"Le Chateau" became "Franchini's Chateau" on May 31, 1961, according to an ad and article in the Independent-Journal of May 30 that year. Just found it in a microfilm today.

-- Edited by Paul Penna at 04:31, 2008-05-07

Oh how I loved that restaurant! I was a child when my parents and my brothers would go. The duck pond was truly magical (especially to a child) and I remember always ordering the escargot and my brothers would always get the frog legs. That was also the first time I had a Shirley Temple and loved them! Strange to me that at that young age I ordered escargot and KNEW what it was!
Such fond fond memories, I wish someone had pictures so I could take a little trip down memory lane. There could not have been a more wonderful place to grow up than here. I only wish somethings would just stay the same.
I am amused at how much of this blog has referenced Al Giddings, I grew up with all of them down the street from me and I was friends with the youngest of the girls.

The thing I remember most about La Chateau was the nice little duck pond that was adjacent to the restaurant. Whenver we drove by there in the 1960s and early 70s I always looked over to check out the ducks, especially the yellow one that lived there for years. His name was Horace, and he used to be my duck! I got him at the Farmer's market in LA when I was a kid during a family vacation down there. We kept Horace for a few years in a small hutch near the house, but he was always seemingly lonely and my dad thought the pond at the restaurant would be the perfect place for him. It turned out to be. It's sad when I drive by the site of the old place now and see a sterile looking power plant! I also rembmer the driving range on the other side of the
hill where my dad taught me how to play golf. it too is gone now...covered by ugly condominiums. That's the sad part of things changing in marin...so much history lost or covered up by "pregress." It drives me up the wall sometimes to see how "chee-chee" and tony marin has become, and how it's been difficult for middle income families to stay around. Thanksd for Jason again for his fine web site!

Giddings must have been the son of our longtime game warden Al Giddings of Woodacre, who used to stop in at the firehouse in Woodacre when I was stationed there to drink coffee & b.s. with the staff, guy had some great stories.

Thanks Rob, I also remember a skin or scuba diving school at the end of the road behind The Chateau restaurant, just before the Las Gallinas nine hole golf course I used to play at once or twice. (It was, let's say, not a very exciting a course).

Related

Was West End Villa in the old train stop hotel where Monk's Inn/West End Grill/Cafe Arrivederci was/is ?

Sorry, no pics, but how I wish I did! That was one of my favorite sights when traveling north, back to the earliest days of my childhood. I looked forward to seeing that little pond with its mannequin fisherman (was that still there towards the end?) on each of our frequent trips up to the Russian River or to visit grandfolks in Calpella. I knew it was all artificial, but that's what I loved about it! It was like a little slice of a Disneyland that didn't exist yet - sort of a foreshadowing of my infatuation with that place when it did become a reality. It was a sad day when I drove by and saw it was all gone - like part of my childhood had gone with it.