Beauty and the Heat

Mr. Fix It and I drove out of our village yesterday and across country to the market in nearby Rieux Minervois. The beauty of the hills, vineyards and olive groves in the strong sunshine is simply breath-taking and we were lost together in the same thoughts: how lucky we are to be surrounded by such rich and stunning countryside. Looking long into the distance, seeing the tips of the Pyrenees and the earthy colours of this Mediterranean landscape would warm the heart of the toughest soul. We determined silently to retain our huge appreciation of this region, however long we live here.

The weather is glorious: very hot, very sunny and clear blue sky every day. I walked to the edge of our village this morning and snapped a few shots before the real heat of the day took over. Being so far south means that the contrast between sun and shadow is far sharper than ever we have known in the UK.

With temperatures no less than 35 and many days up to 40 degrees, Mr. Fix It has had a week of relative rest and we spend each evening until late sitting outside and planning our next stage of restoration of our beautiful home. I say relative rest since one day he drove up to Toulouse to take possession of 9 cast iron radiators which we had found on the site “Au Bon Coin” at a knock down price. As Ludo, our lovely friend and owner of our bar, helped Mr. Fix It take the radiators off the van, I was suddenly rather glad to be female: these radiators are a dead weight. For now they stand alone in our garden but once painted and in place they will enhance the character of this old house. We await hearing from Gaz de France regarding extending the natural gas and then we will be sourcing a boiler which will be sited in our huge cellar with natural vent to ground floor level. In this heat it is somehow hard to imagine needing any heating at all and winters are not usually freezing cold here but this is a large house and not to install any heating, despite our numerous fireplaces, would be a little foolhardy. When we arrived here in March there was thick dry snow for a few days, for example, and although this is unusual here, present day weather patterns are ever changing all over the world.

Aside from the beauty of our surroundings which always give us cause to celebrate, this week saw our Renault go back to her French roots! The process of changing the matriculation from English to French number plates is somewhat lengthy but we followed every step and went to the Prefecture in Carcassonne to collect our “Carte Grise” or log book and receive our new number: AY-130-PR. The new number plates in France have the department number written on the right-hand side and it was joyous to see Alain, our friendly mechanic, drill the plates on – a process which took around 3 minutes after months of administration!


On Tuesday evening, the full moon shone brightly above us. Mr. Fix It and I lingered outside as we do and thought of our good fortune in finding this house, this village, this region. To see the Church at night, no more than 20 metres from our front door, softly up lit and standing so majestically really does takes one’s breath away.