Well, friends, I don't feel I've done justice to that fantastic chateau we stayed at in France. I think I would like to tell you some more - quite a bit more - about it.

   The Chateau D'Herouville was the name, and what a lovely place to record an album. Warm, summer sunshine, a lovely chateau and a fantastic 16 track recording studio. Enough to please any hard-working, city-weary, young musician. The chateau is in the village of Herouville just outside Paris. We spent three wonderful weeks there, recording my new album 'Pin-Ups'. It's all those fun and fabulous songs from the mid-sixties that never really got quite the attention their lovely easy beats deserved. Ronno, Trevor and Mike Garson were there with us, and Aynsley Dunbar came along to play drums.

   There seemed to be an endless stream of visitors, like Jean Millington (Fanny), Nico, that really wonderful singer, with a friend of hers, Kid Jensen (of Radio Luxembourg fame) and a lovely French singer called Christine.

   Angie and Zowie came down every weekend, and one day we were photographed together by Terry O'Neil for the Daily Mirror. Angie wore some lovely things from the Paris collections, and I wore my favourite Freddy suit. Oh, and Justin De Villeneuve photographed me with his favourite model 'Twig The Wonder Kid' (Twiggy) for a Vogue magazine cover.

   Dinners were really momentous occasions, with everyone seated at a super-long table with candles and dry wine, delicious food and all those beautiful faces with their suntanned cheeks and twinkling eyes.

   The food was very French... though they did seem to serve an awful lot of potatoes! The vegetables and fruits were very fresh and lush, though - and with that famous Paris bread, everything tastes great.

   It's a good thing we had a nice big swimming pool outside to let everybody burn up some calories each day - everyone but me, of course. I only ventured in once when the heat of the day got to be a bit too much. But Ronno and Jamie (my road manager) had a few good workouts every day.

   Last week I had just finished telling you about the swimming pool in our chateau in France. I was just telling you how much Ronno and Jamie enjoyed swimming in it.

   Well, that reminds me of the time that we were playing at Miami Beach in the States. Ronno was really enraptured by that place - he used to swim in the hotel pool and the Ocean every day.

   California was like that, too, and I think that if old Ronno ever settles down and abandons this crazy life, it'll be in a pink stucco house with a piano and a pool and a continuous stream of beautiful young ladies to apply his suntan oil!

   Anyway, back in France... we all had some sun and some fun and we came away with a fantastic new album to help you dance away your 'back to school' blues. We've still got a little mixing (on the album) to do, but sometime during October, you should be able to give a spin to some of my very favourite (yours, too, I hope) songs of the '60s.

   Did you know (I think I may have told you before) that this chateau - the very same one where people like Elton John and Uriah Heep now record - once belonged to the famous classical composer Chopin, and was occupied for a while by the famous woman writer with a man's name, George Sands?

   Actually we recorded 'Pin Ups' in one of the two studios which the chateau now houses, The George Sands Studio, which is where the stables used to be. The other studio, called The Chopin Studio, is located in the main house and the two buildings are connected by an arcade. The chateau is made of natural stone and stucco and is surrounded by high stone walls and huge iron gates.

   There's a beautiful little French church just next door which looks as if it's been there even longer than the chateau.

   There are lots of ducks, chickens and rabbits running around, and the moat surrounding the old abandoned tower out back is chock full of goldfish.

   When we ventured outside the chateau, it was usually in our big green Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine. It really must be the longest car in France, and it was usually to a discotheque in Paris called the Malibu Club.

   There we would drink and dance and party 'til 4 or 5 a.m., and one night I was just so in love with Paris that I sent the car home without me and checked into the beautiful Hotel George V where I had stayed during my visit to Paris last May.

   Most nights, however, were spent in the studio where we'd drink French wine and record until dawn.

   Lulu and her manager, Marion Massey, spent a few days with us, and wait 'til you hear her new recording of 'The Man Who Sold The World'. We all played on it, and I produced it with Ronno's arrangement, and Andy Scott, the house engineer, helped out.

   Lulu is a fantastic singer and I hope you get as much pleasure from listening as I got recording, 'The Man Who Sold The World'. Marion was ever so nice, and she kept everyone interested and amused with her fortune telling cards.

   I must say, everything she predicted for me was pretty right on, and she sure was fun to have around.

   The first annual Chateau d'Hérouville Indoor Table Tennis Championships were really fun, too, and I think the title must go to Ken Fordham who spent a few nights recording the sax and flute tracks on 'Pin Ups', and every other waking hour, I think, over the table tennis net!

   Well, it was really fun and I hope you just love the album 'cause I made it for you, my lovely fans.