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Here in France, early September is known as la rentrée, and it’s a Big Deal. It’s when everything picks up again after the two month break that is summer holiday season – and as the French like to holiday en masse in July and August, it makes it well nigh impossible to get anything done until September. So now we’re all getting back to work, the children are going back to school with smart hair cuts, shiny shoes and new satchels, and with the holidaymakers gone, now is as good a time as any to hit the house hunting trail. The weather’s still good but not too hot, the roads are relatively empty, and the estate agents and vendors are back from their hols and raring to go. No doubt some of you will be visiting the French Property Exhibition at London’s Olympia this month (it runs September 15-17, see for more details) and with all the fabulous homes on show, you may be tempted to start dreaming of buying a French pad. If you want to see how far your budget will stretch in the Languedoc, check out the new Property Price Calculator. This handy little tool not only lets you see how much bang you’ll get for your bucks, but also serves as a reality check for anyone daydreaming about buying a Languedoc home for a handful of beans. It’s true that house prices here are reasonable, particularly compared to neighbouring Provence (see our feature Languedoc Property Knocks the Socks off Provence if you need convincing), but for a realistic idea of how much wedge you’ll really need to own a home here, take a peek.
Toying with the idea of a French house hunting trip? Why not combine your property viewing with a spot of wine tasting? There are significant savings to be made; generally speaking, a bottle of wine bought in France can be as much as £5 cheaper than its UK equivalent. If you’re tempted to go wine tasting, there’s no time like the present, as the bi-annual wine festival known as the Foire aux Vins will be held for a fortnight in supermarkets across France, usually between September 15 and the end of October (it also happens in April, if you want to note the date in your diary). This is when you’ll find a much wider choice of wines than is usually stocked, and all at tempting price points. HM Customs and Excise allows each adult to bring into the UK 90 litres of wine (which is a heck of a lot of bottles – you’ll need a big van for that load), without payment of additional duty or tax, as long as the wine is for personal use, and that it is accompanied by the buyer who has proof of purchase (and a good story to explain exactly how they plan to consume those 90 litres, all by themselves).
A couple of years ago I went to a Foire aux Vins wine tasting held at my local supermarket (Monoprix, since you ask, and not somewhere I’d usually go looking for top tipples) and I discovered the vintages of Gérard Bertrand (www.gerard-bertrand.com), an ageless-looking ex-rugby international and now one of Languedoc’s leading lights when it comes to tasty, reliable, commercially pitched and priced wines. Having enjoyed several of his bottles and read good things about him on , I decided to pop down and visit Gérard Bertrand HQ at Chateau l’Hospitalet, near Narbonne. Now this is a tip-top Languedoc address if ever there was one. Firstly, you can sip and spit (they do dégustations in the huge wine cellar), and then, when you’re all spat out, you can shuffle off across the courtyard (where there are several small shops selling hand-painted decorative items and some rather nice Hospitalet jams and preserves) to eat and drink in fine style. There are two dining options at l’Hospitalet: one’s a gastronomic restaurant which is attached to the rather upmarket hotel (I haven’t eaten here yet, but God, I plan to), and the other – which I’ve tried on three occasions – is a fabulous gourmet bistrot, called L’Olivet, which has great service, views across the vines, delicious local dishes and (this is my favourite bit) a central table with a whole range of bottles of Gerard Bertrand wine, opened and ready, so you can just rock up and pour yourself a drop of what you fancy. There’s a set menu, and the wine is included in the price: no-one minds how often you go up, and the system means you can try a different wine with each course and find what really rings your bell. Obviously I don’t suggest you go overboard, particularly as the only way to get to this place is in a car, but if you feel you’ve over-indulged, well, there’s always the adjoining hotel complete with 22 rooms, and there also five gîtes available to rent, from €417 a week. In the mood for a splurge? Book a table, book a room, and eat lettuce for a week in anticipation. See for the low-down on the wining, dining and over-nighting options or call +33 (0)4 68 45 36 00.
There’s something coming up this month that should be great fun: it’s the Journées du Patrimoine (Heritage Days), which will be held on September 16 and 17. Across France, the third weekend in September has been dedicated to this event since 1984; for two days, members of the public are granted access to all kinds of places – including some that do not generally allow access – hence there are a host of civic or religious buildings, parks and gardens, archeological sites and places of literary and military interest into which you can go and have a nose around. There are of course hundreds of sites to visit in the Languedoc, but I’ve chosen this one because it sounds like an enjoyable way getting some culture: it’s the Château de l’Engarran, in Lavérune. You can actually visit this wine domaine pretty much any time, but on September 16 and 17 there’ll be frou-frou frocks a-plenty, as the guided tour will focus on the theme of bringing heritage to life, so expect a hefty dose of history livened up by a procession in period costume, followed by wine tasting. I have to confess that I loved Dangerous Liaisons (John Malkovich had a lot to do with it), and anything that involves wiggling around in wigs usually gets my vote; visiting an 18th century château with fancy dress and wine tasting thrown in for good measure sounds like a riot. Places can be booked by calling 04 67 47 00 02, or for more details see . If you like to sound of the Journees du Patrimoine and want to find out which sites are open near you, visit
This month’s Languedoc Diary ends on a slightly surreal note, if you’ll forgive the pun. The FRAC (Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain) of Languedoc-Roussillon launched a huge exhibition of contemporary art entitled Chauffe Marcel! in June this year, and it continues right through to the end of October in twenty different venues across the region. Featuring pieces from the time of Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealists onwards, the exhibition comprises an enormous body of work spread across venues in Montpellier, Sète, Nîmes, Alès, Milhaud, Villeneuve Lez Avignon, Sigean, Cases de Pène, Bélesta and Bagnols les Bains. In my home town of Montpellier there are ten different venues being used to host the show, and entry to all of them is free, so I’ve been slowly but surely working my way around them; inevitably there are exhibits that thrill, and others that leave me indifferent, but the main thing is that there’s a shed load of exciting, contemporary work out there to go and look at. Not all of it moves me, but some of it I find thought-provoking (there’s lots of food for thought at La Panacée, the former School of Pharmacy-cum-art space on rue de l’Ecole de Pharmacie, for starters), and after a day spent slaving over a hot computer keyboard, I do like to have my thoughts provoked. You’ve got until October 29th to check it out.
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