Our next location of Chateauroux was my favourite part of the trip for me, as it was extremely relaxing and welcoming. First we had to get there however, which involved a few hiccups along the way.
After Troyes as we headed down towards Catherine- who was Joy's mums friend and had offered to have us all - we first encountered the problem of our air conditioning blowing warm air and nothing else. In 39 degree heat this really wasn't ideal and we had to stop for many cold drinks along the way to keep ourselves cool. That was the unpleasant part, next came the hilarious part.
As Brad drive down the country roads as we neared Chateauroux, Joy had her feet slightly out the window to keep herself cool, and was also taking photos with her camera with both hands (these two facts are important!) Next thing we know, a cop car pulls out of a hidden bend and shoots up behind us, lights flashing.
Shit we thought, we had been going 10km over the speed limit, but so had everyone else! Three cops got out and began walking towards us, adding to my nervousness, however it quickly turned to confusion as the first cop walked up to the driver window and said in very broken English 'there has been a mistake!' I imagine the look on our faces at the moment would have been hilarious. He asked 'you are English' to which we nodded vigorously. He then explained that they had thought we were driving a European car, which would have made Joy the driver, driving with no hands and feet out the window!! They all looked very embarrassed and quickly waved us on. I would love to have heard their conversation after we had left, as I'm sure two of the cops would have berated whichever one called us in!
After that little mishap, we made it safely to Catherine's beautiful house in the middle of the countryside. It was at least two hundred years old, and absolutely amazing.
We were greeted with the warmest welcome I could have asked for, with ice cold beer from their cellar and an array of food. They insisted we sit down and relax, and both Catherine and her husband were lovely.
Catherine rescues a lot of animals, so she had a few dogs, tonnes of cats, and even a large white rabbit. The cats (of which there were about nine) were my favourite of course.
The dog was pretty gorgeous too though, and had so much energy and desperation to play
catch, he would drop the ball in your lap and look at you beseechingly!! 
Holding a grumpy Harvey so Joy could have a chance to eat at lunchtime.
Although a very well behaved baby occasionally when he was tired he would cry
unless being held, so sometimes we all took turns. 
The house fascinated me of course and I went exploring. This was the unconverted part and was once a barn. Catherine wanted to do it up, but it was too expensive. 
The coolest part of this house was that when Catherine had been renovating the main house, they had found a letter in the beams, dating to the beginning of the 1800s, it contained orders from the king about the owner allowing two gaurds to stay with them and be provided with food. Catherine had it framed in a little glass case and showed it to me. It was beautiful handwritten and extremely cool to look at.
Here you can see the regional speciality Catherine made is, some kind of really nice meat done in a sort of pate type way with hard boiled eggs on top and encased in pastry. It was lovely!! Joy also caught me in the act of petting the dog which is why I'm grinning at thin air - I think you can see his nose If you look closely. Overall it was a lovely trip, and they insisted we take their bedrooms upstairs while they slept downstairs which I felt terrible about. After a lot of peace and relaxation -the only sounds around here were of nature - we eventually headed for Amboise and some of the surrounding castles!
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