Category: Part 2 – The Languedoc

Early in 1985 Jane and I got married. The following year we had a baby daughter, who we named Sarah. A work posting to the USA and the new addition to the family caused my Francophilia to go on hold for a few years, even though Jane seemed to share much of my passion for Read More »

We crossed the flat land between the mountains and the Mediterranean sea, mainly on long straight plane tree lined roads. The lines of trees broke every three or four kilometres to accommodate sleepy villages, whose older inhabitants sat on road side benches, basking in the afternoon sun. As we passed our first vineyard, I decided Read More »

The next day we made our way to Bedarieux. We arrived early, so stopped at a bar for a cup of coffee. I noticed that as well as a couple of elderly men knocking back pastis, there seemed to be quite a number of young teenagers in the bar playing pinball. The only thing I Read More »

We were awoken in the early hours by mechanical noises which upon investigation turned out to be a tractor filtering the sand on the beach in front of the hotel. Despite the disturbance we were impressed by the efforts being made to keep the beaches clean. In the morning we drove to the Railway Station Read More »

The next morning we requested a second visit to the houses by the canal, and the one at Frasquenet. Sarah made it clear that she was determined that we should buy the house at Frasquenet. I think it was because she thought Barbie doll lived there. I took the opportunity to pretend a greater interest Read More »

We took a different route to the one we had come down on, taking the autoroute to the East, through heavily congested Lyon, stopping off at Beaune in the Bourgogne for the night. We parked the car in a large cobbled square, along with one hundred or so other cars. It seemed that Beaune was Read More »

About a week before Christmas Dick called me to let me know that his purchase in Agde had completed, and that he and a decorator friend would be driving down to southern France the day before Christmas eve, and would I like to go with them? They planned to stay for a week and paint Read More »

The day was brighter than the previous one, but as I drove to Frasquenet, I noted that the landscape still looked remarkably desolate, compared to the way it had looked in the summer. I was relieved to find that the smell had not returned to the house, but I opened the shutters and windows anyway Read More »

Most of the time at work, I got on well with my customers, but sometimes frustration would build to the point where I was concerned that it would not be long before I would hit one of them. Rather than risk that, I would call my boss and tell him that I needed to take Read More »

The next morning after coffee and some wonderful almond encrusted croissants from the boulangerie, the days work began. I painted the shower room ceiling with the acrylic paint we had bought the evening before, while Mark and Pete emptied the loft of junk which had been left by the previous owner. By midday we were Read More »