Picture from the Past
Mountain chateau was
epitome of country life
By John S. Baggerly
In last week's column, Henri Boussy began his account of the mountain property his family owned and where he grew up. He started reliving these memories after a movie company making a film on the Doobie Brothers requested information about the Doobies, who performed at Le Chateau Boussy.
The retreat's original name, Grand Bois Taverne, was unpronounceable and unintelligible to the increasingly American clientele, Boussy writes, and so the more familiar Le Chateau Boussy was adopted--still French, but, at least, most people had heard the word "chateau."
He continues his nostalgic tale:
Largely a family enterprise, Ferdinand (Henri's father) was helped in the operation of the dining room by his mother, who was a superior cook and salad maker. His father took care of the extensive gardens--at one time, they supplied all the vegetables for the dining room. There were two large chicken yards supplying eggs, a dairy cow, goats, and two horses named Franky and Johnny that did the plowing. Later, other horses were used for riding. Occasionally, a tame pig was raised and became a great pet until he mysteriously disappeared, amid tears and lamentation.
It was entirely a rural existence. Mail was picked up at the Alma post office, now under the waters of Lexington Dam. The telephone was a five-party line, and the operator in Los Gatos was summoned with a crank.
The Chateau was a favorite dining spot on the road between Santa Cruz and the Valley. On Sunday evenings the favorite activity was to hike the half mile of driveway from the Chateau to the highway, and watch the traffic jam of frustrated vacationers returning from the beach. A few had the good sense to turn off the highway, to relax over dinner at the Chateau, before completing their voyage home after dark.
It was a wonderful place to be brought up as a child. I was 3 when we moved from our resort at Soda Springs, above Alma. It was sold to Georgette Cabrol's parents and operated as a companion resort until the l930s.
I was prevailed upon to learn a great many skills: busing dishes , washing same, waiting tables, sweeping and mopping, cooking, making beds, chopping kindling, building wood fires, taking reservations on the phone and writing business letters. When I entered the first grade, I couldn't speak a word of English, having spoken French all my life at home. High school was in Los Gatos seven miles away; by that time I was bilingual. A friend of the family retired to France and left me his car, a 1917 Chalmers, which I used to go to high school.
Ferdinand Boussy operated the resort successfully through the Depression, and the restrictions of World War II until he died in 1945. By that time, I had other professional and family interests, so I did not feel qualified to take over a business from which I had been separated for almost 10 years.
The property was sold but still operated as a restaurant for a number of years. It [now] seems to have passed into private hands, as there is no commercial sign at the entrance, which is barred by a tall chain link gate that is part of a fence that now encloses the entire highway frontage on the property. Sic transit gloria mundi.
During a phone conversation, Henri recalled that, after a junior/senior dinner at Los Gatos High School, students and teachers came up to the Chateau. The highlight of the evening was two girls skinny-dipping in the swimming pool.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
