May the magic month

Periwinkle

The month started with rain, however by 6th, we had sunshine.  Today will be 26° and yesterday we ate at Le Jardin du Clocher in the courtyard garden.  Food and service excellent as ever, I'm even known as Monsieur Steve.  I found out that the owner is a painter and does fantastic upholstery (aided by her artistic streak).  There is an upstairs gallery full of interesting works including upholstered chairs and a large private dining room.

Owlfly

Panna Cotta starter

My first guests (friends for 40 plus year) leave today after long walks in the countryside, enjoyed by Lilou and myself.  They took visits to Cordes-sur-Ciel, Albi and Castres.  Visited Realmont market with me and and a great meal at Le Jardin.  They go for a second week, to holiday in the Ariege.  Roger Mepsted is a keen macro nature photographer and enjoyed photographing the orchids and butterflies in the meadows.  You can see Roger's photos here:- Macro photos.  Some examples of his work are in the blog.

Brown Argus

Man Orchid

The new owners and I visited the Marie (mayor) for an introduction and Sylvan Saunal, the farmer who cuts the meadow.  With six to eight horses they will need to make a new arrangement to cut the meadow and keep the bales for feed.  They are also keen to buy an adjacent meadow for more grazing.  We also visited Theo, the farmer who lives at the bottom of the lane and farms fields towards Puycalvel.  He, his brother and father - Jean-Luc have been incredibly helpful over the years, digging trenches, installing fence posts and righting two diggers that fell on their sides. Yes, one was driven by me, boy did they laugh!  They will install the new horse fences and menage for Peter and Michaela.  Peter has been taking photos of the gites and with a drone took some aerial video the other day.  He is designing a new website that will connect into Booking.com, AirBnB and VRBO.  This will help automate the booking process.   With horses, guests will be able to have an equine experience.  As part of the business goodwill, I will pass on Airbnb, VRBO and Google sales sites. tarn-gites.com will be tranferred to ensure all our five star reviews are able to be seen.

Spider orchid

The usual migratory birds have all arrived, with bee-eaters calling overhead, melodious warbler taking up residence in two locations and last night the churring of nightjars (I saw my first when it flew over me at dusk).  We saw a fantastic honey buzzard glide past, at car height.  There are orchids flowering everywhere, some have finished that started flowering in April, some flower now until the end of May and into June.  On a walk to the small reservoir, Roger remarked at how there was no vegetation.  We soon found out why, when a coypu family swam past.  In France they are called Ragondin, they are non native coming from South America and do untold damage to river and reservoir banks, burrows that collapse and they eat all the foliage in the water and farmers crops.  In most of France they are hunted and killed, apparently the meat is quite good.  In America they have decimated huge swaths of marshland and are hunted and killed.

Puycalvel Château

Puycalvel chateau, circa 1913

An extract from our village magazine "Echoc du Castellas 2024", translated into English....I hope!

A castle in Puycalvel

The villages of the region do not have this privilege;  Puycalvel has a castle!  Which is a prior proof of a common and picturesque history in the town.  Is this really the case?  Let's check

Nestled on its hill north of the village of Podio-Calvello or Pirog-Calvel, as it is for the first time described in manuscripts from the 13th century, the building is in fact originally a fortified castle belonging to the Sicard family, Vassale counts of Lautrec (a person under the protection of a feudal lord to whom he has vowed homage and fealty).  In 1306, King Philippe le Bel having become Viscount de Lautrec, Amiel de Sicard pledged allegiance to him, even as our proud bastion practically became a royal domain!  In 1328, Pierre de Sicard, descendant of the previous one, was certified as lord of Puycalvel.  Did he wear the armor?  Participated in tournaments?  Admitted to Burlats to listen to the Court of Love of Adelaide, wife of Raymond-Roger Trencavel?  Why not?  According to the anti-Troubadours cadastre of Brousse, the castle of Podio-Calvello had at that time in any case several towers and a set slots

Then wars, crusades, alliances of all kinds passed through there and at the beginning of the 15th century, Viscount Philippe IV of Lévis, overlord of the Sicards, was forced to recognize Lady Marguerite de Châteauverdun as owner of the place.  This was the beginning of  a long dynasty of lords all answering to the same name of Chateauverdun: Hugues-Arnaud, Jean-Arnaud, Jean - called de Saint-Camelle -, François - who converted to Protestantism, but nevertheless managed to avoid the harmful consequences that could have on his person the Wars of Religion finally in 1615 Antoine de Châteauverdundenier of the lineage to be listed.  During this period it appears that the building was remodeled, enlarged and rebuilt several times.

After a silence of around a century, the Château then reappears in texts in 1755, with Jean de Verdiguier de La Salle is lord.  It remained the property of this same family until the French Revolution, when it was most likely sold as a national property.  From there, in fact, multiple owners succeeded one another until the end of the 19th century...after the intrepid knights, then the respectable squires, this is the most... fanciful chapter of this brief history which unfolds.  then opens.

Around 1900, one of the last occupants, Father Cellier, in fact sold the manor to a certain Gillot, a notorious party animal, who, ruined to the point of becoming a manure collector in the streets of Toulouse and even selling another of his lands in return for a... turkey, will be forced to resell the proud bastion to a man named Granier.  This one, a building contractor in Béziers, is neither rich nor noble, but had simply won a large sum in the Loto!  We are far from coats of arms, Amour Courtois and particle names.

Finally, it was Henri Averseng, a wine merchant in Paris-Bercy and father of our Henri Averseng of today, who entered the scene in 1939.  Having made his fortune in the vineyards of Rivesaltes and wanting to go green as the  war, he comes to remarry and buys the castle to lead a quiet life as a gentleman farmer.  His children Henri, Colette then Daniel then grew up between visits from the family who came to take refuge during the occupation and sharecroppers who cultivated the surrounding land.  In the heyday, the cultivable estate was in fact subdivided between 5 farms: Le Colombier, Le Pech, La Péue, a farm which has now disappeared and called the Métairie Neuve and that of the castle itself.

Last chapter: upon the death of their father.  Henri, Colette and Daniel shared the property and finally Podio-Calvello passed to the current owners in 2004: the English family Bishop.  A belated revenge on this hundred years war that the Sicards, the Philippe le Bel and other Chateauverduns waged on them?  Basically: why not?

Puycalvel château by Jean-Lui Cros 2024

I know the Bishops and they kindly offered for me to stay in the chateau (they currently live in Australia) it's very large and cold in winter, so I declined the offer.  They have since found house sitters.   I am currently looking to buy a house in Vielmur.  It has not been painted for thirty years, has a twenty year old kitchen and bathroom.  However, a nice garden and double garage with cellar below the house.  Plenty of room for the dog, ducks and chickens.  There is even a pool (very green at the moment) so the kids are very happy.

This week more grass cutting, more grass planting over the trenches dug for the fibre cable and I will karcher and linseed oil the Grange balcony.  The rest of La Bastide is looking good.  A bonfire or two will clear the trees and brambles cleared by JP and Bastion.  Some gardening, just to tidy up the fast growing and creeping plants especially periwinkle!  Just in time for the next guests!  The good news is my trench grass is growing and in another two weeks it will be hard to see where the trench was.

Eight hour roast lamb

Duck starter

Peter took me to Le Jardin du Clocher for a fabulous supper.  They leave tomorrow for Switzerland but, will be back mid June to sign the Acte de Vente. Today, Clementine is treating me to lunch at the Jardin, to thank me for her staying at La Bastide.  I think in total she has been here about 18 months,  she worked for me the first year and was a great asset in the gite business, spent winter in the cottage, now back in her camper van.  She leaves at the end of May, but hopefully after travelling, will come back to live in the area.

Bee Orchid

The meadows are about four feet high and are peppered with man, plough, pyramid, snakes tongue and bee orchids.  Meadow flowers, butterflies and insects abound.  It's one of my favorite areas of La Bastide.  I remember the first year at La Bastide when the children walked into the meadow and due to its height disappeared!  The meadows will be cut in June, baled and the horse fencing will then be erected.  It's the middle of May and wet again, however, brilliant for my grass seeded areas.  The weather has improved with 26° forecast in the next few days, brilliant, as I am attending a pool and BBQ party on Saturday.  I visited Les Vignes des Garbasses yesterday to stock up the honesty bar, they have fabulous sparkling rose, so I bought six bottles.  Françoise the owner, even had to apply the labels to each bottle.  Today I'm off to get artisanal beer from Garland farm.  It's called Karland and is very good, I normally buy blonde and amber, so guests have a choice.

The pool robot is not working well, so I have ordered a repair kit.  Basically all the moving parts will be replaced. It works, but gets stuck and I don't want to watch it clean!  I'm also fed up getting soaked every time I need to untangle it.  The pool however is crystal clear and 23° the new filter is working brilliantly.  

Another bonfire, then a swim!