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#1: Adlersnest Author: catherine, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 2:19 pm
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I'm a bit confused over the living arrangments for the Graves and Courvoisiers ... anyone able to clarify them for me?

#2: Author: Tan, Location: London via Newcastle Australia

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 2:52 pm
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The impression that I have is that they shared the chalet, but whether it was split down the middle, or whether they each had a floor I am not sure about. There is a bit of a description in Reunion, but I don't have that to hand at the moment. HTH? Confused

#3: Author: Maeve, Location: Romania

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:32 pm
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This is what I could find in Reunion:

Quote:

Hilary Graves arrived last of all from the big chalet she and Biddy Courvoisier had turned into two flats, one for each family.

Quote:

with this mention of Biddy's place:

Quote:

Grizel had already visited her old friend, but she ran upstairs to the upper apartment to lead the way to the big white bedroom where Biddy Courvoisier lay on a huge sofa, the baby beside her in the big, old-fashioned cradle which had rocked four generations of little Courvoisiers already.

#4: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:35 pm
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Does anyone else always read it as 'Addersnest'?

#5: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:35 pm
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When I first read your query, I immediately thought - oh, it's a chalet split in two back to front, of course.

But then I went and looked at Reunion. And now I think I'm wrong. At one point it says:

Quote:

The big chalet she [Hilary] and Biddy Courvoisier had turned into two flats, one for each family.

And then:

Quote:

Hilary showed off her new home with justifiable pride. Besides the salon, there was a big Speisesaal, another room which Dr Graves used as a study, four good bedrooms and, close at hand, a hut which was the playroom for her own trio and Biddy's little family. The kitchen was next door to the Speisesaal, with a hatch between. Unlike Joey, she had mainly modern furniture and her floors were polished, with a scatter of rugs.

‘I couldn't be bothered with carpets,’ she told her guests. ‘Now some of you had better call on Bridget while I show off the playroom. Don't stay more than a few minutes or she'll be tired to death and I'll hear all about it from Eugen when he comes home.’

Grizel had already visited her old friend, but she ran upstairs to the upper apartment to lead the way to the big white bedroom where Biddy Courvoisier lay on a huge sofa, the baby beside her in the big, old-fashioned cradle which had rocked four generations of little Courvoisiers already. She sat up to welcome her old friends with pink cheeks and gloriously blue eyes glowing with pleasure.

So, here, it is definitely two flats, Hilary on the ground floor and Biddy upstairs. Phew!

#6: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:36 pm
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D'oh! Beaten to it!

Apologies for posting the same quotes as Maeve.

#7: Author: Maeve, Location: Romania

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:41 pm
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That's often happens to me if I play one of the A to Z games in "English Tea." Very Happy

There's a little bit of a time lag between posts sometimes.

#8: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:44 pm
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Rosie wrote:

Does anyone else always read it as 'Addersnest'?

Always! *g*

#9: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 4:03 pm
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Maeve wrote:

That's often happens to me if I play one of the A to Z games in "English Tea." Very Happy

There's a little bit of a time lag between posts sometimes.

I can imagine - you must have to be very speedy when there's a lot of people logged in.

In this instance, I was posting at work and one of my bosses came to chat in between me writing my post and actually clicking Submit, and I didn't check if anyone else had posted in the meantime. D'oh!

#10: Author: catherine, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 5:06 pm
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Thanks for your help!

I wonder if the flats were soundproof ... Wink

#11: Author: Tamzin, Location: Edinburgh

Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 1:23 am
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It sounds like there is no bathroom or by implication a toilet! Even worse than the CS - at least they had the Splasheries even though there seemed to be no toilet facilities in the whole school.

#12: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 10:25 am
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Well, in the 1950s a lot of people would still've had outside toilets - my grandparents still had one in the 1980s, although they did have an inside one as well by then! - but somehow I doubt that EBD would've thought that suitable for the doctors and their families ...

It must've been a right madhouse with all the kids they had between them Rolling Eyes

#13: Author: Lorna, Location: Birmingham, England

Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 11:50 am
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The house next door to me still has the outside toilet. Although I am fairly confident that they have a bathroom upstairs too!

#14: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 12:44 pm
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My grandmother's house had a toilet that was separate from the house. They did some renovations and put in a laundry between the toilet and the rest of the house. This was the only toilet in the house - on the ground floor, with no heating, where most of the bedrooms for the five inhabitants were on the floor above. From the nights I spent there at times, I can assure you - you thought loooong and hard before getting out of bed on a winter's night to go to the loo!

#15: Author: RoseCloke, Location: Camping in my housemate's room. Don't ask.

Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 1:06 pm
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I always thought it was odd, growing up, that no one ever mentioned toilets. Not just in EBD, but in Blyton as well. In fact, in everything. When I was little I just assumed that book characters were like barbie dolls and didn't need toilets Embarassed

#16: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 3:55 pm
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KB wrote:

From the nights I spent there at times, I can assure you - you thought loooong and hard before getting out of bed on a winter's night to go to the loo!

Didn't you have a gazunder? Or even one that lived in a little cupboard beside your bed?

My paternal grandmother liked one of those all her life, despite the fact that for at least the last fifty years of it, and I suspect longer, she lived in a house with a loo, if not ensuite (oddly, the en-suite bathroom in the house she lived in when I first remember her didn't have a loo, just a bath and basin) then at least just across the corridor upstairs!

By the way, someone said they always read it as "Adders Nest" - I get a
much more ominous double-take, as "Adlersnest" (Eagles' nest, by the way) was, of course, the name of the house Hitler built for himself at the top of the Obersalzburg in Bavaria. Which I have visited.

#17: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 6:47 pm
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I'm glad you said that, Annabel, because it always makes me think of Hitler's Adlersnest as well and I wondered if it was just me! I'm surprised EBD chose the name given its connotations.

#18: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 12:31 am
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Perhaps she didn't know that was the name of it. After all, Eagle's Nest only refers to the teahouse on top of the mountain, not the whole establishment at Berchtesgarten, so she might not have come across the name, or didn't realise the significance.

I've been there, too. Very Happy

Oh, and Mrs Redboots, there was nothing like that for me. I have no way of knowing what my grandparents might have had. Never asked... Confused

#19: Author: Tan, Location: London via Newcastle Australia

Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 4:47 pm
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My husband lived in a house while he was at Uni which had an outdoor loo (and that was only in the 90's). For some reason, I rarely stayed over there!

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