chateau

our little french chateau

…so we had arrived in bozburun, i had hurriedly booked a night at Ünlü Apart Pansiyon before we left selçuk – they appeared to have a range of apartments and i figured it would do for the first night, and if we liked the spot we could stay there longer or find somewhere else.

when we arrived they offered us either an upstairs apartment with 2 bedrooms and balcony, or a quaint little stone cottage – once we saw inside and heard the story it was a no-brainer! the apartments are owned by Nail and his wife, and run with the help of his son, fadil and his french born wife, laetitia.

the story with the cottage is that friends of laetitia, a french couple, had fallen in love with bozburun and had the little stone cottage built on nail’s land with the intention of spending their spare time here.

from the photos it looks like they now have 2 young children, and i suspect the spare time is short and infrequent, so they let the family rent it out to people like us. its filled with the owner’s furniture, fittings, knick knacks, artifacts, art, cutlery, crockery – basically an entire home down to some clothes and toothbrushes in the bathroom!

so we just fell in love with it, though small there is a sofa bed for kai in the lounge area, and a separate dining area, small kitchen and bathroom as well as our double bedroom. it has a flat roof with a marble floor so we can sit up there and look over the harbour, it also has a small verandah with a table we sit at for breakfast and then a large tiled patio with a huge grapevine shading it and comfy seats and dining table as well as a hammock.

then its straight onto the small street that runs along the waterfront, across that and onto our ‘wooden beach’, at first i was more than a little dubious about the wooden beach – essentially a wide wooden deck along the foreshore with a ladder to get in and out of the water and comfy deckchairs with shade umbrellas.

i have to say i am totally sold on it now, no sand to get in tricky places, no rocks, straight into deep water, comfy deck chairs and back across the street to grab a snack or beers – and if you forget to stock the fridge its 50m to the shop to grab a few coldies for the ‘wooden beach’

anyway, the long and short of it is that we have just fallen in love with both bozburun and the cottage – or chateau rick as i am calling it! we have decided to stop here for a month or so, we dont believe we will find anywhere this special again and even if we found another village we loved as much, we certainly wouldnt find another french cottage like this!

we are also enjoying being stopped again and being able to cook again – although we havent had to do much thanks to the owner’s generosity! they brought over a huge pan full of dolma yesterday at lunch time – stuffed zuccini flowers, zuccini and grape leaves, as well as a bowl of baby potatoes, cold in lemon juice and olive oil with a big lump of home made yoghurt!

we had a bit for lunch, then ate it with some lamb i grilled for dinner and again with grilled fish tonite! they are already talking about the next dish they will cook for us!

if you never hear from us again, you will know where to look!