If it be a Château that you are seeking, you must be doubly careful. To a French peasant many a tiny cottage is a "fine house" (belle maison), and almost every modern house, of any pretentions at all, is a château. To us, on the contrary, a château means a castle; usually an ancient one.
Many a time has a blue-shirted peasant looked up from his work by the road side, to address me somewhat as follows:
"The Château de Bon Espoir; Certainly, Monsieur, 'tis there, three kilometres away, up the hill, tout droit en montant."[35]
We climb the three kilometres, wander about for an hour, and return disconsolate. The labourer, hearing the whirr of bicycle wheels, looks up again.
"M'sieur et Dame have found the Château?"
"No, Monsieur. They told us up there that the ancient Château de Bon Espoir was on the other side of the valley to the north."
"Oh! that one? That's only an old ruin. I thought you meant the château de Monsieur Pigot."
"No. Who is Monsieur Pigot?"
"Monsieur Pigot, 'Sieur Dame, is the proprietor of the grand magasin du Louvre at Paris. He has a lovely château, up there where you went. They would have let you in if you had gone up the drive."