Sunday, December 3, 2023

Merry Christmas 2023!

Merry  Christmas! 


A merry Christmas to all, I thought I would get in early this year as we have completed our tourist and wargames season for 2023 until we reopen in April 2024. A big thank you to all of our Wargame holiday and French cultural tour guests this year, we have almost totally transitioned to 3-5 night private fully guided Holidays. 

We had a very big year with guests from all over the world, again America and Australia were our top visitors, and also welcomed English, Scots, Dutch, Swiss, German, Belgians and of course French. 

Renovations continue on the Maison l’Hotel de Hercé, now onto the third and forth floor, plus attic spaces. We also commenced the exterior dependencies/outbuildings renovation this year also and more work on the garden also of course. 

During the year we had monument historic architects also visit and they have pushed back the construction date by 30 years to 1690s making the house very modern for its time, transitional baroque so that has been a shock. They also possibly think our Cave/Cellars may be much earlier and could be built in the late 15th century, due to its arches, vaulted ceilings and wide granite footing stones (800mm x 600mm), the basement kitchens, the water storage source and stone waste waster systems. 

A big year for medieval, early renaissance, ww2 and Napoleonic being the most popular periods on the table. I have also helped my friend Philip along with with the Perry translation of Valour and Fortitude for French Napoleonic players. 

Looking forward to a Australian Christmas with our family and visiting my first granddaughter in Sydney! 

All the best 

Cheers
Matt

10 comments:

Jonathan Freitag said...

Merry Christmas, Matt! Sounds like business is booming. Terrific to see you doing so well.

John said...

Have a Merry Christmas Matt! Glad to see things are happening. COVID hit you guys hard.

Aly Morrison said...

Have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year Matt…
Enjoy your Antipodean Holiday…

All the best. Aly

Marc said...

Great stuff Matt. Good to see you both doing so well.

caveadsum1471 said...

Merry Christmas, sounds like it's going well, see you on the challenge!
Best Iain

Bluewillow said...

Yes mate, we have almost recovered from before Covid.

Bluewillow said...

Thanks John, yes only that we have supplemental income we survived.

Cheers
Matt

Bluewillow said...

Cheers Aly, you too

Bluewillow said...

Cheers Marc, all the best for the coming year

Bluewillow said...

Cheers Iain, yes see you in the challenge