[Page about previous visit: www.rijksbinnenhaven.nl/delamotte/]

The rooms have been somewhat enhanced but they remain light with plenty of open space. We are used to smaller rooms in our own homes and we discover that we intuitively respond with silence to the wideness of these spaces. The far horizons to be viewed from our windows also invite one to just look and muse.

A couple from Belgium has taken their baby along and in the salon where we drink an apéritif, the baby decides to use the shining wooden floor for her first solitary moves forward, crouching.

During dinner, Jean-Marie tells us stories about the history of the castle. Centuries when English and French noble families were often related, some like Harcourt originating in Nordic regions, French counts owning hunting grounds in England and English lords governing large farms in France, the king sometimes owning less than some of his subordinates, knights serving hard time in dungeons until they are free to return home to find the world changed as if they would never come back. On one such occasion, the lord of the Usseau castle discovered that his wife had found comfort in the arms of a handsome young carpenter, Baudar. He forgave his wife but Baudar was thrown into an old well near the castle and whenever the castle needs a ghost, Baudar is the spirit to do the haunting. The mystery of two communicating floors (when someone walks on the upper floor, footsteps are heard coming from the lower floor) is easily understood with Baudar's presence in mind.

The father of the baby tells us that in his practice as a surgeon, of the male patients wanting their nose modified, three out of five men bring a picture of a woman to show the nose they would like to have. A young military man from England tells us about hiking trips that his mother used to take him on as a child. One one occasion, as a ten year old boy, he had to follow her on a long trip, carrying his heavy knapsack through hard rains from early morning 'till late in the evening with not very much to eat. He cried all day but the next day was a little better and gradually he began to appreciate the beauty of the journey. When he joined the military later on and his fellows in boot camp were suffering, he saw the fun of it all. “If you guys think our seargeant-major is bad, you should meet my mother sometime!” he told them while thoroughly enjoying the trip.