In 1934 Nancie returned to France to look after the daughter of the Marquis and Marquise de Chabannes la Palice. Christened Genevieve, the little girl, was always known by her nickname, Coulou. Once again Nancie became very friendly with her employer, Eleonore whom she called Ayo. Eleonore was expecting her second child. Hugues de Chabannes la Palice was born not long after. Nancie adored babies all her life and thoroughly enjoyed her own when they came along and later her grandchildren were a great joy to her.
The marriage between Eleonore and her husband, Ebles de Chabannes, was not a very happy one. It had been arranged by their parents. She had the money and he had the title. Like all the french aristocrats, Ebles had an eye for the girls, especially English ones! He was not very good at coping with financial matters but very good at spending his wife's money. Once, when Eleonore inherited some money, he spent it on a huge old villa in Trouville, called La Mare au Diable. His wife was not pleased.
Most of their time was spent at Le Maquis, a wonderful house at Valescure, near St Raphael, in the south of France. Many English aristocrats also built villas and lived in farms in the surrounding area and they all socialised with each other.
Eleonore's Mother was Sybille Bullock-Hall from Six Mile Bottom in Cambridgeshire. The name amused my brother and myself when we were young. She had married Louis Paul Jean Goulden, a French artist who made fabulous enamel works of art. Her sister Marie-Elizabeth, known as Zabet married the Count de Grancey. He inherited the Chateau de Medavy and became Governor of Les Invalides.
I remember dining at the chateau with my parents, Nancie and Jack, in the 1960s. There was a butler called Hans and he served everyone in order of precedence. There were several marquises and other aristocrats and we, being an ordinary English schoolmaster and his family, from Widnes, were served last, naturally. It was an amazing experience.
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