Our village is a “circulade”, that is to say a traditional village dating from the 12th century which was built in concentric circles. The centre of “circulades” is often a chateau or parish church and our house is a stone’s throw from the beautiful Parish of St. Julien. Thus we find ourselves in the heart of the village and since we have been here we seem to have attracted much interest locally, not least because we have undertaken this massive project of renovation and we have Eddie & Alfie bounding around in the sun.
The spirit of community is almost tangible here: the lovely young family who run the “epicerie” asked me the other day how we got on with the builders they had recommended. I told them I would have no hesitation in recommending them to others, they did a great job demolishing the supporting wall in our kitchen. Then whilst sitting in the sun by the canal we were approached by a lovely American couple who have a holiday house in our village and invited us for an “apero” the next day. Mr. Fix It made a trip to our local tip this week and met a French chap who is renovating the house opposite us – another invitation, another friend. He was telling us that this village was in medieval times the third most important little town after Carcassonne and Narbonne and had at one time no less than 5 churches! The people remain quietly religious and somehow one respects Sundays here: even Mr. Fix It downs tools then and I am able to entice him to some little brasserie for a “prix fixe” lunch (this is actually not difficult).
We have now put in our permission to the “mairie” to take down the tower in the garden, extend our balcony and put in a spiral staircase. Our lovely builders are preparing us a quote for this part and we hope to be able to get on with this in about a month. The sun and light here are quite stunning and the demolition of the tower means our kitchen and bedroom will be flooded with light.
Mr. Fix It is working on 2 ensuites for our bedroom and the one next door and I have been mulling over kitchen design. We are lucky to have a great space and for my part, I cannot wait to have a proper cooker, decent fridge and good accessories to fully indulge my culinary skills, such as they are. I have had no complaints so far though, it is not difficult to create excellent meals when one has good ingredients: oh the joy of shopping for fresh vegetables in the many markets here. Even Eddie & Alfie seem to be thriving on French dog food!
Many of us dream of doing up a property in France and we do really seem to be living that dream. I would urge anyone to pursue their dream and if yours is to do likewise, do arm yourself with a copy of our excellent France Buying Guide, it has become a veritable bible for many: www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm We have our own copy with us here and seem to be constantly referring to it, just lately for the list of shops and outlets for building materials and the like. Mr. Fix It has become rather good at finding obscure pipe fittings, aided by the Guide, his book of “French Building Terms” and his innate ability to mime.
As with most things in life, you get out of it what you put in and gradually making friends here makes us feel we are slowly becoming integrated.
An English friend of mine asked me what, in essence, makes life so wonderful here in the south of France. Mr. Fix It and I mulled over the reasons the other day over a glass of Corbieres wine in the garden. “The sense of space and lovely community springs to mind”, he said. “The sun helps too”, I replied. Then we both realised what really makes us so happy to be living here: it reminds us of how England used to be with its people who take pride in their community and look out for each other, a feeling of safety in one’s home and renewed value in what really matters in life.
The longer we are here, the longer we want to be here, it is as simple as that.
Our village in the early evening sunlight
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