I am the Marquis de Terme

Ladies and gentlemen, my respects!

We have not yet had the honour of being introduced. My name is Terme, Marquis de Terme. As you can imagine, I’ve had a strange adventure, which I’m going to tell you about right away.

Everything was normal and serene when, as usual, I lay down under my cosy goose feather duvet on a beautiful evening in 1794. I was then the owner of a marvellous estate in the heart of the Médoc, in Margaux to be exact, obviously named after me and producing the most divine of nectars.

When I woke up on that beautiful sunny October morning, fresh and refreshed after an invigorating night’s sleep, something seemed different to me. After stretching out and putting on my usual light suit and my faithful wig, I went out into the castle courtyard to smell the pure air of the beginning of the day. And there, amazement! The house and the vineyards that I once knew have changed a lot. There are even strange four-wheeled machines producing a curious roar (a new kind of cart perhaps?) and many people that I hardly know inside my own house… But what in the name of a grape berry is going on?!

Perfectly incredulous, I decide to ask a good man who is busy in a row of vines, in order to clarify this enigmatic situation. As I ask him about the year in which we are, he stares at me, mute as a carp, before finally finding his tongue to answer me: “in 2018, obviously sir!”. Then staring at me from head to toe, he adds: “but finally, you’re going to a fancy dress party or what?!”.

What an impertinent devil! Skeptical, and a tad offended, I turn my heels to regain the freshness of the castle and think calmly. The unthinkable then imposes itself to me: after a quick mental calculation, it would seem that I have made a consequent turn of the dial of … 224 years! But since I am here with you in 2018, rested as never before, I am determined to explore this century and its delights, and to live the life of Château Marquis de Terme in these modern times.

Hear ye, kind readers, please let me share my discoveries with you each month.

Signed: The one and only Marquis de Terme