pépoulie

La Boucle d'en Guibaud: a longer circular walk from Pépoulie

2011-09-17T13:57:00.082+02:00

In September 2011 the Martin family did a much longer

circular walk from Pépoulie - about three and a half hours.

Here are their directions:

At the end of the drive turn right and follow the road

until it becomes gravel and a little while later you reach

the chapel of St Etienne (St Stephen).Turn left at the

t-junction by the graveyard and walk down the road past

the large wayside cross on the right. After about 400m,

turn right off the tarmac road on to a grassy lane, which

crosses a small bridge over a stream. After about 1.5km,

with a power line on the left, the track bends to the right

and you reach a road. Turn right into the village of

En Guibaud. Take a left down a track to En Cervole. Pass

to the right of the buildings and continue on to the next

farm, En Blanc. At the barn on the left turn right up a path

beside the hedgerow and walk up to the right of the woods

at the top of the hill. Walk along the plateau, following

the waymarks, to reach the farm Ricaudie, on the right.

Continue along the lane which will come out onto a tarmac

road at Mongagnes. Pass through the hamlet and as you leave

it take the road down the hill to the right. At the bottom of

the hill turn left at the t-junction and then left on to a lane

leading up into the woods. At the top of the hill turn right

(waymark on concrete electricity pole) and then hard right on

to the path which leads along the top beside the woods. At

the end of this path turn left into the woods. As you leave

the woods you will pass the pigeonnier of La Métairie Haute.

Take the drive down the hill. At the bottom cross the road

at the cross-roads and walk up the lane. As the lane bends

to the right by the pink house take the grassy lane straight

ahead and follow this up the hill. Pépoulie becomes visible

across the fields on the left. Turn left on to the tarmac road

back up to the house on the road you started out on.
David Martin, Islamabad, Pakistan

Walking some local history

2010-09-24T11:13:00.005+02:00

Back of Pépoulie seen from the circular walk

We always recommend our guests to do a circular walk starting from Pépoulie, so as to get an idea of the past few centuries’ social and economic changes that have made the countryside round here the way it is. It’s also good exercise, taking about an hour.
Turning right out of the driveway, go down the hill. After a hundred metres or so, at the crossroads, ignore the sign to Prat Moure (this leads to a shorter version of the walk), and continue on the tarmac lane. On either side you’ll see farmhouses and fields of sunflowers, wheat, millet, or maize (depending on the year) and carry straight on past a sign, La Rousselié. The lane now becomes a tree-lined track, until you come to a crossroads and a pretty little church, St Etienne, on the corner. In the tiny graveyard is an imposing family grave with the family names Castaing, Bastide, and, intriguingly, a Swedish name, Ljunggren. (All I’ve been able to find out so far, from the Puylaurens register of deaths, is that an eight month old Ljungren (sic), Eugêne Jules, died in the family house Saint Alens-Bas in 1892.)
At the crossroads, turn right and go past signs Mie Basse en Roque on the left and La Métairie Basse on the right.
After Le Ségala (which in Occitan means “where seigle (barley) is grown), at the next small crossroads you’ll see Les Imbertaries marked to the right. Make a short detour along the lane opposite marked Bellevue, to see one of the pigeonniers so characteristic of this area. Up until the twentieth century an important source of protein was pigeon.
At the next crossroads turn right, and continue on this hilly road past signs to La Métairie Grande, La Causserie, Cassieu and Barens. You can then see Pépoulie across the fields to your right. Once you reach the Vielmur-sur-Agout to Pépoulie road, turn right and right again down the lane to Pépoulie.
Nearly all the signs you’ll see refer to houses very similar in size, form and age to Pépoulie – Barrau, La Rousselié, and so on. What is striking is how many working farms there are, like Les Imbertaries, En Ségala, Barens, or former farmsteads, like Pépoulie, and how close to each other they are. An 1834 cadastral map (copy in the gîte) shows that each only had between two and four hectares of land on which to support a family, and, before the Revolution, pay the hated taxes like the taille.
Some of the farm names have either métairie in them – Métairie Basse, Métairie Grande - or the abbreviation Mie - Mie Basse en Roque. The 1834 cadastral map shows that many more of the farms you pass were also métairies, including Pépoulie: Barrau Mie, EnSiau Mie, Roujou Mie, Rousselie Mie.
A métairie is a sharecropping, and a métayer a sharecropper, as opposed to an owner working the farm. During the 18th century, when Pépoulie was built, up until the Revolution, the number of sharecroppers increased dramatically: by 1791, only four of the 386 farms recorded in the commune of Puylaurens were owner-farmers.
Contracts drawn up by lawyers in Puylaurens in the 18th century give a good picture of how the farming was organized. Most often the contract start date was All Saints Day, after the harvest. The owner had to provide equipment, including plough oxen and cattle, as well as seeds, proof of how poor the sharecropper generally was. The only tools we find sometimes specified in the contracts that the sharecropper supplied were a scythe, a fork or a hoe.
He had to live on the land, and shared with the owner any surplus or loss at the end of each year on the cereals and cattle. This was either equally (after deducting the cost of seeds), or sometimes less for the sharecropper.
In addition, the sharecropper’s wife had to supply the owner with a fixed number of hens, capons, geese and eggs, which she brought to the owner on market days.
Taxes were generally paid by the owner, but with a contribution from the sharecropper often greater than his finances allowed. Contracts could be cancelled by either owner or sharecropper at any time. Between the 15th and 18th centuries these could be as long as 10, 15 or even 20 years. By the second half of the 18th century, these had often been reduced to only a year at a time. All of this would have increased resentment and uncertainty, resulting in the explosion of the Revolution.
The 1834 map shows Pépoulie métairie extending at the back to a line between Prat Moure and Barens, making it about four hectares instead of the one at present. One can imagine how much hard work it would have been ploughing this amount of land. Crops would have included cereals (especially wheat, of which the owner often took a major part to sell), and maize (used for flour and as animal feed), crops still grown in this region. A crop very common now, but not then, is sunflowers, used for making oil.
Further reading: Frèche G, 2001, Puylaurens, une ville huguenote en Languedoc (Editions Privat, Toulouse) ISBN 2 7089 5608 6. (I got much of the above information from this book, which is available in Puylaurens library.)

Simple fresh dishes from the Pépoulie garden

2010-09-24T10:11:00.012+02:00

Jill Ågren, who runs a catering firm in Sweden At Home Chef Sthlm (www.athomechefsthlm.se), took advantage of her family's holiday in Pépoulie in September to cook simple dishes with the organically grown fruit, vegetables and herbs from the garden here. Here are four of them:

Fig and pear chutney to go with the local goat cheese

Figs

Pears

Cider vinegar

Sprigs of rosemary

Sugar
Unlike normal chutneys, which are stored before being used, this chutney can be made and eaten on the same day. Peel the pears and chop into chunks. Cook on a gentle heat with a little water for a few minutes. Add the figs chopped in quarters along with the vinegar, rosemary, and sugar, and continue cooking gently with a lid for ten minutes until the fruit is soft but not mushy. Allow to cool, then serve with a goat cheese.

Tomato and courgette tarte

Tomatoes
Courgettes
Garlic, olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Ready made pastry (when on holiday you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen)
Unroll the pastry into a pie dish, and sprinkle a little crushed garlic over it, according to taste. Slice the tomatoes and courgettes very thinly and lay in overlapping circles on the pastry. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Put in a hot oven for around 15 minutes. Eat lukewarm or cold.

Grilled figs with goat cheese
Fresh figs
Goat cheese
Hazelnuts or walnuts
Halve the figs and lay cut side up on a baking tray. Put a slice of goat cheese on each fig, and sprinkle a few nuts around. Pop under a hot grill for a few minutes so that the cheese is lightly browned, the figs warmed through and the nuts lightly toasted. Serve immediately as a starter.

Red pepper sauce for barbecued meats

Red peppers

Garlic

Crème fraiche

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Wrap the peppers in foil along with some chopped garlic. Put in a hot oven for around 15 minutes, until the peppers feel soft when you prod them. Take out of the foil, and peel the peppers. Liquidise them, along with the onion and garlic, and then add crème fraiche to make a creamy sauce. Serve warm or cold with barbecued meats.

Jean de Florette meets IKEA....

2010-02-09T12:23:00.004+01:00

...by Chris and Julia, Winchester, UK:
We had a truly relaxing and delightful autumn stay at Pépoulie. We loved the spaciousness of the gîte and the views, the quiet of the countryside, the slowness of Puylaurens and nearby towns. Long walks to search out pigeonniers justified two fantastic dinners at the nearby Cap de Castel restaurant. Here the owner (overhearing our conversation) led us from the table to view his beautifully restored Citroën 2CV camionnette parked in the courtyard. He must be due an award from the French Tourism Agency. It being October, only the younger braved the pool but we all enjoyed the log fire each evening. This is a beautifully presented gîte - simple, tasteful, contemporary interiors behind an 18C facade - with everything necessary for comfort and cooking. A great place to read, think and talk. Thanks, Roger, for a warm welcome - we'll be back when the vines bear fruit, if not before!

Vin de Pépoulie, appellation non-controlée

2009-12-17T20:41:00.007+01:00

As a gesture for the environment, if not for my liver, I planted seventy vines this week. If all goes to plan - and lots can go wrong between planting a one year-old vine and opening the first wine three years later - Ulla and I will be able to share a bottle of Pépoulie appellation very definitely non-controlée every day of the year. The variety is Syrah, grafted on to an American rootstock because resistant to phylloxera. You can see the grafting as a red blob of wax three quarters of the way up each plant.
While I was digging the holes, the postman arrived. He asked if I was planting grapes for the table.
- No, to make wine, I said. Then, because I knew it was illegal to make wine to sell outside an appellation controlée area, quickly added:
- For consumption by me and by the family.
- And by the postman, he replied.
The neighbours have also approved of the initiative - phew - saying that we'll be able to drink ecological wine free of sulphites and other additives you get in shop-bought stuff, and so keep healthy in old age.
Let's hope it's drinkable.

Two Canadians at Pépoulie in autumn

2009-11-24T17:18:00.008+01:00

Céline and Jim spent the last week of October and three weeks of November here, and wrote the following six postings Meandering thoughts and pictures. Read some of the things they did, mostly on foot or using the bikes we have for guests, and how much they enjoyed their stay.

Meandering thoughts and pictures (6)

2009-11-24T17:15:00.015+01:00

Wind tower hopping: France, apparently, has one of the fastest growing wind tower economies - just look north from Pépoulie and ten kilometres away on the horizon you will see the newest addition to the wind tower farming community. We cycled to see this particular wind harvest just outside Seviès. But the best wind tower viewing is to the south of Puylaurens, outside the historic and picturesque town of Saint Félix Lauragais. Here you can see fourteen of them. Eye candy or eyesore???

Apple pie: 'tis the season for apples to continue their longstanding temptation of the world. We bought bags of them for one euro a kilo at the local market, tasted about ten varieties, and became experts at making tarte Tatin. It's on page 41 of Pépoulie's resident cook book The Impressionists' Table.

Meandering thoughts and pictures (5)

2009-11-24T17:12:00.023+01:00

Pastis and pétanque: on any sunny afternoon on the driveway leading up to the gîte, a game of boules with a pastis in hand ensures that you get to go native at least once in France.

Fire and tea or wine: although the autumn weather doesn't require too many fires, on the few nights when there was wind and rain we relished our time in front of the woodburning stove, with wine or tea in hand, and chestnuts roasting, marvelling at how the gîte warmed up.

Wind...stars...sunsets: from the northwest corner of the pool or from just out the back door, we spent many late afternoons and early evenings admiring the sun bled sky, being lulled by the wind blowing through the tall poplar trees, and practising our very limited astronomy skills. You should be able to easily see the Big Dipper, the Milky Way, and with a little concentration, the North Star.

Meandering thoughts and pictures (4)

2009-11-24T17:09:00.013+01:00

Monsieur Rastoul: the wee garden farm that Pépoulie looks down on to the northwest holds our fondest memories, and had our favourite tourist attraction: Monsieur Rastoul. He is a diehard farmer and longstanding citizen of Puylaurens, who will greet you as if you have been friends for ever. We thoroughly enjoyed our visits with him at his well tended plot of land, and everywhere else that we bumped into him!

Markets: our favourites were Saturday morning in Revel and Wednesday morning in Réalmont. Both of these are an easy drive (about 20 minutes) and have a tremendous selection of food and various other things. No touristy elements, just authentic French market shopping. Having said that, our most rewarding market experience was right in Puylaurens - mainly because after one week we were chez nous. We recognised the vendors and they recognised us!

Meandering thoughts and pictures (3)

2009-11-24T17:04:00.007+01:00

Walking: again, the tourist office offers maps for various routes. Although we did the 6 kilometre Boucle de Saint Etienne de Florac right from the gîte most often, our preferred route was La Boucle d'Ardialle - a bit of a hike at 14 kilometres, but worth the effort for the variety of landscapes and farmscapes it provided. Alternatively, do this one counterclockwise, and turn round in Montgagnes.

You'll know the turnaround point because you will be met by Tina, the hamlet's friendly watchdog. She will even escort you part of the way back to Puylaurens.
Her turnaround point is the end of the forest tunnel, where she stops, sits and watches as you carry on home past the pigeonnier of La Métairie Haute.

Meandering thoughts and pictures (2)

2009-11-24T17:02:00.023+01:00

Cycling: the tourist office in Puylaurens has a variety of maps that allow you to pedal the hills near and far. Our favourite was Un circuit vélo des pigeonniers (C16) - well marked with very distinct signage, not too hilly, about 39 kilometres, and departing right from Puylaurens centre and heading south.

Meandering thoughts and pictures (1)

2009-11-24T15:27:00.024+01:00

Foraging: we picked chestnuts, walnuts, figs, mint, bayleaves and dill on the side of the road, in abandoned farmyards, and on the many walking and biking paths that we wandered down.

We also profited from others' foraging by spending ridiculous amounts of money on the crazy mushrooms, dug up from who knows where, that appeared at all the local markets. Curious looking but absolutely delicious!

Hunting hares

2009-10-28T20:27:00.010+01:00

At around six this evening, taking a breather after a day of clearing unwanted saplings in front of the house, I was startled by two huge bangs that reverberated around the surrounding hills. Then I had two seconds sight of a hare twenty metres away, literally running for its life, followed by two yelping dogs. The hunting season has started.
I ran out into the fields to see the two dogs frantically running this way and that in the distance, finally to lose the scent. The hare had escaped.

Coming back in the garden I met two jolly hunters, one of them our immediate neighbour (on the left in the picture). He told me they were each allowed to shoot three hares per season. Each time they killed a hare, they showed it to the townhall, and got a plastic bracelet to put on the hare, with a detachable sticker to go on their hunting permit. Quite proudly they said that with the French administration "c'est géré" - it's managed.

And when I told him we did rabbit with red wine and local Agen prunes, he immediately said he'd give me one next Sunday (Wednesdays and and Sundays are permitted shooting days).

Visca la lenga occitana!

2009-10-08T20:28:00.035+02:00

When you enter villages and towns now in southern France, you are very likely to see bilingual roadsigns like the one above, in French and Occitan.
And there's the rub.
Very often, if you ask the locals here about Occitan, they'll laugh and say "Oh, you mean patois". But the word patois in French has very negative connotations: "a substandard form of the pure language, ie French"; "a dialect spoken by peasants and the ill-educated". The reason is that, as part of their drive to unify and centralise France over the centuries, it suited the French speakers from the north to denigrate the other languages that existed, including Occitan, and to get the speakers feel ashamed of their mother tongue.
In fact, of course, Occitan is a fully fledged member of the Romance language family, along with Castilian Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian and Portuguese, spread throughout a third of France, with a rich cultural heritage of over a thousand years. It is the language of the troubadours.
And yet it's an endangered language, in the sense that there are fewer people speaking it, and they are mostly older.
But what does it take to revive a language? The Welsh experience shows that both a top-down approach of legislation and institutional measures, combined with a bottom-up surge of opinion among those affected is necessary. For long regarded as the language of the rural poor and ill-educated, Welsh seemed doomed to extinction. But when the middle classes saw it as a way of asserting their Welshness, and took pride, for example, in sending their children to Welsh-medium schools, this had the effect, combined with legislation to promote the language, of assuring the language a living future.
Perhaps the decision makers in the French Ministry of Education should resist parents' pressure to introduce English at an ever earlier age, and start with Occitan instead. Children are smart. They can figure out later what subjects they will need, including English. In any case, solid linguistic research from elsewhere shows that precocious exposure to a foreign, as opposed to a vernacular, language is no guarantor of proficiency later.
And it might make le professeur Claude Hagège less grumpy about what he calls, with a breathtaking lack of academic rigour, "l'anglo-américain".
There is a heartening range of initiatives by committed occitanists to revive Occitan:
- the setting up of an Institute of Occitan Studies (IEO), funded by the central and regional governments;
- getting towns and villages to put up bilingual road signs;
- an IEO publishing and distribution company, based in Puylaurens, with an impressive range of titles (around a thousand) mostly in Occitan - novels, poetry, plays, children's and young people's books, dictionaries, text books, histories, audio and video;
- radio stations;
- language classes;
- resource centres;
- theatre groups;
Next week in the nearby town of Carcassonne there's to be a demonstration to demand the top-down measures (the setting up of an Occitan TV channel, and more investment in language classes, for example), as well as to instill a greater sense of pride among the locals about Occitan. The first demonstration in 2005 in Carcassonne attracted 10 000 people. The second, in Béziers in 2007, 20 000 people. This time, they're aiming for 30 000 people. Let's hope it succeeds. Occitan is a mellifluous, vibrant and important language.

Ratatouille

2009-09-08T21:08:00.001+02:00

For years I've been boring Ulla and the rest of the family, friends, and former colleagues that I wanted to live in a climate where I could grow all the ingredients for ratatouille. Well, done it. Actually, not the shallots and garlic yet, as I arrived here too late in the season this year. But aubergines, peppers, courgettes and tomatoes, yes.
The recipe:
Use about the same volume of aubergines , courgettes, tomatoes, and red peppers, depending on what quantity you want to make. So one large aubergine would need two or three courgettes, three or four tomatoes, and two largish peppers. As for the shallots, about half the volume of the aubergine, and one clove of garlic per person. These quantities would produce enough ratatouille for four people.
Chop the shallots roughly and fry gently in olive oil so that they become translucent but do not brown. Put them in a heavy bottomed saucepan that has a lid. Drop the tomatoes in boiling water for five seconds to loosen their skin, peel, and put straight in the saucepan. Slice the aubergines and fry in the same frying pan as the shallots until lightly browned - they'll soak up masses of olive oil. Then add them to the saucepan. Do the same with the courgettes, and then peppers. The point about frying each separately is that the end result is not a brown stodge.
Add to the saucepan crushed garlic, some thyme, salt and pepper, stir around gently to mix, put on the lid, and simmer gently for about twenty minutes.
Can be eaten warm in an omelette or pipérade, or cold the next day as a salad.
I'd like to be able to say that using homegrown vegetables puts the dish in a class above shop bought ingredients. To be honest it doesn't. It just tastes very good. Especially eaten cold the next day.

What do Brigitte Bardot and a girl from Puylaurens at the time of the French Revolution have in common?

2009-09-02T17:41:00.002+02:00

On all the main routes leading into the village there are those brown road signs proclaiming Puylaurens the "Berceau occitan de la Marianne républicaine" - the Occitan cradle of republican Marianne. In October 1792 Guillaume Lavabre, a cobbler-troubadour born and bred in Puylaurens, wrote a song about a local girl by the name of Marianne. Called in Occitan La Garison de Marianna - The Healing of Marianne - it was also in praise of the newly created Republic, which he baptised Marianne. The lyrics are, it has to be admitted, a rather contrived extended metaphor of Marianne suffering under the Ancien Régime but regaining her health as a result of the Revolution and the exploits of its heroes. Our neighbour, Madame Garric, is secretary of the Association Marianna in Puylaurens, and she asked me to make a translation in English, as closely as possible word for word, and keeping the references to Revolutionary events and personalities as in the original. It will be used as part of the forthcoming annual celebrations of Marianne here:
Marianne, suffering from a serious sickness, was not being well treated and was dying of misery. The Doctor, rather than curing her, made her suffer day and night. The new Executive Power gave her an emetic to clear her chest. Marianne feels better.
A grain of liste civile is a fatal remedy which retains the bile in the body, and always increases the pain. And the remedies of Louis are not good: one never gets better. But an ounce of Egalité and two drachmas of Liberté have certainly cleared her chest. Marianne etc.
Marianne the kind got her sense of taste back after the correct bleeding that took place on 10 August. The accursed pain quickly goes when one gets back one's appetite. A little oil of Servan, a little syrup of Roland, have certainly cleared her chest. Marianne etc.
Dillon, Kellermann, Custine have started to drive out the foul vermin that almost killed her; and the insides of the intestines will soon be rid of such malignant worms; the elixir of Dumouriez, rubbed on the soles of the feet, has certainly cleared her chest. Marianne etc.
A capture of Nice and two pinches of Emigrants are needed to dissipate the harm of this pain which was so great, carefully passing the submission of Brunswick through the still. In the morning, on rising from bed, the evaporation of Clairfayt has certainly cleared her chest. Marianne etc.
Montesquiou, the good patriot and Marianne's doctor, wants to cure her completely with marmot fat. Finally Anselme expels the poison, taking some more blood from her. So, her body purged, cleansed of the harmful yeast, Marianne, recovering fully, will be a picture of health.
What is striking is how well informed Lavabre was about the often chaotic events happening all over France in 1792. Googling the names in the song and events like the capture of Nice gives a vivid picture of the febrile atmosphere of the time.
Today Marianne is everywhere - on French postage stamps and euro centimes, and all of the thousands of mairies in France have a bust of her. The Statue of Liberty, presented to the United States by France, is inspired by the republican virtues symbolised by Marianne and what the new republic on the other side of the Atlantic aspired to. And Delacroix's famous painting la Liberté guidant le peuple has Liberty represented by Marianne.
There is a certain irony in all this. The song was written and sung in Occitan, the language of this region that stretches from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. It was almost extinguished by the imposition of French, and this still causes a grudge. Madame Garric, for example, talks unselfconsciously of "the invasion by the people from the North" and she doesn't mean Brits buying houses here or the Nazi occupation, but the speakers of French (the "langue d'oui") imposing their language and culture over the centuries on the speakers of the "langue d'oc", ie Occitans like her.
And Brigitte Bardot? Every few years a new bust of Marianne is produced using a contemporary model or actress for inspiration. Brigitte Bardot in 1968, Mireille Mathieu (1978), Catherine Deneuve (1985), and Laetitia Casta in 2000. I'm not sure who the bust of Marianne in a niche on the front wall of Pépoulie takes after.

Figs, and other fruits

2009-08-27T18:50:00.001+02:00

There is something immensely satisfying about going out early into the garden to pick a basket of figs, already warmed by the morning sun, to put on the breakfast table. The flesh sweet, soft, a beautiful pinky mauve. The new fig season started a few days ago, and will last till nearly the end of September. The cherries, an early reddish yellow variety, and a later, darker one, last from around the third week of May to the third week of June. The pears start in late July and go on to the end of August. And the grapes, on the front wall of the house, will be ready from mid-September. So with four cherry trees, three figs, two pear trees, and three grape vines, there is plenty of fresh fruit for our guests to pick. The only disappointment this year was the plums - hardly any on either of the two trees. And the only gap is late June to late July. But this is made up for by the apricots and peaches in the market. By preference, French apricots and peaches, not from any chauvinism, but because they come from the next door region to our Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon, so can be picked and dispatched whilst perfectly ripe. (Spanish ones, because of the greater distances, have to be picked that bit earlier.)

Manure

2009-08-27T16:51:00.040+02:00

Jérome Pagès is a neighbour who has a 60 hectare farm here. A couple of weeks ago he dumped two trailer loads of sheep manure on the meadow at the front of Pépoulie.

To be clear, I did ask him to do this, although I am acutely embarrassed that he refuses to take any payment. In fact he does the same for several other neighbours here, seeing it, I think, as being part of a local community. I’m racking my brains about how to offer something to him and the local community in the same spirit.
60 hectares is apparently tiny compared to the huge agribusinesses in the Ile de France. He has sheep, cows for producing veal, onions, garlic, and a different kind of grain crop each year.

Whilst the muckspreader was doing its business, he told me about his 86 year old grandfather, who is still alive and lives at the farm. In the old days he would spend every day in August digging out by hand the manure that had collected in the sheep pens over the previous winter and spreading on the fields. With a mechanical digger and his muckspreader (“the same age as me, thirty two”), Jérome now does the job in two.

He also took the opportunity to bemoan the over-regulation by Brussels. For example, he is not allowed to spread the muck on his own fields until 1 September, in case storms before that date cause nitrates to soak into the water table. Why it should be OK after 1 September, I’m not sure. I asked how Brussels could find out if he did do the spreading in August, and what the penalty would be. He pointed to the sky and said “satellites”, and the stopping of his annual EU subsidy.

Before the manure arrived, I was worried it might stink the place out, and destroy all my efforts at building a reputation for good customer care of our guests. I needn’t have worried – it is beautifully crumbly, light and odourless. There’s enough for 80m²of vegetable patch and the rows of vines I plan to plant over the winter.

A report from the vegetable patch next spring.

Why a Pépoulie blog?

2009-08-27T16:39:00.003+02:00

This blog is for those who have booked to come to Pépoulie, and those who may be interested in coming. It will try to give a flavour of being here, beyond the Useful to Know sheets about the gîte, the pool, Puylaurens, and the surrounding area that I send out to guests. Let me know if it's interesting or not, and if there are other things you'd like to read about Pépoulie and this part of France.

Apologies straightaway for it being only in English. If I did it in all the languages of those who have stayed here, it would have to be in Dutch, Finnish, French, Swedish and Korean as well...which is beyond my linguistic capability.

So, to the first postings...