Sipping Tea at Downton Abbey

Okay. Important first note.

Last weekend I went to Paris with a friend from home! It was amazing in the springtime! So green! We went to the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre and I went running every morning through this gorgeous park called Buttes Chaumont with this gigantic rock outcropping and moat and well-dressed old men running with scarves on (?). Also we ate crepes almost every day and I murdered a lot of French words (for instance Louvre is Louv-ra, kind of? Who knew? And why, oh why, do they just ignore last letters of words? This makes no sense).

I know Paris is enthralling and incredible and all. But the rest of this post is not about Paris. Sorry. More important things to discuss: DOWNTON ABBEY!

Oh you know, just sipping afternoon tea on the grounds.

Background for those who live under a rock.  Downton Abbey is this period drama set in the early 1900's in Britain. The pretense focuses on the Earl and Countess of Grandtham, who have three daughters but no son and therefore don't have a direct male heir to take over Downton; the next in line is a distant third cousin.  Predictably, drama ensues.

The show is filmed on location at Highclere Castle, the real-life seat of the Earl of Carnarvon.  The castle was open only for Easter holidays where presumably the family was on vacation and filming of DA had wrapped a few days prior. It was just a train and a short bus ride away.  Too tempting to pass up.

100% worth the trip. Things I learned at Downton/Highclere.

1.  THE ENTAIL IS REAL. Only male heirs can inherit Highclere Castle. The current 8th Earl of Carnarvon's oldest child is a female... and she gets jack-squat.  The heir presumptive is his second child, a 19-year-old male. I'm not saying we're trying to stalkishly track him down in the hopes of becoming a Countess. You didn't hear me say that.

In an interesting side note, the current Earl  (Oxford grad!) is also heir to the title of Earl of Pembroke and Earl of Montgomery, since those titles currently have no male heir and the Earl of Carnarvon is the 8th cousin. There are no male heirs in 7 iterations of cousins. And all these families are related. Geez.

2. THERE'S A REAL-LIFE MAGGIE SMITH.  So apparently the Dowager Countess of Carnarvon (Maggie Smith's role in the TV show) was among us on Monday when we visited. We just had no idea which one of the 300 other old people visiting she was.  300 old people and us. That's who visits historic castles.

One of two pictures I managed to sneak of the inside.
The main courtyard (across the way is
where Mary dragged the body of the Turkish guy....)

You walk into the castle right into the study where the Earl of Grandtham in Downton Abbey always is filmed in. The castle itself is this weird juxtaposition of ancient priceless paintings and portraits mixed with recent family photos; antique couches and lamps mixed with Patricia Cornwell books (the Countess has good taste) and hair brushes. The staff of Highclere Castle double as tour guides of sorts; they tell tidbits of what filming is like; showed us the chair that Maggie Smith gets to recline in when she gets tired.  A lot of the castle is left as-is for filming; the dining room is exactly the same, for instance.

None of the kitchen scenes are filmed on-location, although almost everything else is. The basement of the castle where the kitchen would be? A King Tut museum. Apparently the 5th Earl of  Carnarvon discovered King Tut's tomb. And then died after shaving a mosquito bite, perpetuating the rumor of the curse of the mummy.

In an interesting twist of events, apparently it is indeed quite expensive to upkeep a castle.  The whole third floor of Highclere (apparently, a bunch of bedrooms) was inaccessible because it needs to be renovated. Apparently the TV show came just in time to save the Castle from sliding too far into disrepair.

I was completely that tourist who asks a bajillion questions of the house staff. Other random facts:

• It was built by the same guy who designed the House of Parliament, which makes lots of sense if you look at it.
• It was indeed used as a wartime hospital.
• They had Napoleon's desk and the newspaper from the day that Edward abdicated the throne. Apparently (now queen) Elizabeth was pulled out of her elementary classroom at school to hear the news that she was in line to be queen. Kind of a big day for a 10-year-old. 
• You can hold your wedding there. Just saying. 

Now back to the grind of schoolwork.  This weekend is the big Oxford v. Cambridge boat race though, which will be a welcome break.

Cheerio!

Lisa