And so winter is coming into the Languedoc.

The first signs in fact were not the drop in temperatures but the dramatic change in wardrobe.

Everyone now wears a fleece or an overcoat, animal activists would be kept overworked with the mountains of fur being worn, and all women now wear boots (often high heeled and probably useless in snow or slush).

As this happened rather before the temperatures started to drop we feel that the average native French person either has a direct line with the Meteo or else, just perhaps, cannot wait to show off their new winter wardrobes.
This is so different from Ireland where we cling on to t-shirts and short sleeves long after our winter has started in the hope of forestalling its arrival.

Now this winter is not winter as we know it in Ireland, the sun still frequently shines so the temperatures vary between 13C and 18C during the day but the evenings and nights are much cooler, 6C or 7C, so we have been trying out the Godin.

First reports are excellent , it works a treat, banning all chill from our large sitting/dining /kitchen almost instantly and buzzing and crackling away comfortably.
In fact we have noticed that at these temperatures it keeps the first two stories of the house almost chill free. It’s range does not unfortunately quite reach to the attic where Síle and I sleep.

Now in the supermarket they sell net bags of about 5 long logs for €5 a bag.
Not terribly expensive, as they last a couple of nights, but our neighbour Danny was horrified that we could be so profligate as to buy wood like this.
She calculated that it was about 8 times cheaper to buy it by the Stére.

Next problem, what the haydays is a Stére.
My usually reliable Robert lets me down. His only translation is Stere, a word idemtical in all but accent.
Back to the OED (I can hear my friends laugh already) and there I find it :
A Stére, is a cubic metre of wood.
That achieved our next essential is to go and get one.

On the road to Beziers we found our woodman and, after some negotiating, and provided we carried it off ourselves we could have a half Stére. for €30. This was about all we could fit comfortably in the back of the Megane.
It was he promised all very dry, and Oak.

So without to much bother we brought it home.
We now have a quarter Stére under the stairs;

And another quarter Stére in the cupboard beside the stove.
Happily this is exactly 50 cms deep, exactly the length of the blocks and a perfect fit for the Godin.