go about describing Sandra Gulland?  Is it merely enough to say that she wrote three acclaimed, bestselling novels about Josephine Bonaparte and another about Louis XIV's mistress, Louise de la Vallière?  Do I tell readers that she was born in Miami, graduated college with a degree in literature, taught second grade in an Inuit Village, and then worked as a book editor?   Finally, I decided you, my clever, intelligent readers, would want to know why I was running an interview with Sandra Gulland.  After all, what does Sandra Gullan...

(Editors Note: This is the second installment of a two-part article. If you would like to read the first installment, please click here .) The Hospitality of a Comte Chateau de Bouceel Reluctantly, I departed Mont Saint Michel and headed inland.  I had made a reservation to spend a few nights at  Château de Boucéel , an 18th century chateau that operates as a bed and breakfast. I felt a jolt of excitement as soon as I turned down the long, tree-lined drive and again when I gazed upon the impressive chateau with the steeply-sloped mansard roof, curved pediment, and tall windows. The neatly clipped lawn, white painted footbridge spanning the pond, and the charming outbuildings stirred my writer's imagination, but it was what I discovered inside Château de Boucéel that made a lasting impression on my romantic soul. I had barely stepped onto the gravel drive when the front door opened and a tall, nattily dressed man with aquiline features rushed out to help me ...