My Life in Languedoc #7 - A memoir in Chapters

I absolutely adored my home in Warwick; a 17^th century cottage within a stone’s throw of the town centre and a short walk of the castle. It took me a long time to come to terms with selling it but it was the only way I could buy a place in France and that was where I wanted to be. It was one of my usual coincidences that gave me the final push or perhaps it was fate - I’m inclined to think they’re one and the same thing…

August was always a quiet month for wine tours, probably because it’s a time for family holidays, so during the 2012 season with time on my hands I took myself off to explore a small Minervois village. It was the first time I’d visited this particular place and as I walked through its narrow streets the strangest thing happened. The hair on the back of my neck rose up and my heart started to pound. I had the strongest feeling I had found the village I wanted to live in.

I mooched around the narrow medieval streets then passed through an ancient gateway to cross a shallow babbling river then followed the lane up to a windmill where there were lovely views of the Montagne Noire. I continued to walk over rolling hills and past vineyards and olive groves bordered by dry stone walls and all the time the sense of belonging got stronger. It was a glorious walk that brought me back to the village passing a row of old cottages and one of them was for sale.

The old stone house was pretty much boarded up but peering through one of the wonky shutters I could see it was in a ruinous state. Undeterred I took down the phone number from the sign but in the end did nothing as work ramped up again. Besides I’d need to sell my house before I could buy another. I had almost forgotten about it when at the end of September, just before I returned to England, I bumped into someone I knew from back home. I was surprised to meet him here of all places and I was even more surprised when he told me he’d moved to Carcassonne and had gone into business renovating houses.

‘In fact,’ he said. ‘I’ve just bought a house ripe for renovation in a very pretty Minervois village.’

Call it a second sense, instinct or female intuition but I instantly knew it was the house I’d seen and over a coffee we hatched a plan. He would wait for me to sell my house in England then when I was ready he would renovate my little French ruin. The wheels were put in motion, I was surprised at how quickly my Engish cottage sold and by spring, when I returned to France my friend had begun work on the house. It hadn’t been lived in for many decades and was in a terrible state. It needed gutting until all that was left were four walls; no floors or roof just a square stone tower into which we slotted a new home.

Those were exciting times. I would visit the site almost daily, usually after running a tour then I’d go back to my rental house where I spent the evenings working on a writing project, a new venture for me.

When I’d arrived in Languedoc back in 2009, I wanted to learn everything about the wines of the region and searched in vain for a book to help me. Languedoc wine was getting better known, slowly shrugging off its reputation for producing quantity over quality. I found an excellent book written by Rosemary George MW and another by Paul Strang, both focusing on individual wine makers and their stories. Although they were helpful, I needed a book that, in simple terms, explained what Languedoc-Roussillon was all about. I was looking for a bit of its history, the lay of the land, the terriors and what influenced them, the traditional grape varieties and wine styles and explanations about AOP and Vin du Pays.

No such book existed so I decided I’d write it myself

It took me two years to write The Wines of the Languedoc-Roussillon. It includes everything mentioned above plus a section about wine growing and making and I also included passages covering local produce and snippets of history. It’s a book for everyone who wants to know about this patch of rural France and to bring it alive a local artist illustrated it with beautiful water colour paintings.

It also took two years to renovate my new home which I moved into in November 2014. I launched my book the following spring. Both projects had been the most demanding as well as exciting phases of my life. I had achieved two great ambitions – to live in France and become a writer.