In May 2006

August 2008

October 2014

Nine years ago, on this day (well actually on 14th August 2006) we saw our future home, Le Presbytere, for the first time. When we got back to the world of internet connection again I put up there pictures of the first impressions and which I had stored long hand (we have come a long way !)

Blog from the end of August 2006

Well well well, home again after the longest and most significant holiday ever.
47 days of holiday, nearly seven weeks during which we drove over 5000 miles,
visited whole loads of France and Spain and the significant bit is that, if all goes well, we have also started the process of buying our house in France.
As a true and dedicated blogger I kept a longhand journal of the whole epic, I filled most of a large foolscap copy with my ramblings, I also managed to take a few snaps, over 500 (and that only with merciless pruning).

Now begins the process of trying to transcribe all of that into edible “words” pieces.

But first things first.
The French house.

The house is an 19th century Presbytery in the village of Thézan-les-Béziers.
The village is in Herault, in the Languedoc, about 15 minutes from Béziers, and about half an hour from the Mediterranean.

The house is big,they say 195 sq metres, (about 2000 sq feet) but this omits the attic and the cellar. In Ireland we would call it closer to 3000 sq feet.
It has six bedrooms, a living room, a huge kitchen which leads out on to big terrace with great views down to the Pyrenees, a court yard and a little garden
(100 sq metres) which has a huge tree growing in it.

It is very ratty at the moment,dirty and unloved with wallpaper and carpets from the sixties but has some beautiful features, two marble fireplaces, some terrific plasterwork, and some great tiles on the floors.
It was last lived in by some nuns attached to the church, and it is from the parish council of Montpellier that we are buying the property.

Here are some pictures.

This is the front door, it looks hundreds of years old,
note the boot scrapers on each side.

The terrace.

Marble fireplace in one of the bedrooms
with beautiful plasterwork over.

Looking out of the kitchen on the terrace and the tree.
(and the Pyrenees in the distance)

In the courtyard we found a life sized Lady of Lourdes.

Our bid has been accepted and now we await the process of purchase which will take about three months.
You may await further developments.

This was a shot taken at a Christmas Party in St. Annes Hydro in Blarney in 1930 which Síle spotted in an old Cork Photos page. It was she who spotted my mother, looking very young indeed. She would have been just 19 and therefore allowed out in society- there were strict rules then- and she would have had to wait until she was 18 to put her hair up. She is just at the end of the arch on the right hand side. Anyone who knows us will recognise her from my daughter Deirdre.
Her great lifelong friend, Micky O Keeffe is at the same position at the left of the picture. She went on to marry Vincent O Donoghue and was the mother of Frank and Redmond, both prominent business men in Waterford.

My cousin Margot has recognised her Dad, Declan Dwyer in the middle with a groken front tooth, and she remembers his story of how he broke it falling off a wall. He would have been about sixteen but, being male would have been allowed out in society earlier.

At the Glass Festival at Palau Del Vidre this morning I managed to picture a piece of glass in the furnace.

As it is now our tenth summer in France (hard to believe) and our hottest so far I am now going to repeat some advice I gave out on my blog five summers ago. Anyone planning a continental holiday in August be advised:

Heat Survival
This is our fifth full summer in France, our fourth in Thezan, and we are getting used to deal with- and even enjoy – the high summer temperatures.

Here are a few tips we use to survive.

Copy the natives and sneak off for a siesta in the heat of the day, from 12 to 2.00, this also allows you to have the energy to get up much earlier and do stuff in the early morning cool.

Let yourself sweat , use a deodorant which is not anti-perspirant, sweating is natures air-conditioning and helps us cool down.

Use a fan to cool down, the breeze on our sweaty bodies is marvellously refreshing.

With that end in mind wear as little clothing as is decent and make sure they are materials which absorb sweat like cotton or linen or sports synthetics which wick away sweat.

I am assuming that you will liberally lather yourselves with sun cream to an appropriate factor but you should also pay attention to other areas of skin.

Use a lip salve, the sun can chap the lips like cold does.

If your are a little on the chubby side (like me) make sure and lubricate any areas where you might chafe.

Irish feet used to the protection of socks will crack and dryout when suddenly exposed to the air in sandals, get an appropriate foot cream (men as well as women) and rub in well and liberally.

Drink copious quantities of water, the colder the better.
We also find that some of the carbonated waters have a high natural salt level which is very refreshing in the heat.

If you are renting a house always shut the south facing shutters in the heat of the day.
In fact most of the people in our village shut all the shutters all day for cool.

If you are feeling overcome by the heat take a trip in an air-conditioned car or dawdle over shopping in an air-conditioned department store.

Go to an old mountain village for a wander.
The tall buildings offer shade from the sun and the narrow winding streets channel the breezes refreshingly.

Seek out the shade, picnic under trees and buy yourself an umbrella for the beach.

Forget about sun-bathing, it leads to skin cancers and premature aging, be fashionably pale.