When we first talked about having a home in France I suppose I imagined that it would be a second home, a summer place which would provide us with a summer.

But things change.

Once we had decided to make the house a business venture by turning it into a Chambre d’Hote it became less and less of a temporary dwelling and now that I am deeply involved in our house restoration it is beginning to make less sense to spend large stretches of time out of it.

A lot of this is to do with the marvellous job Clive Nunn is doing on the house.
I will have, for my first time ever, a kitchen to die for and all the work we are doing is going to make le Presbytere not just a thing of beauty but a remarkably efficient and comfortable house.

Then there is the other problem, that of climate.
The weather in all twelve months of the year is so much better than the weather in Ireland.
Now having owned this house for a couple of years I have a fairly realistic idea of how the weather pans out.
Easter in Languedoc this year was dreadful, wall to wall rain and chill from Good Friday to Easter Tuesday.
The previous two Easters had been lovely.

So I now know that the weather can be unreliable but it still is a lot warmer and consistently less rainy than Ireland.
September last year was wonderful, we ate out on the terrace most evenings.
October and November were also good but it did get very cold around Christmas (and that was before the stove had been installed)

At the moment all the local papers are full of what a cold wet spring it is and we have had a couple of miserable days even since the Easter disaster, but still, it was mild and warm enough for us to have dinner on the terrace at least twice in the last fortnight.

So, what would be the suitable months to go back to Eireann ?

And then there is the recession in Ireland.
Looked at from away it does seem to be particularly tough in Ireland.
France complains of recession too but it is nothing like as obvious in the shops and in the cities where business seems as usual.

But the great counterbalance to all these factors is the wealth of family and friends that we would be leaving behind in Ireland.
Our three daughters look likely to settle in Ireland , and the precious grand-son.
We certainly don’t want to loose touch.
Our main hope in that field is that Mr Ryan continues his frequent flights to Carcassonne from three airports in Ireland and that now, unfettered by the raising of prices during school holidays, we can pick our times to go back and the family and friends can also pick their times to visit us.

Time will tell.

At the moment, bar a week in Waterford, I have been in Thezan since the middle of March and wont be back in Waterford until the middle of May.
I am beginning not to know where I live.