Photography By Kirsten Beckerman
There can’t be a B&B here, I think as I hook a dogleg right off Route 26, past a gaggle of old farm trucks, a couple of storage sheds, and row upon row of dormant blueberry bushes.
But as I pull up the inn’s long driveway, past the old horse-drawn carriage and a fenced pasture with three lazily grazing mares, innkeepers Ross and Melodie Cropper assure me that I’m in the right place.
As I soon find out, Lit Et Cheval is one of those special, middle-of-nowhere getaways that you don’t want too many people to know about for fear of not being able to book a room in the future. This small three-room inn, a completely renovated farmhouse, sits on fifty-five acres of woods and fields just twenty minutes west of Bethany Beach. But it feels so isolated, it might as well be twenty hours.
Lit Et Cheval literally translates to “bed and horse,” but the Croppers admit that, so far, no one has taken them up on the offer to board their animals. This is a gentleman’s farm: sounds of combine engines and tractors won’t likely accompany your visit, but horses neighing and chickens clucking set the appropriate country mood for mine.
Unfortunately, my mid-February visit precludes blueberry season, but the Croppers assure me that their fifteen acres of berries, which they sell to the general public via a farm stand on the property, should be in full bloom by Father’s Day. And, best of all, as Melodie says, “Guests get to take home all the blueberries they want for free.”
The Innkeepers
Ross, a native of Fenwick Island and former general contractor, and Melodie, a native Vermonter who says she can’t resist tearing down a good wall, completely gutted the 1980s farmhouse when they purchased it in 2002. Three years later, they opened Lit Et Cheval. Neither had any experience running a bed and breakfast, but both have an excellent sense of style and a knack for making guests feel at home.
The Croppers tend to be hands-on innkeepers, who enjoy getting to know their visitors over late-afternoon happy hours. And if you play a guitar, Ross, a veteran of several beach-area bar bands, will surely invite you for a little jam session.
On the afternoon of my arrival, I watch the sun set with the Croppers from white rocking chairs on their front porch and drink several glasses of excellent Cabernet. Melodie whips up some smoked scallops, and by the time I head off to dinner, I feel like part of the family and guilty for not helping wash the dishes.
The Rooms
“Country sophisticated” best describes the B&B’s decor. Throughout, farm antiques have been re-imagined as practical furnishings. An old apple-picking ladder has been adapted for use as a pot rack, hanging horizontally over the kitchen island. Weathered wooden planks from a chicken coop form a notch for coats.
Each of the three guestrooms are well decorated, with gleaming wooden floors and nary a knick-knack in sight. “We’re minimalists,” says Ross. “We don’t like a lot of stuff. We’re not frilly Victorian by any means.”
I draw what’s probably the nicest room in the house, the Coop, with its enormous walnut canopy bed overflowing with scarlet and gold pillows and separate sitting area with an in-room Jacuzzi tub. The Overseer, located in the former attic, also has a Jacuzzi tub, purple painted walls, and the best views of the horse pasture and farm out front. (All rooms have good views, which unfortunately, include the trucks and machinery on the neighbor’s less-than-tidy farm beyond.) The Doghouse has no tub, but it’s still more than adequate, with its funky black-and-white color scheme and birds-eye maple wash basin that’s been turned into a bathroom vanity.
Special Touches
There are no televisions or phones in the guestrooms at Lit Et Cheval—this is a country getaway, remember. But the inn is loaded with much more preferable personal touches: a carafe of cold lemon-water in every room; complimentary coffee and newspaper before breakfast; and an outdoor shower for cleaning up after visiting the nearby Delaware beaches. My favorite touch: next to a basketball hoop in the wooded side yard, there’s a small stand built into a tree to hold your wine glass between shots.
What’s for Breakfast?
The eggs Benedict, made with freshly laid eggs and stalks of asparagus, is delicious, and I’m sure Melodie’s french toast is excellent, too, but it’s her blueberry muffins that I’m still dreaming about. Melodie’s come from a recipe she says she stole from an aunt. The confectionary in question, cylindrical in shape and about the size of a tea saucer, arrives hot out of the oven with a side of butter. When the weather’s nice, guests usually eat on the back porch overlooking the lush gardens of azaleas, rhododendrons, and daffodils.
Diversions
“Guests don’t walk the dogs, the dogs walk the guests,” Melodie tells me before starting out on a fifteen-minute hike with the Croppers’ three dogs: Missy, an old German shepherd; Otis, a 150-pound sheep dog; and Amos, an adorable Jack Russell terrier with a white body and black face. The trail leading through the woods is called Amos’ Run, and as the terrier leads the way past fallen trees, I can see why.
Hiking isn’t the only thing to do at Lit Et Cheval. There are bikes to borrow and a lovely pond out back for fishing or swimming in summer. The Croppers have recently added a “cocktail pool,” a four-foot-deep swimming pool that’s obviously meant more for cooling off with a drink than doing laps, and an outdoor stone hearth for making s’mores over the fire.
Romance Factor
Any inn boasting in-room Jacuzzi tubs gets high marks on the romance scale. Add the outdoor fireplace and shower, wine happy hours, lush gardens and the pond, incredible sunsets over the fields, and the fact that kids aren’t allowed, and you’ve got yourself a grade-A romantic getaway. (Note to self: Next time, remember to bring wife.)
What It’s Gonna Cost
Rooms range from $175 to $195 between May 15 and September 30 and on weekends year-round; $160 to $180 at other times.
Lit Et Cheval
24407 Blueberry Lane
Frankford, Del.
302-238-7000 or http://www.litetcheval.com
