Canada welcomes Ukrainian refugees and immigrants.

In the Bourgogne-France-Comt area of France, there is a very famous Guédelon Castle with a long history.

The environment here is quiet and idyllic. There are many rooms and a team of butlers and servants in the castle. The castle retains the style of 13 century European traditional castles.

Every summer, the parking lot here is filled with buses of tour groups, and the tourists who come here visit this ancient castle with novelty and envy.

In these two months, the castle welcomed more than a dozen special guests. They are not as happy as tourists. On the contrary, everyone is full of hesitation and helplessness when they arrive.

These special guests are the Ukrainian people who were recently displaced by the war.

At the invitation of the owner of the castle, they were able to spend two quiet weeks here and then set foot on the next stop.

In the past, the castle was only used for business tourism, but the management of the unit where the castle was located decided to do something after seeing the scene of the Ukrainian war and the Ukrainians who fled their homes in despair.

They thought that there was no sightseeing business in the castle anyway, and there were still many rooms available in the castle, so they quickly made a decision to invite Ukrainian refugee families to take temporary refuge here.

Kristi Vignal, a family from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is a Ukrainian refugee family, and she is fortunate to get this opportunity.

Christie and her husband used to run a maritime agency in Kiev and had a successful career.

On the morning of February 24th when the war broke out, she and her husband and children were flying back to Kiev from Dubai, but on the way, the plane suddenly diverted to Moldova, a neighboring country of Ukraine. At that time, everyone knew nothing about what happened in Ukraine.

It was not until they saw the news at the airport of a neighboring country that the Christies realized that the Russian-Ukrainian war had broken out and they could not go home.

The "holiday supplies" in the suitcase that the family carried with them also instantly became "refugee supplies", but these things didn't help at all-short sleeves, swimsuits and sunglasses.

They became refugees overnight.

"'refugee' used to be just a word for us, and now we are refugees.

When you watch Afghanistan and Syria on TV, it's another world, but you never think it will happen to you. "

Mr. and Mrs. Christies just missed the war, fled the war from the beginning, and were the first refugees to flood into Europe and Britain for asylum.

Within a week, they moved to Moldova, Romania and France, relying on the help of good people in these countries to barely make ends meet.

When they were at a friend's house in Paris, they saw the notice that Gedelong Castle recruited Ukrainian refugee families to take refuge. Before they could check each other's situation carefully, they filled in the registration information like straws and successfully got the opportunity to stay.

They arrived at the shelter where they signed up. At first, they thought it was just a bigger empty house, but they didn't expect to live in a real castle.

Half a month after the war broke out, they stayed in the depths of the forest, far away from the secular pastoral castles.

The elegance and dream of the environment are the same thing, and the enthusiasm and friendliness of the staff also make them extremely gratified.

The castle team expressed their condolences to their country and people. In this off-season day, everyone works hard for their families, provides quality services and treats them as family members and guests.

The team prepared enough household necessities, prepared a large number of toys for the children, and sent them rich food every day. The Christies, who are lucky enough to stay, can finally enjoy a moment of peace here after a few days of physical and mental exhaustion and nowhere to live.

The staff said that they understand the fear and confusion of refugee families like Christie:

"They have been running at the airport for several days. When they came that day, they were all confused, still in shock and unable to calm down. "

Listening to the voices from nature is undoubtedly a comforting relief for the Christie family in trouble.

However, in order to receive more Ukrainian refugee families, and to enable these refugee families to successfully settle and survive temporarily around the city, the castle policy is that each Ukrainian refugee can only stay for two weeks.

Then they will start again and go to the next settlement they can go to.

This arrangement of the castle responsible team is also based on practical considerations. It's nice to live in a castle in the forest, but it's isolated after all. How do their children receive education? How do they find jobs themselves? How do they live independently?

These questions cannot be answered here. However, the castle also responsibly contacted the next temporary settlement town for these Ukrainian families in advance. The town is not far from the castle, and there are resources that these people who need to survive need more. In the future, these refugee families can often come back to visit the castle.

Finally, the Christies said goodbye to the castle and the staff in tears and went to the next place to live.

This is not the only castle in Europe that opens its doors to Ukrainian refugees.

Just a few tens of kilometers away from Gedelong Castle, another castle owner named Saint-Fargeau also chose to help Ukrainian refugees with the same behavior.

This castle is a private family castle, built in 1453. It used to be the residence of bishops, wealthy businessmen, nobles and even the French royal family. 1977, the wealthy family of Pingdingshan bought it and developed it into a tourist attraction.

The first Ukrainian refugee families who arrived in St. Fargeau were the Sidlauskas family of four, led by relatives living in Britain. The remaining mother-in-law, niece and nephew are seeking to flee to Britain and wait for British visas in France.

Soon after, the Woloschuk family of three joined the family and lived in San Fajo Castle. The youngest daughter in this family is only 15 years old.

All Ukrainian refugee families were moved by the generosity and thoughtfulness of the Pingdingshan family under the sea.

"When we arrived, the refrigerator was full of food, and my chin almost fell off. There are pizza, croissants, baguettes and bottles of wine.

This really made me believe in human nature again. "

Last month, King william alexander and Queen Maksima announced that they would open a part of a15th century castle in Het Loo Palace, a royal manor, to receive eight Ukrainian refugee families.

Het Loo Palace Manor has always been the country villa base and royal guest house of the Dutch royal family. It is also known as the "Palace of Versailles in the Netherlands" because of its extraordinary grandeur. The castle has a beautiful environment and is surrounded by a moat.

There are exquisite gardens in the castle, not only classical statues, but also small ponds and a hedge maze.

Before the Dutch royal family, the Belgian royal family also sent word to receive several Ukrainian families.

Finally, Barry Haughian, a middle-aged uncle from Ireland, generously lent out his castle in Ireland.

In order to help the refugees live in his home smoothly, he and his wife even flew from Madrid, Spain, where they have been living, to Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and then personally helped the refugees return to his home all the way.

"I know that if we don't choose to do something for them there at this time, then this opportunity will be lost forever."

Uncle's castle is much simpler than the previous ones, but it is also the only one that can live in the local area. Built in 1480, it has been vacant for nearly 200 years. It was bought and decorated by uncle 20 16.

Uncle felt the despair when the refugees found him. At that time, he was in Warsaw and posted the news of recruiting refugees in the castle on social media.

"They promised to go to a strange place with an Irishman they never knew. You can see how desperate they are."

Fortunately, after taking in two Ukrainian refugee families, the kind and enthusiastic uncle gave us shelter and gained rare peace and happiness.

Children also began to receive education in local schools in Ireland, and adults ate and lived together in the castle every day, encouraged each other, and even took the initiative to learn different languages of the two nationalities.

"Now I feel safe. Now, I am relaxed. Everything is fine. We have regained trust here. "

But in the longer term, these Ukrainians who are temporarily sheltered by these beautiful homes and generous hosts must eventually leave these beautiful temporary homes and continue to look for their jobs, education and medical care.

But anyway, these warm experiences, I think they will never forget.