Mademoiselle Benoir

Excerpt from Mademoiselle Benoir

Dear Mom,

To my amazement, Mlle Benoir, Mme LeDuc’s sister, called to invite me to lunch, and today I went to Chateau de la Rive . . . on a day without a cloud in the sky and air like silk. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was so much more extraordinary than anything I could have imagined . . .

Mme LeDuc—“Call me Pauline”—came to the door. She led me through a cluttered rectangular foyer, with paintings hung floor to ceiling, that cut through the center of the house to a set of double doors that opened onto the back. As we walked outside, I had to catch my breath, as I saw where I really was . . . in a magnificent parc that seemed to extend for acres, with terraced gardens, an orangerie, a tennis court, numerous vegetable gardens, rose gardens, and vineyards cascading down to the river . . .

As we walked back toward the house, sunlight was bouncing off the immense cedar tree. The tables had red-and-white tablecloths, the place settings were in a wild variety of bright blues and yellows, and a dozen small blond children scooted around on tricycles. I kept thinking, Is this place for real? Are these people for real? Have I time-traveled back to a scene in a Renoir painting?