Blog Entries

Back in sunny Roujan

lecouvent@mac.com — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Hello again. Did you think we’d gone forever? It took me a while to notice that our website went off line for a few days, an inexplicable dearth of e-mails prompting a call to our hosts who had us back online in moments.

I’ve also been away to England to help my mother arrange all the stuff you have to do when someone dies. My step-father, John, had the send-off he’d have hoped for. We had a full house while I was away which made for a difficult time made easy by help [...]

Shortage of eggs

lecouvent@mac.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:00:00 +0100

We have two broody hens at the moment and broody hens don't lay. With nine hens in total that leaves seven potential layers. We have eight guests staying today and boiled eggs are a favourite, so at their laying best the hens are struggling to keep up.

Some guests take matters into their own hands. I came down to prepare breakfast this morning to find two eggs 'bagged'.

Thi [...]

Marseillan flea market

lecouvent@mac.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:00:00 +0100

We had a great day yesterday - an early breakfast followed by a 30 minute drive to Marseillan Plage where there is an enormous flea market each weekend, all through the year. It's a favourite Sunday morning blast for me, and Ali, who loathes mornings, will sometimes come treasure hunting too. Yesterday we went with some lovely guests who are here from Dublin.

At the Pezenas antiques fair in May Ali and I were taken by a water-jousting shield, but at 100 euros the price was too high [...]

Oh to be a husky

lecouvent@mac.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:00:00 +0100

I'm currently limbering up for entry into a competition. You know, the one for the untidiest desk on Earth. I think I stand a good chance of winning.

The problem is that I have a butterfly brain and find everything my eyes fall upon interesting. As a result I have the Filemaker Pro 10 manual permanently open, the Boden catalogue waiting for me to order Ali's birthday present. ( [...]

Soap - the sequel

lecouvent@mac.com — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:00:00 +0100

A few years ago we had a lovely jazz singer to stay. She has a friend who lives close by here who makes soap and she told us that her friend's soap was exceptional. Now, I don't know about you, but to me the notion of making soap seems somehow rather arcane. It's a process I know practically nothing about, I just know that like anything that's good, it takes effort, knowledge and skill to make it terrific as opposed to ordinary, and, hey, we all know that mos [...]

The Coconut Man

lecouvent@mac.com — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

A couple of Sundays ago we found ourselves in Beziers, having visited our pal Maria in her rest home. We'd been told about a large and interesting brocante in a former Intersport warehouse. Ever eager to spend money we haven't got on bits of art and odd treasures, we went to explore. I saw lots of things I liked very much, but none so much as this little chap. He weighs a ton and has [...]

Red Sky at Night .....

lecouvent@mac.com — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

... vigneronne's delight.

We spent the afternoon up at Chateau Malaudos de-budding. We'd thought we might start the next round of spraying but the so-called light airs were blowing the curtains in Olive horizontal. So much for that.

Came home hot and sweaty but stepped lightly across the bridge, took a quick dip under the solar shower and sploshed i [...]

Laundry, the soap opera

aliballantyne@mac.com — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Halfway through last season we decided to take the plunge and use a commercial laundry. On the face of it this doesn't seem much of a leap. Sheets need laundering. Laundry exists. QED take sheets to laundry. Plus, four years of ironing huge cotton sheets in the height of summer isn't one of my happiest memories though it may be my hottest. There is a hurdl [...]

Guest blog from Linda

lecouvent@mac.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Today's blog comes from guest Linda Robson. We're blushing, we thought she was going to write a travel guide to Roujan.

After years of visiting Roujan and longing to stay, we are finally here! We are inside Le Couvent's calm embrace and Lizzie and Ali's warm ministrations hold us captive and happy! We are at once joyful, gleeful and childlike combined - like Cheshire cats in full bloom!

Le Couvent B&B in May 2009

lecouvent@mac.com — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Just in case there aren't enough photos on this site to whet your appetite, I thought I'd show you how it looks today.

Le Couvent from the upper garden, where the pool is.

The kitchen, just after breakfast.

Convent Art

lecouvent@mac.com — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Guests who've been to stay at Le Couvent previously will know that we have lots of art on the walls. Some of it is 'proper' and worth a bit, and some is from flea markets. The game is to tell which is which. For the past three years we've housed a wonderful oil that belongs to our pal Yvonne - just while her house was being renovated. (It's taken longer than envisaged when she bought the painting, luckily for us.)

Welcome back USA

lecouvent@mac.com — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

The Yanks are coming back to France. (Is it rude to say Yanks?) For a few years we have had three or four American couples each season, but this year we have dozens. So what's changed? I've been talking with our current American guests and we are unable to decide. Is it that liberal Americans are travelling now that they are proud of their President? Has the US media stopped saying, erroneousl [...]

Poetry

lecouvent@mac.com — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:00:00 +0100

We're open for business again for the summer and as I sat waiting for the guests to come down to breakfast I read the excellent news that Carol Ann Duffy is the new Poet Laureate. The first woman in 341 years to hold the post. Brilliant. And I'm so glad that my vote counted. Regular readers will know that I cast my vote for her back in December last year in a blog post .

I wonder if she'd like to come to stay?

Update

lecouvent@mac.com — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Well, at 4.30 I went to inspect the vines and am happy to say that they looked OK. The skies were charcoal and lightning cracked over the hills. Kit the labrador was scared witless and Flynn the husky thought it all rather a good jape.

On the way home the hail fell once more, but I'm hoping it all holds together. This is a photo of the vine buds.

Hail - our b�te noir

lecouvent@mac.com — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Around lunchtime I wandered across the bridge and took some photos around the Le Couvent garden. Everything is in the fullest flower and looking absolutely gorgeous.

But just 40 minutes later the sky darkened and down came a waterfall of rain and hail.

Weather, what weather?

lecouvent@mac.com — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

The forecast has been dreadful for the past few days, but the heavy rains just haven't come - yet. So this week we have taken up 450 vines that were on a slope too steep to manage. We're wimps really, the old boy who used to own our vines did it all by himself with the aid of a mule. Having nearly lost Queenie the Quad on an escarpment we gave up on the Cinsault vines at the top of the amphitheatre. So they've been pulled up.

But today was bright, hot and sunny so, albeit to [...]

Strawberry Jam

lecouvent@mac.com — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

In preparation for the new season I've been making jam. We get through lots during the summer - just delicious on hot croissants at breakfast. This week I've been making strawberry and mint. I thought I'd invented the recipe until my pal Alex dismissed my imagined imagination with the phrase "Oh, you've copied L'Entrepots in Pezenas - they serve it there" Actually, I didn't, but I'm relieved to know such a fab restaurant also thought it worth [...]

Why can't my hens dance?

lecouvent@mac.com — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

I am deeply disappointed in my ten hens. One is currently broody, which is bad enough, but not one of them can dance like this little fellah. Ali and I have been laughing our socks off over this video - he saves some of his best moves towards the end.

How to spend a fortune without going out.

lecouvent@mac.com — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

Yesterday was a 'stay in front of the computer all day' kinda day. It was raining, so the garden maintenance was out of the question. There's always plenty to do to get ready for the new B&B season which starts on 1 May each year. So yesterday we trawled through websites looking for new bath sheets. Big fluffy Egyptian cotton ones. We'd already searched in more local shops, but no-one had the 18 we need so we settled on the lovely John Lewis in Oxford Street, London. Maria [...]

Easter near Pezenas - that means WINE!

lecouvent@mac.com — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100

If you're in the area and looking for something to do over Easter, here are a couple of events on at friends' wine domaines.

First up is Domaine Bourdic - our old chums Hans & Christa. Monday 13 April, between 11am and 5pm - wine tasting, olive oil tasting, food and conviviality. What better way to spend a sunny Easter Monday?

Alternatively, if you're free on Good Frida [...]