Sans Souci

Sans Souci, our chosen homestay, was simply magical, a transporting back in time....... and it has so much character, that it just deserves it's own exclusive write up space, so day 2 of Coonoor road trip to Sans Souci.

That's Sans Souci as seen from the tea gardens up (rather down) front.

It's (to the year), a 100 year old bungalow, and has changed hands six times in it's hundred year old history, including being home to the catholic bishop of Ootacamund in the 1960s. It yet retains its old time aura...... the pre independence, colonial times feel in true essence. (Must give credit there to Shibani, the current owner of the place too). The exterior, the furniture, the flooring, the books, the artifacts, the cutlery....even tea is still served in a tea pot. 

My experience with a tea pot is only from 'Beauty and the Beast' and I almost expected it to start singing.

The full length porch, which made for coffee time, wine time, cards time, writing time, chatting time, drawing time, reading time, eating time......the gamut of being :)

This was our bedroom

The other side of our room.  The book shelf had an amazing collection...not that I could read much, but like Diksha said, just to smell those old books :)

Another bedroom

No exaggeration, saying we just chilled on the porch

And off the porch...

I must mention, it's early morning on the porch, and I see this wild rabbit zipping across the lawn, and I'm almost wondering if I missed seeing the clock in his hand, and within seconds I see two huge dogs in full chase, and I'm waiting with bated breath. After five minutes, I see the dogs, disappointment writ large on their faces pass back through..brought back the smile :)

Each room has its own fire place, and not to miss the chimney sweeping paraphernalia, it was straight out of Mary Poppins to me 

A quaint little carom room, that's cozy and pretty. We did a late night of cards and wine here one evening, Diksha's first with rummy, and I learnt blackjack :)

This was with Rani who gave us the most delectably delicious food

Here's the coup......a few old pictures from Sans Souci which I was so excited to discover there. They are all from the forties, when the Fritch family from, I think Switzerland, lived there.

Ariadne, the younger of the sisters you see in the picture with the car, actually came back in 2001 to visit the house and that's when she left copies of these pictures there.

And Grandpa Fritch ran a nursery..... you can see it in the prettiness of the house, right?

'Sans Souci' literally means 'no worries'...what a wonderful name.