YOUR hosts Chris and Lyn Francis visited Stowe whilst on vacation from England in the summer of 1983. 

They were so impressed with the friendly townspeople, the natural beauty of Stowe and the enchanting location that they made an impetuous decision over lunch to become innkeepers. The rationale for their "hare brained" idea was better to try and fail than look back and ask what if? 

They bought the tired "Sans Souci" ski lodge and embarked upon the gigantic task of restoring it in the fashion of an English Inn. Lyn has completed the rooms and cottages in the Laura Ashley style and furnished many of them with four-poster or brass beds. All rooms have private baths and some have Jacuzzis. 

Most recently a spectacular new addition "Bluff House" featuring luxurious suites offering four-posters, fireplaces, and Jacuzzis has been completed. Sitting high on a granite bluff, the soaring views are spectacular in every direction. Also "Bluff House Hall" is a magnificent re-creation of a medieval room with massive timbers and beams, a 30-foot ceiling and an eight-foot high inglenook fireplace. Seating one hundred, this new room complements another private dining room in the Inn, "Copperfield's," designed to reflect the style of an old English coaching inn. Copperfield's seats 50. 

The best inns of England always feature a pub which affords warm and friendly service to travelers. Chris and Lyn have created Mr. Pickwick's Restaurant to provide this service, naming it after the character immortalized by Charles Dickens. Mr. Pickwick's is the classic redfaced, rotund, jolly gentleman who radiates warmth, good humor and gregarious nature of those characters that have made English Pubs as famous as they are today.