20th June 2009
From 17th to 22nd July in the church at Castelreng and in Limoux, there will be a series of concerts by young and promising musicians.
For details of the programmes, have a look at http://www.youngvirtuosi.com/
4th June 2009
There are some very fashionable markets around here – Mirepoix and Limoux, for example – where you buy a few vegetables but the main point is to meet friends in a café on the square for a coffee. And there's nothing wrong with that.
But Bram market seems more old-style French. The object of the exercise is to stock up for the week with the freshest of produce – of which there is an abundance – and, if you bump into friends along the way, so much the better.
And the best coffee I've ever drunk comes from a lovely lady who has a van she brings every week. (She also does Castelnaudary market on Monday mornings.) She opens up at some unearthly hour of the morning and you can smell her coffee all around the market.
She opens the side of the van and puts some stools outside and it's very difficult to walk past without stopping to buy. She also has a wide range of coffees she'll grind up freshly for you.
Not sure why I've just blogged this. I certainly don't want to attract any more people to Bram market!
2nd June 2009
I seem to have been a bit quiet on the blog front of late. I could blame a number of factors – which I won’t bore you with – but certainly one of them has been that things have suddenly got a lot busier on the house-selling front.
So I’ve decided that, from time to time, I ought to blog any particularly good properties we might have taken on.
This house and gîtes are just 5 minutes out of Limoux and have stunning views of the Pyrenees.
You can see the main house in this picture and to the right of the swimming pool is a building which can either be one three-bedroomed house or two holiday gîtes.
Ideal for someone looking for a ready-made business to run or equally for an extended family who’d like two houses on the same piece of land.
It’s priced at 585 000 euros and details can be seen on this link: http://www.aude-ariege-property.com/property_517.htm
21st April 2009
Bit late finding this, really… However, there's a lovely series of jazz evenings taking place in the cellars of the Abbaye de Caunes-Minervois.
A tray of copious tapas, large glass of wine and concert – all for 20 euros!
We went last Friday night to see a band called Trio Bergin. They were excellent and sang in a variety of styles from jazz and swing to the French traditional chansonnier.
All the tables were decorated with flowers and candles and the atmosphere is just lovely in the vaults of the abbey cellar.
The next event is on Friday 15th May when the band are Gospel Bayou Brothers who play a mix of soul and afro-american blues. Places are limited so it's best to book at the Office de Tourisme in Caunes-Minervois: 0468 78 09 44 e-mail: otsi@caunesminervois.com
31st March 2009
Furthering my relentless research to find new and unusual eating places in our bit of the Aude, we've come across Le Jardin en Ville: www.lejardinenville.fr
It's situated in the middle of a residential estate near to the railway station in Carcassonne. This, in itself is unusual, although I did notice that there seem to be two other restaurants on the same estate.
Not easy to find, but very easy to park…
Anyway, not only is this a restaurant, serving deliciously fresh and healthy food, but it calls itself a 'concept store'.
The walls of the restaurant are hung with regularly changing art work and there is an exhibition room on the first floor. All of this is for sale, as are the items adorning the shelves around the tables: candle holders, carafes, bags, pots for the garden…
So plenty of time to consider purchases whilst eating.
The menu is varied and there are specials each day. Their speciality, however, is what I can only refer to as an up-market ploughman's lunch.
You choose from a delicious range of quiches and this arrives on a large plate accompanied by a small bowl of soup, salad, goat's cheese with honey, a fruit salad and whatever other artistic bits take the chef's fancy on that day. In other words, four courses on one plate and all for 13 euros.
Highly recommended!
17th March 2009
The pretty market town of Limoux is famous for hosting the longest carnival in the world! It starts in January and ends at the beginning of April. It’s a masked Venetian-style carnival where no-one is supposed to know who the performers are and each Saturday and Sunday, from Epiphany to Ash Wednesday, a different group takes over the main square. The costumes are magnificent and varied and the dancers all carry sacks of confetti to spray over their audience. By the end of each weekend the Place de la République is awash with brightly coloured confetti.
The bandas, as they are called, are made up of 20 or so people who have come together through some affinity such as working together or living in the same part of the town and their association is something that lasts throughout the year.
The Carnaval itself consists of three sorties during each day of the weekend, one in the morning, one at 17h00 and the final torchlit spectacle at 22h00. The bandas arrive in the main square with their group of musicians behind them and then process and dance, stopping to quench their thirst in the four bars on each side of the square. This they do in a separate room of the bar so that no-one sees them without their masks.
During the winter months, Carnaval becomes such a vibrant part of the life of Limoux that even on market day on Friday mornings, a group processes around the square, masked and dressed – somewhat satirically – as shoppers and traders at the market.
One of the lovely things about Limoux is that it is a town with a strong tradition and life of its own. None of this is done for tourists. And those of us who live here are just lucky to be able to share a little bit of it!
2nd March 2009
Could winter be nearly over? I really do hope so. It's not been the nicest winter in memory down here but sitting outside in the sunshine watching the bustle of Limoux market certainly gave me some hope.
A cloudless sky, hot sun on my face and an extremely good cup of coffee helps me to remember why I came down here in the first place.
I have to say I have the greatest admiration for market traders who set up their stalls in the middle of the night and suffer whatever the elements may throw at them (often literally…) in order to make their living.
So they were probably even more pleased than I was at the encouraging climactic conditions.
In fact, it's been a glorious week. And the almond blossom has finally come out. So let's hope that spring really is on its way.
18th February 2009
Yes, the property market in France has been quiet for a while. As a friend of mine said, people have been behaving like rabbits caught in headlights – terrified to move in any direction at all.
But recently we've been getting a lot more enquiries and visits. I guess people who have been planning to move to France are no longer going to be held up by the exchange rate but are just going to get on with their lives.
And they're right to do so for, whatever they may lose in the weaker exchange rate of the pound against the euro, they more than recoup in the reduced house prices in France. For people here have decided that, whatever the world financial situation, they too need to get on with the next stage of their lives and, to that end, they'll price their houses accordingly. 
Take this beautiful village house in Esperaza, 15 minutes to the south of Limoux. It has been expensively and tastefully renovated and is now on the market at just 165 000 euros.
It has five bedrooms, three bathrooms, sitting room, kitchen/dining room as well as a covered summer kitchen and dining room at the end of the garden.
At this time last year, when the pound was doing so well, this would probably have been closer to 200 000 euros.
For more information, follow this link: http://www.aude-ariege-property.com/property_541.htm
26th January 2009
And a very belated Happy New Year to everyone! Don't know why I've been so quiet of late but finally felt the need to communicate.
This isn't a Christmas scene: it's last night and the night before in our sitting room… You may have heard about the storm that ripped through Spain and southern France last weekend. No rain, no snow – just unbelievable gusts of wind.
'Gust' is probably a bit of an understatement actually. A neighbour's conservatory left its normal mooring at the side of the house, cleared the car park and landed in pieces on the wall of a house over the road.
Another neighbour's terrace roof took off over her house and landed in a swimming pool in the next road. A chimney stack fell into a roof. And the rest of the village were constantly moving cars to avoid falling roof tiles.
It was very scary. A Prefectoral order closed all large shops in Carcassonne and Limoux from 11.00 on Saturday morning when it became clear what was coming.
A brave old member of our conseil municipal (85, if he's a day…) staggered round the village to tell us that the Préfèt had also warned that no-one should leave their homes unless in an emergency. I took this very seriously and just cowered in the middle of the house, away from all windows and dodgy masonry.
Power went at about 10.30 am on Saturday and didn't return until 10.00 pm on Sunday night. The wind began to calm late on Saturday evening and playing rummy with French neighbours by candlelight over a few glasses of wine was really quite jolly. I have to admit, however, that when I was lighting the candles for the second night I was beginning to lose my sense of humour…
The day following the storm (Sunday) was a stunner. Cobalt blue skies and not a breath of wind: a little reward for what we'd gone through the day before and some respite to start clearing the debris.
I have learned two things from this experience. (a) There are some elements against which there is no protection and (b) I'll always advise house-buyers to have at least one wood-burning stove and gas cooking facilities. Oh, and a spare generator for the freezer…
7th December 2008
When we first moved here about ten years ago, I didn’t really ‘get’ the view of mountains. I’d always lived near the sea – or at least a river. Views over water are constantly changing and, to me, open up the world beyond.
Now we live in a village in the Razès which has some of the most stunning views of the Pyrenees in the area. So I was, when I arrived here, a bit of a philistine as far as mountains were concerned. There they were, but they didn’t do anything, did they? I mean the sea has waves and constant movement. Mountains just are, aren’t they?
You’ll all be pleased to hear that I now get it. No two days are ever the same when you look at the mountains from our house. Sometimes they just refuse to show themselves. We’ve had lots of guests who’d heard we had spectacular views of the Pyrenees and who’ve stayed for a week and never seen them. What’s lovely is the look on their faces if, on their last day, they appear. Then they know what the fuss is about.
Today the clouds were beneath the mountain peaks. All day it’s been like this. Sorry my camera doesn’t do it justice.
