Luxury French Rental Chateau Holiday Castle for rent in France

Sara and David – September 2009

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:19:37 +0000

Sara and David got married in glorious sunshine at the end of September 2009, and David Banks has put this video compilation together for them, so you can see how the day went even if you could not be there, or just reminisce of the weekend spent at Lagorce!

Agence Mess Working with us at Chateau Lagorce

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:09:04 +0000

Mess and Tek Tek have been working with us since 2007, in 2008 Agence Mess was launched to provide a full wedding service, from Aperitif through to after party. This versatilityfrom 3 piece band to 5 piece with DJ makes them very useful for our clients. As you will see in the video below our clients agree with us that Agence Mess are both professional and classy……

To Contact Agence Mess direct please go through to their website:- French Wedding Band

David Banks Joins Chateau Lagorce Wedding team

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:52:33 +0000

I’m glad to announce that since October 2008 David Banks has been working with us to provide a higher quality of service.

David is an award winning photographer, and has been a real hit with all the clients this year, along with offering lots of negatives on a CD David also puts together bespoke videos made up of the photos from your wedding, and uploads them onto youtube, for ease of sharing between your friends if wanted.

If you want to get a feel for his work, all of Davids compilations are in this section of the blog, and if you want to have a chat about your wedding or prospective wedding his number is at the end of any video.

Pictures speak a thousand words, and videos show hundreads of picture…….

Holiday: 16-19th April 2009

abbottjoseph — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:41:35 +0000

Just wanted to say that Chateau Lagorce is a beautiful place to spend a long weekend. No doubt we only scratched the surface of what is available in terms of activities but we had a wonderful four days tasting wines (Chateau Peneau family were delightful and generous, Chateau Verdus much grander but also very informative and well worth a visit), cycling (see the bike hire from Creon website), swimming, fishing and lastly drinking much wine! The Chateau is well equipped and comfortable and has a beautiful courtyard which catches the sun (although there is shade too) which would be perfect for outdoor eating if it were slightly warmer than during our visit.

Rory Ramsden (see blog) cooked us a good meal for excellent value in the Chateau kitchen. He and his wife are good fun as well as good caterers.

Thanks go to Edward and his family for helping to organise the trip and being so welcoming.

Simple Luxuries

rory — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:58:53 +0000

It was Christmas eve and we were in Libourne at the all-day market buying last minute essentials like a good blue cheese to go with the red onion marmalade, I had just made and on the look-out for a simple but luxurious present!

So it was with great pleasure that my eye settled upon a small basket of black Perigueux truffles sitting well out of reach at one of the interior stalls. Not surprisingly out of raeach as we are talking serious money here. €1000 per kilo! They say oil is ‘black gold’ but black truffles make that proposition rather fanciful not to mention downright inaccurate.

To start talking real money then consider the white Italian truffles which are even more expensive. Rarity really does have a price and the white truffle is getting increasingly hard to find as global climate change makes the essential warm moist conditions in which they prosper in northern Italy almost a thing of the past.

Anyway, clutching my small nugget of black truffle we headed home discussing how best to enjoy our find. We settled on a simple risotto, made with Carnaroli rice of course, on which I shaved slivers of black truffle. Pure heaven!

Christmas had kicked off in true style!

Chateau Lagorce gets a kitchen makeover!!!

admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:55:29 +0000

Although Chateau Lagorce has welcomed many a happy client over the past few years, with not one complaint about the usability or cleanliness of the kitchen, we felt that the kitchen was getting a little too hard to clean on changeover days. Hence the decision was taken in December 2008 that in early 2009 we would renovate the kitchen to bring the kitchen up to date, make it easily cleanable yet keep an ‘old chateau’ look. Work is now well underway, with all the cement already off the walls, and the beauty of the local stone shining out, our next step is to set a new concrete floor base, ready for the traditional hand made ‘carreaux de gironde’. Following this the stone walls will be pointed and new kitchen units will be fitted, the new kitchen will comprise of three ovens, a built in microwave, professional dishwasher, two hot plates and a professional fridge.
Along with renovation the newer aspects of the kitchen (units, cookers etc) some of the more ancient features are getting a little attention eg. two two hundred millimeter tubes have been installed to bring the fire fresh air, to drastically reduce draughts created by lighting a fire.These renovations have led to some interesting discoveries. The sink was not just a stone lintel filled with cement, the sink was in fact a huge carved slab of stone. Whilst renovating the chimney we found that the small bread oven used to be a huge bread oven(black lines were found in the stones), unfortunately ninety nine percent of the old oven was demolished, so we can not revert back to this original layout.

Bread oven and fire place

More information will follow once the renovation has been completed.

Fantastisk slott til leie i Frankrike

admin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:33:35 +0000

Date Submitted: January 22, 2009 Date of Stay: July 2008

Vi giftet oss på dette slottet i Frankrike og det var en fantastisk opplevelse. Familie og venner var samlet i en uke før vi avsluttet oppholdet med bryllup. Edward som eier slottet hjalp oss med alt det praktiske som kaker og utsyr til den store dagen. I tillegg fikset han vin- og cremantsmaking i for oss i gåavstand fra slottet.

Vi følte vi tok en sjanse da vi leide dette stedet etter bare å ha sett det på internett, men vi kunne ikke ha vært mer fornøyde med resultatet.

Dette er et perfekt sted for en ferie sammen med venner eller storfamilien. Bassenget er supert for både store og små og det var helt nydelig å sitte å nyte de varme kveldene i hagen. Det er det ultimate sted for å slappe av. Og hvis det skulle bli for rolig er Bordeaux bare en halvtime unna. Det er viktig å disponere bil hvis man drar hit, ellers kommer man seg nok verken fra eller til slottet.

Dersom noen skulle ønske å gifte seg her og synes det er litt lite med femten rom til alle gjestene, finnes det rimelige alternativer for gjester i nærheten.

Vi håper vi får muligheten til å reise tilbake. Det er et ubeskrivelig bra sted:-)

Astrid & Ivar

Norway

SCANDINAVIAN APPLE TRIFLE

admin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:25:34 +0000

Cordon Bleu Chef
Private Parties & Select Events
Pre-Prepared Seasonal Home-Cooked Meals delivered to your door
Phone: +33 05 57 64 61 28 Mobile: +33 6 37 50 09 88 E-Mail: rory.ramsden@orange.fr
SCANDINAVIAN APPLE TRIFLE
Serves 8
Ingredients
3 large cooking apples such as Bramleys, peeled, cored and cubed (0.5 cms square)
75g caster sugar
Powdered cinnamon
30g Butter (diced and ice cold)
—————————
200g stale bread (cut off crusts, cut into sticks then into cubes)
20g butter (diced and ice cold)
Vanilla Essence
—————————
Vanilla Ice Cream (Home made is best!)
—————————
200ml double cream (whipped to stiff peaks)
Method
1. For the cubed apples
- Put the sugar & the cinnamon in a frying pan and shake to spread evenly over the surface;
- Place over a medium heat and wait for the sugar to turn to liquid caramel;
- Add diced butter and mix well
- Add cubed apple and roll in caramel/butter for 5-6 minutes until softened but not turned to
mush
- Turn into bowl and set aside to cool
2. For the cubed bread
- Put a dry frying pan over a medium heat and add the bread cubes
- Toast all sides as evenly as possible by tossing the cubes from time to time
- Finally add the cubes of butter and pour vanilla essence on top so that you have vanilla
butter
- Toss the cubes in the vanilla butter and decant into a separate bowl to cool
3. Assembly
- Put a layer of bread cubes in the bottom of each glass
- Then a layer of whipped cream;
- Followed by a layer of caramelized apple cubes
- Then a layer of Vanilla ice cream
- Top of with a twirl of whipped cream!
Tip:
Serve in a stylish glass but plain glass. Not too big as in this health conscious age, your
guests can accept a small glass of this delicious pud and keep a clear conscience!
NB … You may have to vary the quantities to suit the size of the glasses you have chosen!

LAMB KORESH WITH RHUBARB

admin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:24:26 +0000

Rory Ramsden
Cordon Bleu Chef
Private Parties & Select Events
Pre-Prepared Seasonal Home-Cooked Meals delivered to your door
Phone: +33 05 57 64 61 28 Mobile: +33 6 37 50 09 88 E-Mail: rory.ramsden@orange.fr
LAMB KORESH WITH RHUBARB
Serves 6
The cheaper cuts of meat can be just as flavoursome
Ingredients
3 large onions
50g butter
1.5kg boned lamb shoulder, scrag end of neck or chump chop
2 tbsp olive oil
2 generous pinches of saffron stamens
Juice 1 lemon
500g rhubarb
600ml chicken stock
80g bunch flat leaf parsley ( finely chopped – reserve storks)
Handful mint leaves (finely chopped – reserve storks)
Method
Peel, halve and finely slice the onions. Melt half the butter in a spacious, lidded casserole
dish and stir in the onions. Add half tsp salt, cover the pan and cook gently, stirring once or
twice until soft, sloppy and but not coloured.
While the onions are cooking, prepare the meat by removing any fat and silver skin. Cut the
now lean meat into double bite-size chunks. Using the remaining butter and olive oil, brown
the meat over a high heat in batches in a frying pan – this ensures that the meat browns
rather than sweats – transferring to a plate as you go.
Soften the saffron in a little boiling stock. Add a handful of parsley and mint storks tied into a
bundle. Add browned meat and diluted saffron to the softened onions, season generously
with pepper, adding lemon juice and stock. Bring to the boil, immediately turn to the lowest
setting, cover and simmer gently for an hour.
Trim the rhubarb and cut into 5cm lengths, discarding any silky skin. Stir the rhubarb into the
pot and cook, covered, for a further 20-30 minutes until the rhubarb disintegrates. Taste and
adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered for a further 15 minutes to
concentrate the juices.
Finish by stirring in finely chop the parsley and mint leaves. Don’t forget to remove the bundle
of herb storks first!
Serve the Koresh with rice, and a scoop of yoghurt to stir into juices and mix with the rice.
Question
Why cook the dish using herb storks and then add the finely chopped herb leaves at the end?
Answer
If you cook the chopped herb leaves for even a short time they will go black so add them at
the end and your dish will have some bright green highlights. The storks will deliver the
flavour you are looking for and will be easy to remove because they are tied into a bundle.

Chestnut and Celeraic Soup

admin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:21:44 +0000

Rory Ramsden
Cordon Bleu Chef
Private Parties & Select Events
Pre-Prepared Seasonal Home-Cooked Meals delivered to your door
Phone: +33 05 57 64 61 28 Mobile: +33 6 37 50 09 88 E-Mail: rory.ramsden@orange.fr
Chestnut and Celeriac Soup
Serves 6
Ingredients
500g Cooked and peeled Chestnuts (cook in dry pan until skins crack)
4 Small celeriac (peeled & cubed)
60g Unsalted Butter
150g Pancetta (or lardons)
2 Heads of celery (white parts only – Finely chopped) reserve leaves for decoration
3 Garlic Cloves (peeled, crushed then finely chopped)
1 Ltr Chicken stock
5 Juniper Berries (crushed)
4 Bay Leaves (Central spine removed then finely chopped)
Salt & Pepper
150ml Cream
100g Parmesan
Olive Oil
Method
- Sweat the pancetta/lardons in butter until transparent
- Add prepared celeriac and celery
- Add chestnuts and garlic
- then juniper berries and bay leaves
- Add hot chicken stock
- Simmer 15-20 minutes
- Using an immersion blender, roughly blend the soup to thicken. The idea is to leave 50%
plus of cubed celeriac and chestnuts whole so don’t overdo it.
- Serve with a splash of cream, grated parmesan and Olive Oil
NB.. This soup is quite filling but oh so tasty so do not serve it in large bowls for
dinner….Consider serving for lunch with some crunchy French bread!