Philofaxy French Meet Up - May 2017

It is about 7 years since we moved to live in France, yet in that time we have never been able to organise a proper meet up. That changed this last weekend.

Back in February a few people commented about holding a meet up in France, but where? It is a big country yet the towns are fairly well spread out.

After we gathered the interested parties together on a Facebook group we started to discuss possible dates and locations.

I had decided very early on that Alison would be coming along to this meet up mainly because my French isn't that good, certainly not good enough to converse over a whole weekend about planners and organisers in French!

Marie-Hélène came to the rescue with her suggestion of her mothers Chambre-d'Hôtes and Gite near the town of Chenonceaux which is fairly centrally located for the majority of people that had shown an interest in attending.

A date was fixed and we were all able to stay the night at the Chambre-d'Hôtes as well, so on Saturday we all converged on Chenonceaux to meet up for the first time.

We took over the dining room for the afternoon. Spreading out our planners and organisers and we chatted and shared things. I gave a quick demonstration on how to swap rings, naturally!

Considering the number of people, there was a huge number and quite a range of makes (Filofax, Van der Spek, Gillio, Quo Vadis etc) and sizes from Mini all the way up to A4, one A4 by Van der Spek was fitted with 38mm Krause rings, even when empty this organiser was quite a beast! but wonderful to see of course.

We spent the afternoon looking through all the various organisers and planners that we had all brought along. Lots of discussions going on around the large dining room, it was very relaxed.

Some pictures, with thanks to Isabelle and Alison for additional photos!

Saturday

The main table... quite a few here!

My side table, a mixture of Van der Spek, Gillio organisers and a Filofax or two as well. 

Lots more photos... click more!

L-R Angélique, Nathalie, Marie-Hélène, Claire

Isabelle and Steve

An A4 Van Der Spek with 38mm Krause rings... !

Angélique, Isabelle, Marie-Hélène, Claire

Steve and Nathalie

'This is how to take rings apart....' 

Alison, Rose, Angélique

Isabelle and Alison

Isabelle's Gillio/Van der Spek, Gillio interior, Van der Spek exterior!

It's that A4 again, note the big back pocket for A3 paper!!

There was a lot to look at, including a 75th Anniversary Grace Curr Filofax Duplex (in the box)

Alison even had her own table to show off her books... and her
two organisers(Gillio A6 and Filofax Personal from the 1980's!)

L-R Rose, Angélique, Claire, Nathalie, Isabelle, Marie-Helene, Maman, Steve

In the evening we went to a local restaurant for some food and reconvened for breakfast the following morning.

Sunday

A couple of people had to leave after breakfast, but a small number of us went to visit the chateau.

Alison and I had been before but it is a lovely chateau and the gardens are lovely at this time of year, plus the weather was very kind, it had rained on and off on the Saturday, but Sunday was very sunny with a cool breeze.


This is La Bérangerie-Chenonceaux where we all stayed, an excellent place to stay.

Breakfast and discussions continued

And the sun was shining

Chateau 'selfie' !

I've been here before but it is a splendid Chateau to photograph

Beautiful gardens beside the river

We had a light lunch before making our way back to our cars and saying 'au revoir' after a lovely weekend.

I would like to thank everyone who came along to such a fantastic/fantastique weekend. A big thank you to Marie-Hélène and her dear mother for their hospitality and patience!

Until the next time â beintôt.