the chateau

when i was a kid, my siblings, cousins and i would create a "sand city" when we would vacation at our family cottage in the summer. each of us would use our favorite matchbox cars, rocks, sand, cement blocks and pieces of wood to make our own little mini metropolis. massive planning went into creating each aspect of town. and we all tried to outdo each others mansions with moss outlined go-kart tracks, dirt hole swimming pools, and pebbled helicopter pads. but there was a dark side to sand city. a dangerous, anything goes place far away on the other side of town from our elegant pristinely kept sprawls. a place where banged up, fire-blackened police cars (courtesy of flasher fireworks) lined the streets and shadowy white trash hooligans roamed free. the place was "chateau" and apparently barneys new york found some of our skeleton cars of yesteryear for their latest spring shoe catalog.