For Sale

Well, with a few properties now on the market, I thought I'd share them.

This property has been on the market for over 6 months now, and the price of 150,000 Euros has been reduced. The house has a traditional layout with 2 rooms and a kitchen on the ground floor, and the 3 bedrooms. Up in the attic is a room, big enough for a bean bag.
This house has a good size garage with a large room above (yet open to the elements) and a courtyard. Both are separate from the house, but every close, being just the other side of the neighbouring property.

http://www.seloger.com/292167/29982951/detail.htm

We saw the following property when we were house hunting and the current owners have done wonders with the house. It is a large property on the main road out of Cruzy our route to Beziers. They have created a very contempary living space, creating a large open plan kitchen / living space by removing 2 of the former bedrooms, refurb the remaining 2 rooms to a high standard. The courtyard is a great space to host lunches and the views have to be the best in the village, with clear views of the mountains, and with vine-yards in every direction beginning at the boundary walls.

http://www.seloger.com/detail.htm?ci=340092&euro=1&idtt=2&referid=1&IMMOBW_ANN_QRYpg=20

Aigues-Mortes

We decided that we should discover a little more of France, so we jumped into the car and headed east… for 2 hours. There we found Aigues-Mortes. This is a place we have heard a great deal about set along side the salt flats and a short drive from the Mediterranean Sea. We had heard it was a pretty version of Carcassonne. We arrived in time for lunch, so enjoyed a meal of home-made fish soup (is it supposed to taste of sea water?) and a plate of beef, cooked until it turned to leather… okay, you see where I am going with this…

The city is walled by large turrets and ramparts. Once we paid to enter the ramparts (6 Euros each) we began our walk along the tops of the city. We could look down on buildings of the inner-city or look over the car-parks outside the city. It was amazing to be able to look into peoples homes, over high walls into courtyards and even, into the private terraces created by destroying the 300 year old buildings. Oh, and once we began out walk, the loo was 1 hour away.

Carcassonne forever!

Winter Flowers

The Mimosa festival is the first activity in which thousands of people descend upon the small hillside village of Rqueburn. We missed it last year, so followed instructions from a seasoned visitor to the festival and left bright and early to ensure a parking space. We left later than instructed, but parking was fine not difficult. After the event, there was not a space on the verges, left or right which did not host a car, motorbike or mini-van. Even the surrounding vine-yards had become unofficial car-parks.

The day began like may of the festivals we have come to know and love, but unlike those other festivals, every stall had mimosa cuttings in among the products, most of the crowd had mimosa peeking out of pockets, under or though hats, and even attached to their little dogs, of which there were hundreds.

The mimosa was on sale for only 3 Euros a bunch, but most people seem to think it okay to walk around the village, ripping great bunches off trees from private gardens, parks and event the Mediterranean Garden exhibition.

It was a long day, cumulating with a precession of floats decked in mimosa, which was unhooked when passing by those unwilling to pay for or steal from gardens.


As the precession passed, those who had already had the benefit of the floats, preceded to walk along side the floats, stopping to unhook more mimosa, stand in the way of cameras, and basically block the view for those not privilad to have been at the start of the precession. Upon the floats were young children distributing confetti to the waiting crowd, pulled along by tractors, driven by men who were smoking, drinking and at times spending more time looking at the exotic Brazilian dancers (who were the main draw of the entire festival) than the road.

December

December had us all running around buying gifts for our Secret Santa gifts, and I found the perfect gift for to give away, and after a little waxing, I wanted it. We had a mini Christmas bash at L'Abeille, before inviting everyone back the following night to complete the meal, as we were all at bursting point after the main meal. With only 15 killos as our hold luggage allowance on RyainAir, we did most of our shopping online at Amazon.co.uk. We were able to travel rather light to the UK, but only just managed to make it back, with all cases being overweight.

December has been mild here in Cruzy, so it was a bit of a shock to arrive in Liverpool to -4 degrees.

Christmas

Cruzy has been decorated and a lot of effort has gone into the decorations this year. The entire village has been adorned with small trees with boxes wrapped in colourful paper. The lights are up over Avenue de Narbonne and the villagers have lit up their homes with training lights, light droplets and of course, climbing Santas. They are everywhere and if last year is anything to go by, they will still be up at Easter.

9 Years

Alan and I celebrated 9 years together by spending a weekend in Montpellier, the closest "proper" city to Cruzy. It is a lovely place to visit and we were impressed. It is a little like Paris, but without the coach loads of tourists or the queues. They even had a GAP clothes store. No Starbucks, but we can live without them. We intended to visit art galleries, walk in the parks and enjoy the atmosphere. We walked passed all those attractions in favour of the old town and the lanes and lanes of shops. We felt spoilt for choice with boutiques and chocolatiers.

We tasted and purchased many fine foods (all chocolate based) and thanks to the 4th Annual Wine Fare, we spent our first evening drinking many locally produced wines. We paid 2 Euros for a glass and visited 40 wine producers, all keen to top up our glasses with their finest nectar. We then wandered the small lanes looking for a place to eat. There are so many little restaurants in the old town, which it took a while to settle on one.


On our second day in Montpellier, we had breakfast out in the open at this little snack stall. The coffee was amazing and the croissants were warm and tasty. So much so, that we had another to set us up for the day.

Bingo!

After months and months of wondering what our fellow Cruzy inhabitants did for entertainment we were invited to join in... BINGO!

Now we are not talking Mega Bingo or any of that corporate multi-million pound industry. We are referring to old fashioned fundraising bingo. Over 200 villagers, old and young, attend the regular bingo which aims to raise money for the local fire station, based out of the village and staffed by volunteers.

Most of the people in the village hall had their own bingo counters. These were little translucent coloured rings with a metal edge. The rings were placed over the appropriate number on the card when the number was called. At the end of the game, a large magnet is passed over the card, collecting up the rings. Those without rings used sweet-corn kernels. We fell into that camp until a fellow player shared her rings with 6 strangers.

We went to the bingo with some friends and we all thought we had grasped our numbers in French. Oh, how wrong we ALL were. Turns out the words we knew and use are incorrect. Yes, we are using the numbers as taught by Michelle Thomas and heard on the radio, but they are not correct... for this part of France. It will take days to talk though the differences so lets just end by saying that we laughed heartedly during each and every game - all 18 of them. Well, when I say 18, I mean 18 planned games. Out of our little party, we won 2 of the prizes. Alan won the 18th game - a voucher for the local butcher and 2 free pizzas, but one of our friends won a huge, and I mean HUGE, leg of dried ham. She donated the prize back to the event, and received not only the gratitude of the fire-service, but of the entire room. Shouts of cheers rang through the hall when a 19th game was announced.

We had three friends over from the UK and as two had visited Cruzy before and had seen most of the local sites, we drove to an absolutely lovely little costal town as recommended by one of the visitors. Collioure is apparently a city of painters with 30 art galleries, but it’s for the beauty of the town that people visit. It has a great history (read more at http://www.collioure.com/gb/index-gb.htm), with an impressive castle and church as well as small lanes in which to wonder around. We have heard that the town is very busy in the summer with cars queuing for hours for parking. We drove down into the town and parked along the seafront without any effort.

We were lucky enough to meet a couple with a little boy who own a holiday home here in Cruzy, so along with a group of other friends, we met in the local bar for a drink. It was the first time the staff had experienced such a busy bar before 9pm on a Saturday.

With the arrival of the new Johnny Deep movie, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, in the post, we invited four friends over to watch the film. To make the experience a little different, we decided it was to be watched dressed as pirates. The house was ransacked in search of treasure and curtains were removed from their poles to make sails. With the aid of a mini hacksaw and some nails we managed to cobble together a couple of swords. Our friends arrived in their gear, all with pencilled moustaches and pirate hats, one even arriving with a wooden leg. The food was all themed and the drinks flowed (does Coke Cola count?)What a shame the film was dreadful. It went on to two and a half hours, without plot and without us caring for the characters. At least we had fun calling out "shiver me timbers" and "Urg. That’s fine grub"

The internet

The internet is a great place to find yourself... other than Googling your own name - (63 for Kieran - but 3 are fake).

For an unedited view of life in Cruzy, visit our friends fab website by clicking on this link.

http://gabian-village.blogspot.com/2007/10/china-girl.html

John and Jean-Maurice run the most beautiful B&B here in the South of France. They have decorated their home with taste and without a hint of pretention. We really do recommend you pay them a visit if you are traveling around the South.

Keep in touch with their adventure by visiting Jean-Maurice's very own blog, but for more about their B&B or their design work, click on these links.

Jean-Maurice - http://gabian-village.blogspot.com/

The Village House B&B - http://www.thevillagehouse.info/cdh.html

Interior Design - http://www.thevillagehouse.info/aboutus.html

Outdoor Living

With the sun out and the open fire in need of wood, we joined a couple of friends in the village and went looking for old vines in the fields surounding the village. We picked up a bag of vines each and took them home. The following day, we needed to do the same thing. It turns out an evening of open fire burns though a great deal of wood, and with us enjoying our fire from around 5pm, it takes two bags to last until midnight.



After 5 days picking our way thought the vineyards, we picked up the phone and bought in a ton of wood. It took about 50 trips to get the logs from the back of the delivery van to the side path and then another 100 trips to transfer the logs into our little hut at the rear of the courtyard. The following day we both felt as though we'd been to the gym... who needs Holmes Place?




We were invited to take a little walk though the hills around St Chinian, which is just a 20 minute drive from Cruzy. We began by meeting a number of people at a small wine producer just outside St Chinian (wine available at Sainsbury’s) and we were guided up into the hills by the farmer’s wife.

She knew some lovely stories about the region and we could clearly see the Cathedral in Beziers (about 30 km away) and the sea behind it (about 40km away). One story was linked to the Caroux mountain which is said to have a woman lying on top, awaiting the return of her knight in shining armour who had travelled off of the Crusades (see above - her head is to the left).


The clouds darkened and threatened rain, but it held off. We walked on up to a small little church with was beautifully maintained. On and up, we walked chatting all the time to new people. Some had lived in France for years, others just 5 weeks. We were invited to a meal in exchange for setting up a computer to receive Terry Wogan (some argue we got the better deal).

On our way down, a woman from Belgium began to eat red berries from the trees. I was waiting for her to die… but thankfully it turns out these red berries were quiet harmless and rather tasty. They were Strawberry Tree Fruit. I’d never even heard of them and was most surprised at the fleshy innards (similar to ripe mango) but the seeds (on the outside) made the texture a little grainy (officially called Arbutus unedo).

Above is a photo of the Strawberry Tree blossom, which continues to grow even after the fruit has dropped from the tree.

3 hours later, we sat down for a meal provided by the vineyard. Each course come complete with two choices of wine, most of which were very easy to drink. At the end of the meal, chestnuts were served roasted from an outdoor fire. We returned to cruzy, Alan to work and Kieran for a 3 hour snooze.

October Roundup

October is here and the vines have all been stripped of their grapes and the colours of the fields around Cruzy have changed from the green spectrum to the warmer colours. The photo of the road to Cruzy above gives you a taste of the changing landscape.

We have had a busy month much to our surprise. France has come alive with the Rugby World Cup and the Bar in Cruzy opened just in time. The bar was absolutely packed each night and it was only after the South Africans had returned home did we actually pop in for a drink. And what a drink. We tasted the first wine from this years harvest. We were drawn to it and have managed to drink samples from 3 local vineyards (sample = bottle) and have stocked up our fridge.

We have been driving around in our Renault Megane Scenic for 9 months trouble free, but alas the honeymoon is over. The thing began to play up, normally at roundabouts or when pulling out in front of juggernauts. So, a trip to Renault Minute (a sort of Halfords but just for Renaults) and they said it would cost us 1100 Euros to have the car fixed. We were rather surprised at the amount, but thanks to a friend in the village who has her car fixed locally, we visited a small independent mechanic in the next village. It cost 54 Euros to have the car fixed, a nice saving of 1046 Euros. Of course, Kieran is still shopping for a new car…

We had two little visitors this month. One very welcome and one not so welcome. We loved having our larger picture frames on the floor until we had a young lad visit and we realised that our home was not as child friendly as we had first thought. So, the pictures are now in search of a new home, probably a wall.

Our second visitor was with us for 4 days and he managed to eat many of our treats. Not only did he eat 3 Flakes, specially delivered from Bristol, but he chomped though 5 chocolate biscuits. See the photo above for the evidence.

In January we had the chimney sweep come and clean our chimney in the kitchen. In France, you need to have a certificate to prove that your chimney has been cleaned or insurance companies will not pay up if your house burns to the ground as a result of a chimney fire. So, 9 months later, we installed a wood burner. The fires burn hot and the smell is lovely. Kieran now takes a stroll though the vineyards collecting wood each day. He fills a large Ikea blue bag (yes, they are the same the world over) each day, and Alan burns every single one each night. We have decided to ship in a ton of logs.