Michel and Katie

Michel (Mee-shell) and Katie (kat-TEE) Ransquin are the live-in caretakers of the chateau, and they are who I spend most of my days here with. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met, and Michel always has a joke to tell. He's also a little obsessed with their dogs, but who wouldn't be?

Especially when they happily do things like this.
Michel tells me they happily sat there to be wheeled
around the courtyard and wanted more when he stopped.

They like animals. A lot. They've got two dogs, Tara and Hercule, three cats, and two birds.

The birds are pretty hilarious when they get to talking.

Tara the brindled Am. Staff. Terrier,
Hercule the Fox Terrier, and Phoebus the Chartreux.
The other two cats are the same breed.

Michel does some of the hedge trimming (Who doesn't? There's way too much to go around), sells the tickets when the garden is open for visitors, and is kind-of a butler when the owners are here. He loves to bike, often going 150 km in a day! I'm not sure I've ever seen him be serious about anything outside of his butler duties.

Sorry grandma, but Katie is the best cook I've ever met! She makes it all look so simple, too. Thankfully, she's happy to share recipes with me. Katie does all the cooking, helps out in the garden a few days a week, and helps the maid with the laundry and cleaning duties. She has also been my extremely gracious personal tour bus driver!

They have been so welcoming, I feel like part of their family. They keep telling me I speak French really well, but I they're just as awesome at explaining the unfamiliar things and being human dictionaries when we don't have the paper one. It's quite a skill.

Michel adores his iPhone, and LOVES
to plays with photos on it. I can hardly
look at him with a straight face.