The French culture is very contradictory. On one hand one is very proud of being a republic born though a revolution. A revolution where they did not only chop the head off every person with a name older than two hundred years, but also off everyone that they happened to dislike. That could be the guy next door who was cheating with your wife, your boss at work and really anyone you felt like getting rid off.

Still, compared to Sweden, French people are so impressed by titles, by family and by all kinds of “important” people. So much for equality! This show by all the decoration people carry as soon as they can, but also by the flare they have for being President of this or that. You are a very important person if you are President of the local pétanque club or of the local stamp collectors club.

This became quite obvious when we played the Carcassonne Golf Club. I will tell you the story:

The first hole is spectacular. The hole starts with a very steep uphill that almost kills you. I am sure it is like 40-50 meters elevation and you have to carry 175 meters to be on the fairway. We had our tee-time at 2.10 PM and the party before us started a bit early so we had quite a distance to them, which is good because we did not want to push them. We started almost 15 minutes after them. When we were struggling up the hill on the first hole we heard the next party hitting their balls that landed in the slope just behind us. Luckily enough none of them could drive more than 120 meters so we were just about safe. They had a tee-time at 2.20 but started just 3 minutes after us. Off course we got a bit frustrated and said to each other that we should not be stressed because they did not know how to behave on a golf course. I must admit that I immediately labelled the four gentlemen as Germans as that is my experience from German golfers. I hereby apologise to all German golfers for my mistake!

Even the next stoke was landing just behind us and on the second hole, where it was a sign that it was absolutely forbidden to hit before the party ahead had left the hidden part of the fairway, they just hit the ball so it landed ten meters behind us. We were quite angry now which affected our game quite seriously. To make a long story shorter we managed to keep our temper two more holes but after again being chased by their tee-shots we stopped and asked them what starting time they have had. They told us that they had 2.20 and they demanded to pass us because we had an empty hole ahead and they, as a four ball, was entitled to pass a two ball!!!! First we tried to speak with them in English but as they were French they did not understand a word. We changed over to French and made them aware of the fact that the reason why we had an empty hole before us was that we had started on the right time, which also was the reason why they played too close behind us as they started too early. In any normal situation this would be quite a simple matter for people who know the most basic rules of golf, but not in this situation. One of the players whispered to my wife that she should be careful because we were talking to the president of Golf Club de Carcassonne. We almost burst out laughing when we heard this. Why on earth should anyone be impressed - and maybe even afraid – of a President in a little golf club in south of France. In our Swedish twisted minds we thought that a president of a golf club should be extra careful about his behaviour on the course, which we said to them. But, this is France – and if you are President you are above all rules of golf and arrogance is obviously a virtue. Anyhow the president made the worst insulting comments he could thing of by calling us •~ Englismen, and we answered that we were not English at all, but Swedish, which seemed to be the same shit to this group of gentlemen if you judge by their faces.

It is quite amazing that a civilized country like France can allow attitudes like that from those who are selected of trust to govern our common recourses. I thought that was something you only find in banana republics in South America.

I am sure some of you think I am one of those duffers that are beginners in golf and do not know what I am talking about. It is not so. I have been playing this noble game for 40 years, have a decents handicap of 11 and used to be a certified refree in golf competitions in Sweden when I was younger.

So, to all golfing tourists in Languedoc I can recommend Golf Club de Carcassone as being a beautiful and demanding golf course with very polite and helpful people in the reception and also a very good restaurant, but be careful and make sure that the President and his party is not around; especially if you are English – and maybe from now on, Swedish. And, put on a helmet just in case he sneaks up on you. On the other hand, if you are further away than 130 meters you do not have to worry.

And remember; if you are pressed in time, just start three minutes after the party ahead and demand to pass them on the first hole. Also, mark the local rule that parties with fewer balls have to give way to larger parties. If you are President of the local Bakery Club, The Garden Club or The Chess Club at home; make sure you can prove it so you can give yourself any rights on the course.

To talk about something more pleasant. In the little just fantastic links club DOOKS on the Ring of Kerry in west of Ireland they have a big poster in the clubhouse saying: REMEMBER! A GREEN-FEE PLAYER IS A MEMBER FOR A DAY.

The American Ambassador in France and later President of USA Thomas Jefferson once said: “Good wine is a necessity of life for me”. He learned especially to love the sweet Muscat wine from Frontignan in south of France and it is told that even after he returned to US as president he made sure to have a few cases of this wine in The White House.

The Muscat de Frontignan is a very old wine and the Swedish 18^th century poet Carl Michael Bellman wrote about what he called sweet Frontignac in his songs. There are old document that witness that ships from Sweden came to the port of Sete only to ship muscat wine home to Stockholm already in the 17^th century.

The wine of those days might not have been as elaborate as the wine today but it was good enough to fascinate both Popes and Presidents and to make Count de Lur Saluces to go to Frontignan to learn how to make sweet wines. As we know the methods from Midi did not fit the wet climate of Bordeaux, but he got his fantastic Botrytis wines so I am sure he was happy anyway. He brought the old Frontignan bottle back which we now know as the Bordeaux bottle.

The very best of the wines of Frontignan, as I see it, is Château de la Peyrade. Their Muscat has almost constantly been top rated in Guide Hachette the last ten years. It differs from many competitors in the area as it has a nice and fresh acidity that livens up the sweetness in a very elegant way. They also have a very nice Muscat Sec - Cuvée de Lilas that is very good with fish dishes, with Foie Gras or with Sea food. You can also drink it as an aperitif.

At Chateau de la Peyrade you can also buy wines from a large number of vineyards in Languedoc to the same price as on site. You can however not taste these wines.

Today our friends next door invited us for lunch. They had made an inventory of their cellar and had found a bottle of Cuvée Bois des Dames vintage 2000 from Château Etang des Colombes outside Lezignan Corbières. This was really a lovely wine; dark brick purple, so dark that it almost did not let any light through. The nose was delicious with notes of marzipan, chocolate and dark fruit jam. The taste was as good with lots of dark fruits, jam, tobacco and chocolate. This vintage received Coup de Coeur Guide Hachette 2003. It is only in the hart of Corbières one can have a simple but delicious country style lunch accompanied with a wine that would cost around 20 euros if you can get hold of it in the wine shop. I guess most of us would save it for more prestigious occasions.

Many Frenchmen go to Sete especially to eat fresh sea food. Oysters, clams, mussels, lobster, shrimps and fish are specialities of the area. Consequently you can find a wine suitable for this food. They grow a special grape in Herault – Picpoul de Pinet. There are a number of producers of this wine in the area, but I am most fond of the one from Hugues de Beauvignac in Pomerols. They have a traditional Picpoul de Pinet which is excellent but also one that is fermented in oak barrels. Their Viogner is also very nice.

I have talked a lot about traditional AOC wines from this area, but some of the very best wines are designers wines made of grapes not typical for the region or just single grape wine. These wine are sold with the label Vin de Pays Doc which sounds a little simple, but be aware that you can find the most fantastic wines here, and do not think that all of them are sheep, but often well worth it. One very interesting vineyard is in Marseillan is Domaine la Madeleine Saint-Jean. They have a selection of delicious white and red wines, oddly enough bottled in Bourgogne bottles. Other famous producers of top end Vin de Pays Doc are Château L’Hosptialet, Domaine Dumas Gassac and Domaine D’Ormeson.

When you are in Marseillan you might take the opportunity to visit Noilly Prat in the same village. Many people say that Noilly Prat is the only thing you can use to make a true Dry Martini – I don’t know, but it is a nice visit. Except for the traditional white version they also sell an ambre and a rosé type that you can not find in the shops. We need Noilly Prat to make our fabulous grilled Oysters, but one or two Dry Martinis might not hurt. Do you know that the strange name comes from the first letters in the herbs and spices that are used in this Vermouth? Another interesting thing is that the base of this drink is two very typical grapes for this region – Picpoul and Clairette. They actually make a wine also from Clairette named Clairette de Languedoc. If I remember right it was quite a pleasant white wine.

When we talk about unusual grapes, another one has to be mentioned – Alicante Bouschet. You might not know that all grapes have almost white juice except Alicante Bouschet, which has deep red juice. In the old days they grew this grape to give a deeper colour to the wine. With new technique and higher quality this is not necessary, but there are a few producers that make single grape wine from this grape. It is not among my favourites though.

Languedoc has a special role in French wine production. It was here, around 150 B.C., that the first vine was planted in France. Narbo (Norbonne) was the first Roman colony and the vice king Domitius Ahenobarbus came to govern the area. At the time it was a shortage of wine in Rome so he encourages the warriors coming back from the second Punian war to settle down in Narbo and start growing vine to export to Rome. He also builds a special road all the way from Spain to cater for the transport – Via Domitia.

It is really hard to choose the best vineyards of Languedoc as there are so many. I know however that those places every tourist goes to seldom are the best. A typical disappointment was Terra Vinea outside Portel that looks fantastic on all the ads one can find at the side of all roads in the south of Languedoc. In my opinion it is very much like Disneyworld without having the unique presence of Mickey Mouse. The wines are all right but not great considering the prize.

Another place I would not recommend is Cave de Mont Tauch in Tuchan that is the centre of the Fitou area. AOC Fitou are excellent wines much like the Corbières wines, but try to go to one of the independent producers to get them. This producer is enormous and the staff is, I guess, all employed and very little interested in you as a customer. Rather go to the little village south of Tuchan and visit Domaine Bertrand-Bergé which is an excellent producer of Fitou wines. You will be received by the patron himself and get a very warm welcoming. The wines are among the top in the area.

When you are in this southern part of Corbiéres Mountains you should visit Cave Cooperative d’Embres-et-Castelmaure which is one of the very best producers you can find. The wines are fabulous, especially if you have the patience to save them a few years. Just today we had one of their most simple wines, the Vieux Chapelle from 2001 and, believe it or not, this low prize wine was still excellent. It had matured into something much better than the prize would ever promise. I brought a bottle of their Castelmaure, Grand Cuvée, 2003 back to my wine club in Sweden. They were delighted and said they had never had such a delicious wine before. That wine is not even one of the more expensive ones. This is one of the producers that sell more matured wines as well, but you have to pay for the time they have kept it. It is a much better idea to buy the most recent wine and save it yourself for a few years. No shares on the stock market would gain higher value that fast.

If you are in this southern part and maybe are on your way to Spain I think you should take a detour to Collioure. This is the centre of Banyuls, which is a delicious dessert wine originally made by the Templiers. The reason I advice you to go is however the red wine AOC Collioure which is of extremely high quality. I do not have any particular producer to advice of as I have only had these wines in restaurants. They are a little expensive, but you understand why when you see those old suffering, not more than a few decimetre high, vines scattered on a barren slope that can not give a very high yield. I guess this is the smallest appellation in Languedoc-Roussillon.

I have only been talking about red wines but there are fantastic rose wines in this area as well. One of the best, as I see it, is Château Pech-Redon on top of the mountain Pech Redon in La Clape. Just to take the road up to the chateau is worth the trip. The view is fantastic and the landscape beautiful.

Other excellent rose wine producers are Château Voulte Gasparet in Gasparet, Domaine de Fontsainte in Boutenac, Cave Co-operative de Cascastel in Cascastel des Corbières and many others. These vineyards also have excellent red wines.

I will soon come back with more information on great wines in Languedoc. Among other things I will introduce you to the amazing sweet wine of Château de la Peyrade.

The wines of Corbières might be the best buy you can make in France. What about Bordeaux, Bourgogne and Alsace you certainly argue when you read this. I am the first to admit that those areas have fantastic wines – so has Loire and Champagne, not mentioning the whole Rhone valley. I have been to them all and I have imported French wines to Sweden and I enjoy exploring all the fantastic wines that this country does produce. So, why do I say that Corbières is so fabulous?

First of all, many of the wine regions I mentioned above have fantastic wines to a fantastic prize. But, where do you buy Bordeaux what is even close in quality to a Corbières wine if you have 10 euros to spend. For around 10 euros you get a bottle of the amazing 2005 vintage of the new AOC Corbières Boutenac from Chateau de Luc or Chateau Grand Moulin or you get two bottles of the fantastic Merlot or Carignan made by the master himself Gerard Bertrand at Chateau L’Hospitalet. Visit any of the top vineyards in any of the more known areas in France and you see what you have to pay for their good quality wines.

So, now I will give you a guide to some of what I think are among the best producers of wine in Corbières and maybe a little outside this area as well.

First I will introduce you to the new AOC of the village where I live - AOC Corbières Boutenac. This is one of the latest additions to the approved AOC wines in France. The first year the wine is bottled is 2005, which was one of the best years in a century in the area. They say 2006 and 2007 will be equally good, which partly is one of the up sides of global warming.

The Corbières Boutenac is like Minervios La Livinière a sub category of a larger terroir. The rules for production is very strict which makes the wines more expensive but also of better quality so you can save them for many more years than you can with the ordinary wines from the area. Most of these wines, as the other top wines from the area, will be all right to save for 10 years, maybe more for some of them. The typical grapes of the red wines of Corbières are Carignan, Grenache gris and noire, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault

The first place we will visit is Château La Voulte Gasparet in Gasparet in the commune of Boutenac. They have basically four wines, two red, one rosé and one white. The rose is excellent but it is the two red wines that are really interesting. The less expensive Cuvée Réservée is made from vine that is 50 years old plus and can be saved for many years. Browsing the web I see they still sell bottles from early 1990^th from some wholesalers. Their top wine which is an AOC Courbières Boutenac from 2005 and on is Cuvée Romain Pouc. This wine has grown on vine that is as old as it can be in France – around 100 years. The yield is very small and the grapes very intense. The soil they grow on resembles that of Château Neuf du Pape. I by at least one case of each cuvee every year and save in my wine cellar, which will give me excellent wines in about 3-5 years from now. They are actually delicious already accompanied by a piece of red steak or a mature cheese, but it is a pity to drink them young.

My next favourite is Château de Luc in Luc sur Orbieu. We are talking about the, among wine lovers, famous Val d’Orbieu here. Also here you find an excellent Boutenac Corbières named simply Chateau Fabre Gasparet to a very reasonable prize; under 10 euros. This producer however have many more excellent wines, white, red and rose; normal wines and organic wines. My favourite among the whites is their Sauvignon Blanc. Corbières is not known for its white wines as they mostly have to be consumed young, but they are really very tasty. This wine is like drinking a full basket of exotic fruits. It is hard to find anything tastier with oysters or other sea food or just as an aperitif on the terrace in the sun. I am very fond of the elegant Sauvignon Blanc wines they produce in Loire but this is something totally different that one can not help liking. But the real interesting wines from Château de Luc are the red wines. There are several red wines mainly of traditional Corbières type like Chateau de Luc ; a wine that can take quite a few years saving but can be consumed after just a few years also. We had an excellent 2003 the other day. The producer Louis Fabre is very proud of his Cepage Cabernet named after himself which is an excellent wine to drink now.

Another producer in the neighbourhood is Château Grand Moulin. This producer has a great selection of wines and again the red are the most interesting. Among them you find one Corbières Boutenac with the label Château Grand Moulin that is really good and worth saving, but also a number of really delicious red wines typical for the area. One of my favourites is the cask matured wine labelled Vieilles Vignes. Also older bottles are available which is not that common as it will drive up the prizes to keep the wines at the producer’s. As an investment it is a good idea to buy young wines and save them yourself. On the other hand, the capitalization is only available in the form of more excellent wines at your dinner as you will surely drink them yourself. You find this producer in Lezignan Corbières where he had to move after the flood in the end of the 90^th that totally drowned his premises on the banks of Orbieu River.

The last on the list for now will be a vineyard in La Clape, Château L’Hospitalet. This is one of the most interesting producers with a great reputation for not only delicious wines that can be afforded, but also wines that they themselves call jewels rather than wines. On the premises there is also a hotel and a great restaurant with very good food and jazz music now in the spring.

The wines range from 5 euros for very nice “cepage” wines, AOC wines for reasonable money up to 50 euros plus for the most expensive jewels in their collection. They have a large range of different regions like AOC Corbières, Boutenac coming from the owner Gerard Bertrand’s family vineyard Villemajou in Boutenac. The also have La Clape wines from the area around the chateau and the very high quality AOC Minervois, La Livinière. On my last birthday my wife gave me three bottles of Le Viala, 2003 from that region. I can save those bottles for 15 years and more if I like, but I have a feeling that we will consume them before that.

I told you about the tunnels that people in the village think is under our cellar floor. It might be so, but when we started to investigate it we found that the hole in the floor was solidly filled with debris and very hard to do something about. We simply decided that the investigation of the underground of our house has to be left to the next generation. So, we decided to just make a concrete floor over the whole space. There was however a little problem as the existing floor had quite a big difference in height from one end to the other. If we would make the new floor totally levelled we had to make it more than 10 cm higher in one end which would mean to cut the door and a few other things. We decided that it is not a big deal if the floor is a bit off level so we did it the pragmatic way.

The procedure was quite simple. We levelled out the floor fairly well with gravel, put the electric cabling in place, fitted the reinforcing steel nets and poured concrete over it. To get nice and even surface on the right level we first made three elevated strings of concrete that was absolutely levelled. When the concrete was poured on the floor it was levelled out with a long plank that we skidded on the two elevated concrete guides. In this way we got a very even and nice floor on the right level.

After the concrete floor was dry, which takes quite a while, we put tiles of Pierres du Lot, that is often used down here, mostly outside. We however thought it would give the right rustic character to our cellar.

The walls in the cellar were really bad. As I said earlier some parts were just the natural soft rock that the house is built on. Some were mended with cement and one wall was just a thin brick wall covered with patches of plaster or cement. The old wall between our cellar and the neighbours’ cellar were of really bad quality and the masonry of old natural stone had such soft joints that it partly fell out like sand. I have already told you what we did with the rock parts where water came through. It was not less work with the rest.

There are several ways of dealing with such an old wall. In the attic we picked the wall so all old plaster and cement was gone and the joints between the stones were opened. In such case we could use a hard cement based plasterthat would stick on the old stones and fill the joints. This is the best way to do it as the quite hard surface actually works as a supporting skin over the old wall. To do this in the cellar would be very difficult as all old plaster and cement had to be taken away. The cement based coating does not stick on old plaster.

We made the choice to coat the wall with plaster as it sticks to both old plaster and to cement based coatings. It is not as durable and strong as the other, but we did not need the supporting skin here as we needed in the attic.

The very soft parts had to be picked down until we found good quality stones. Not even plaster will stick on thin air or sand. I am happy the walls are about 60 cm wide so it is not dangerous to pick a few holes here and there. After the stones were treated with a product that works as glue, we applied the first layer of quite wet plaster. Where the whole were deepest we filled it with these very thin blocks of bricks that was fastened in a layer of plaster.

Those parts of the wall that were of natural rock but dry we picket so the soft surface disappeared and we had a solid hard rock left.

When the whole wall was mended and everything loose was picked down we started to plaster the whole wall. We had decided it should be very rustic so we did not make any efforts to even the wall. On the contrary the more brute it became; the better we liked it. The trick is to water the wall thoroughly before applying the quite soft plaster. You apply it with a masonry trowel, let it dry for a few minutes, spray it with water and slightly even it out with your hand, a brush or any tool you think makes the best texture. After a few weeks it will turn white in a very nice way.

Next time I will tell you about the ceiling.

The bottom of the walls in the cellar was just the natural rock. It was soft and let water through. I could have tried to seal it with some waterproof coating and hoped the water would stay in the rock, not coming into the cellar. The risk with this is however that we would have got that terrible cellar smell of fungi living of locked in moist. I am sure you have seen visiting old castles and monasteries where they often have a part of the wall naked with no plaster or other coating. It does look nice, but it is not because of that they do it. It is a breathing hole for the wall that should let out the water that is climbing from the ground up into the wall. I needed a solution that would let my wall breath, but still look nice on the inside of the wine cellar.

The trick is to build a double wall of thin bricks (3cm) that has all vertical joints open so there is a box where air can circulate. That box is filled with gravel to support the wall so the soft rock does not erode when it gets damp. The gravel also makes it possible for the air to circulate and dry out the damp that might come from the rock. To be sure to transport all moist away we also made a little ditch in the concrete floor that ended in a whole trough the concrete down into the gravel under the concrete floor. Under the floor it is just ordinary soil anyway so a few more drops of water would not hurt anything.

On top of the box we built a lid of wood that formed a shelf where we could store things. The false brick wall was plastered over in the same way as we later did with the rest of the walls.

We had this partly underground space that was called a cellar and honestly looked quite awful. There were a few problems with it. One was that the bottom part of the walls was just natural rock. That sound nice you say, but it was not. The rock in our village is a very soft limestone that let water through easily. It mostly looks like clay and is about as hard as dried clay. The biggest problem is that, when it rains, that it very seldom do, the water comes through it an there will be moist in the cellar. And, believe me; moist is not good for wine bottles, or rather for the corks. The other problem is that the rock gets soft when it gets wet and pieces of it falls down so after a while we had a pile of soft gravel in the corners of the cellar.

The other problem was that there was only a floor in a part of the cellar. The rest was just filled with gravel and old debris. The old lady next door who played in the cellar when she was little girl says it is a lower storage space under the cellar that was filled because it was regarded too dangerous. Our house is built on the site of the old castle and some of our walls are part of the castle. They say it has been a fortification on the site since the roman time and there are tunnels going under the site to the outside of the village. The tunnels should connect the castle on our site to the smaller mediaeval castle that is still there but used to be outside the mote. The lady says the opening in our cellar is an opening to those tunnels.

The walls in the cellar were also mended and patched many times through the years with all kinds of materials from cement to plaster. The problem with that is that not all materials stick to such surfaces so in the worst of cases we should have to pick the whole walls to get down to the original stone wall. We know from experience of the renovation of the attic that this means a lot of hard work.

To really top up the problems, the plaster cover of the old ceiling was coming down if we did not do anything about it. Now you say: “Why the ~do they bother to do anything with that space?”  It is simple – we want to have a wine cellar as we live in one of the best wine areas in south of France.

Anyway, in the following articles I will tell you how we dealt with:

·         The rock that let water through

·         How we made the walls look good

·         What we did with the floors

·         And what we did with the ceiling and a few more things.

Look out for more contributions soon.

We have been away for a couple of weeks. We went to Sweden and visited friends and relatives. We were very lucky with the weather. Not one drop of rain, which is quite unusual at this time of the year. The short days are a bit frustrating though even if we should be used to it having lived in Sweden all our lives. It is nice to come back to longer days and temperature around 15 ºC during daytime.

The day after we came back we were invited to our American friends for Thanksgiving party. My good what a lot of food; and it was so nice. We really had a good time. There were another American couple and two Irish couples at the party as well. It is amazing that most people who renovate the old houses are from other countries. The locals prefer to build new bungalows in the outskirts of the village.

The foreigners who live here are mostly retired and have found that they get a much better quality of life in France that they do in USA, UK, Sweden or elsewhere. It is a combination of economic conditions, social security, social life and climate and last but not least the quality of food and drinks that makes life better here than many other places.

We went to Narbonne today to buy a few things for our dinner. We decided to eat lunch in Les Halles. We ate at a little bar called Le Zinc. The counter was full of people when we arrived but people just moved together to make place for us and we ordered “bavette”. The barman shouted “deux bavettes” to the butcher next door and after a while a little package with our meat arrived on the counter and was taken care of by the lady who did the cocking. Meanwhile they placed a bottle of wine in front of us and we could serve ourselves as long as we kept track of the number of glasses we pored. The guy next to us started to talk to my wife – he was working for the tax authorities and the two guys on the other side were discussing the excellent wine in our village with me. When I told them I was from Sweden they had to tell an IKEA story. It goes like this:

I lady bought a cupboard from IKEA. She went home and put it together but when the bus passed on the road the cupboard collapsed. Off course she contacted IKEA and they told her in detail how to assemble it again. She did exactly as she was told but when the bus passed the cupboard collapsed again. She rang IKEA again and this time they sent a specialist from the shop that assembled the thing and said that this time it would be all right. But – when the next bus passed the cupboard collapsed again. The guy from IKEA came back and this time he decided to wait for the bus and see for himself what was wrong. He assembled the cupboard and stepped into it to see what went wrong when the bus passed.

While he was standing there the husband came home and he was so happy when he saw the cupboard still standing so he had to look inside and found a man standing there.

-  What the hell are you doing in my wife’s cupboard? he shouted.

-  I am waiting for the bus, said the IKEA man.

Two things are quite interesting. First, there are always rumours that the quality is bad when a company start so sell things less expensive than others do. I wonder who start those rumours. Secondly, a company has really become successful when people start telling stories about them. It does not matter if the stories are true or false, positive or negative, it is still a sign that they have managed to get a position in peoples minds.

I really hope they sell Xmas trees and Swedish ham at IKEA; otherwise I will have a depressing Xmas.

The food we got was excellent and the wine as well. My new friend shared the last of their rose wine with me and the taxman insisted to buy me a Calvados. We also got his business card and he got our telephone number. I would not be surprised if he really calls us as he promised.

Things like that would never happen in Sweden. We would not have got a place at the bar the first time and if we had managed to squeeze us in – which would be very un-Swedish -  we would have pretended the other guests were invisible. If someone had talked to us he would certainly have been drunk or an immigrant that hadn’t passed the course for immigrants in “Adjusting to the Swedish Culture”. They say that one of the tests is to take the “New Swedes” on a ride in an elevator. If they just stare into the wall without saying anything or greeting anyone they will be passed otherwise they have to take the course again.

To round this up, the bar bill was 20 Euros for the two of us. That included wine and coffee.

In the evening we went to Conilhac, Corbières on the last day of their annual Jazz festival. It has been going on for a month now every weekend. We listened to Tania Margarit Quintet – a fusion jazz band that was very good. The main attraction was the famous accordionist Richard Galliano who played music inspired by Astor Piazzola but also modern interpretations of traditional French musette music. The audience and among them many elderly ladies were absolutely thrilled.  

There are many rules in France and it is a duty for every Frenchman to break them as often as possible. French people are very proud of being a nation born through a revolution, unlike countries like Sweden and Britain that keep a family supported by taxpayers that can’t do anything more useful than feeding the tabloids with scandals and other news from their life.

The French are not revolutionary in the sense that they like change. On the contrary, they protect their traditions and their way of life against any change from authorities. Many presidents have tried to change some of the more ridiculous old rules from the Napoleon’s time without any luck.  We have all sometimes admired/feared the French way of protesting though masses of tractors on the roads or through high jacking Spanish tomatoes trucks and spread the tomatoes over the highway. For those Frenchman not being lucky to take part in such things it is possible to show their importance and strengthen their human dignity by doing small thing every day. Parking the car is one of the most popular ways to show your individuality and mark you way through life.

The principles for parking in France are quite simple in theory but it takes you years to master them. I would say that people from some cultures never have a chance to even come close to some of the more equilibristic varieties the French master so well. It is just that your whole upbringing and culture is standing in the way for it. You have to understand the following:

• One basic principle is to park in such a way that you are to as much nuisance to others as possible. In that way you mark your place in history – for a short while anyway.
• Another principle is never to pay if you can avoid it. This principle is often in conflicts with the next principle.
• Always park where it is most convenient for you. This principle might sometimes be in conflict with number one. In those cases it is a matter of personality which one you choose.
• Never park where some authorities have decided you should park. Here the real creative can come up with the most fantastic solutions.

A little case study I made taught me a lot about French parking behaviour. Here is a report:

The first parking places that are taken are pavements, traffic islands and pedestrians’ crossings. Also popular are the grass inside roundabouts, lawns, street corners and other places that are not meant for parking. Surprisingly enough they never park outside driveway, a behaviour that seems to violate the first principle, but there is a difference between being a nuisance to just anybody and to somebody specific that owns that driveway. You do not do that! So, there is order even in anarchy!

OK – what happens if all these attractive but more or less unsuitable parking places are taken? You can always be boring and park in the street, preferably where it is forbidden to even stop, secondly where it is forbidden to park. If these places are taken and there is only dedicated parking space left you can park across two or three marked parking spaces and show that you are an individual and not a conformist that allow others to decide where you should leave your car. I have seen how real masters manage to park their car in such a way that they can prevent anybody to enter or exit the whole parking lot. This takes a very good mathematical and spatial intelligent to do.

In some places – especially at monuments and other attractions - it is not possible to park for free unless you are willing to walk a few minutes. I have seen parking lots that are half empty and still all places that are not meant for parking are full. That is off course the whole perimeter of the parking, the space between the rows, in the end of a row where there are no white lines, on the walkways in and out of the parking lot, and off course if there are any grass, flowerbeds or any other space unsuitable for leaving the car on. In the large parking lot of supermarkets – where it is free – many cars park on the elevated parts that divide the marked parking places rather than stand in the sparking squares.

One of the most amazing things I have seen was behind our apartment house in Sete where it was no stopping all day in the street. Off course there were always full of cars there. A couple of times a year we had these big celebrations in the town and Tour de France also passed by some years. At those occasions the police sharpened up the NO STOPPING with provisional signs saying NO PARKING and a little sticker that informed that this sign was valid between this and that date. That helped!

If you plan to bring your car to France I think you need a little primer. The problem for Scandinavians is that they have to pass Germany and that calls for some warning as you can read in my yesterday’s blog.

Unlike the German the French highways cost money but are worth it as they are excellent and the traffic is, also unlike those in Germany, very civilised, except for those Germans who have brought their behaviour from home and try to push you off the road by driving into the back of your car if you don’t disappear fast enough. To do such things in a country, like France, where people have such a pride and value their dignity so high is not earning any popularity points.

There are however alternative routes that are also very good – often with highway standard. At the same time as I say that the traffic on the highways are civilized the traffic on the other roads are more hectic. Here are a few principles about French traffic you must understand.

• The smaller the road the faster they drive.
• A French driver must pass you despite your speed or road condition.
• Those coming from your right hand side always have right of way even if they come from their own yard and you drive on a major road. They do not even look to the left.
• Meeting someone on those very small roads is like a chicken race – the chicken moves to the side and reduces his speed; that means YOU. When the road is too narrow I always choose to be the chicken and stop because not even in France it could be your fault if you stand still. As French people don’t mind a few dents they will certainly not avoid them.
• The most furious traffic is always around noon as the major religion in France is spelled LUNCH. Avoid that time for your lazy tour to look at the scenery. Be French – sit down and eat a three course lunch with wine in at least 2 ½ hour.

 If French drivers drive on the country roads as if they were on their way to the hospital with their wives giving birth, they are equally relaxed as soon as they enter a village or small town. To double park in a one-lane, one-way street is perfectly all right. The guy might have something to do in there – maybe he needs a quick cup of coffee or a Pastis or he met a fiend he has to talk to. Nobody would honk their horns or behave as they would in for example Sweden – meaning not very patient. I admit that my experience is from the south of France and it might be very different in Paris. Anyway it is amazing how they seem to have all the time in the world in such occasions and ten minutes later on the country road behave like they had a death wish when they pass you in hidden bends, just before the top of hills or when they meet a huge truck.

Tomorrow I will tell you about something even more interesting that takes much longer to learn for visitor to France. That is parking in the enormously creative and egocentric way the French do. When there is absolutely no parking for me, at least five Frenchmen can find a place for their cars.

One of the good things about living in France is that we do not have to travel by car from Sweden to France any more. During the years we have had a vacation apartment we must have done the 2500 km trip 40 times, so we know what we are talking about. The biggest problem is what we, in our worst moments, call the big road-work south of Denmark. Other calls it Germany.

Most highways in Germany have only two lanes and one of them is filled with trucks, bumper to bumper, from the northern border to the southern border of the country. This “train of trucks” moves in a steady pace of 90 km/h and at any time, one of the trucks, without any notice, can brake out into the left hand lane to pass the others at 91 km/h. You can imagine how long time that takes. At such occasions hundreds of cars have to wait until the truck finally manages to pass one of the others. This would be quite fine in any other place in the world except in Germany. Here someone with one of those cars with a silver star in the front or that other make that have another version of a machinegun sight in front, but this time in blue and white, catches up with the cue in +200 km/h and demand by flashing the headlights to pass all the hundreds of cars cueing behind the slow truck. I learned when I was little that it is not polite to force yourself up to the front of a cue. For English people that are addicted to cueing it must be strange to find out that, in Germany, the one who are last into the cue should be the first one out. For Scandinavian people that are thought not to be aggressive and step on others toes it is also interesting to se how the biggest bully on the road get away with it without any protests in Germany – given they have the right car. Just imagine that you do not just vaporize when you see these signs of German power in your back mirror. What happens is that they pass you on the right hand side with danger for their own life, yours and for those in the right hand lane. The accidents on the German highway are mostly terrible as the speed is very high and there are so many cars involved. Of this reason some of my German friends have not been on a highway for the last ten years.

Those Swedes that have bought themselves the most powerful Volvo or SAAB and have been looking forward to test its ability on the German highway believes that they can behave the same way. Not so! Herrn Schmidt would never move away for such a car, however fast they come, whatever much they flash their headlights. They just ignore such things as foreign cars. This is all right but when they also ignore the German Mercedes wannabes like the biggest Audis and Volkswagens we have got a problem. If you have bought a car like that and do not get the respect you deserve you react exactly like young insecure machos do when they do not get enough respect from their gang. They flip out totally! Talking about dangerous traffic environment!

I must admit I drive quite fast, not as fast as I used to do though and absolutely not as fast as the Germans think I should do to have the right to get out from between the trucks and into the “reserved” left hand lane. I have one principle though and that one I never go back on – to keep a safe distance to the car in front. This is absolutely impossible in Germany. If you are more than a few meters away from the car in front you are sagging and anyone has the right to fill the gap, preferably by passing “you idiot” on the right hand side – which is difficult and takes some virtuosity and a certain mind when that lane is filled with trucks. This is scary but it is even scarier to have a car behind you that are so close that you cannot see the licence plate in your back mirror. But – as long as you see a machinegun sight you know how to behave.

The big moment my wife and I always are looking forward to is when we, on the way south, pass the border to France at Mulouse. Suddenly we drive on a high quality highway with a smooth surface, traffic that is not faster than 140-150 km/h, nobody is bullying, and the surrounding is nice, the views are beautiful, all artefacts on the highway are well designed and you can stop at the most pleasant lay-bys. This is a contrast to the German side where you, except of risking your life, were driving in a corridor of trees and you could not se a bit of the beautiful German landscape and the lay-bys had a design and a standard that you preferred to forget as soon as possible.

Nowadays we fly Ryan Air but we would be happy to take the car to Sweden if it was economically possible to use the AutoTrain between Hamburg and Narbonne. Can anyone explain to me why it has to cost 1300 Euros to use that train when everybody say they are so concerned about the global warming issue and teach us that we should not fly and not use our cars.

Our house is from 1762. When we bought it, it had been empty for a few years and it had been raining through the roof. It was basically in a good condition but needed quite a lot of renovation. As the house is the oldest existing house in the village, except for the castle, we though it was worth being renovated in a cautious way. All the floors was the original ones and one of the walls was even older than the house and had belonged to the old fortress that had been there as far back as the 11th century and maybe longer.

One of the first problems we encountered was how to renovate the walls. They were now covered with disgusting wallpaper in many layers. When we took them away – which was quite a job – we found the original painted walls. The original walls had just patterns like dots, flowers and other decorations painted on the plaster covered walls. We would have liked to restore this but it was impossible as they had been too damaged by the time and what was left of it disappeared when the wallpaper was taken off.

Anyway we decided we wanted the walls painted in traditional earth colours, the way they used to do it in the south of France, in such a way that the texture of the walls would appear through the paint.

This was however not easy to do as no shop that sold paint could inform us how to do it. The thing was that we wanted to find a transparent paint, a so called glaze, for our old walls. That was not a problem – the problem was to know how to prepare the old walls for application of this glaze. Every shop wanted to sell us some artificial product to make the walls look old before we applied the glaze. We tried to tell them that our walls already were 250 years old and we wanted to know just how to prepare them for glazing. They could not tell us how to do this but persisted that we needed this artificial coating on the walls to get the glaze to stick and get the “right” old fashioned look. So – we had to try different ways ourselves. Finally we found out that we could apply this glaze, which really is a wax (it is called “cire” in French), that you can apply to any pre-painted wall. So, this is the way we did it:

Naturally the walls had quite a few damages like cracks, holes from nails and other fitting and also some damp pieces. We also had to knock down large pieces where the old plaster was loose from the supporting stones. The walls were built of large stones and covered with plaster so they were fairly even – but the charm is that they curved quite a lot and were wider at the bottom than at the top. We mended all the holes with plaster. We scraped down the cracks quite deep so the new plaster would get a good grip and filled them with plaster. You should use the kind of plaster that do not sink when it dries so you can make the surface finished in one go. Do not overfill and think you should sand it down afterwards. That is hard work! Instead fill up the cracks and holes with a mixture that is dry enough not to run and liquid enough to get down in the holes, let it dry for a few minutes until it is like hard parmesan cheese, cut away the surplus with a sharp scraper and coat it with slurry of plaster with the help of a very even steel spatula or even better, with a square spatula with a rubber surface. In this way you get a finished surface in one go. It is important that you soak the part of the wall with water before you apply the plaster. It will dry immediately otherwise and you will not be able to get a good surface. The plaster dries very quickly so make small portions or, as the experts do, mix it with water as you use it.

When you have finished this mending of holes you need to give the wall a final coating with something the French calls an “endui”. This is also based on plaster, but with much finer grain which, unlike the first plaster, keeps open for many hours. You have to cover the whole wall with this “endui” otherwise the paint will soak into the wall unevenly and you will get very ugly spots when you put on the “cire” in the end.

Now is the time to do something about the parts that you know are damp. Stone walls have a tendency to suck up water from the ground so often the walls are damp or even wet at the bottom. You can buy a special product to seal the wall with. You just apply one coat with a brush and let it dry according to the description.

When you have coated the wall with “endui” and this seal you should give it two coats of acrylic paint. I used white as I wanted the colour to come from the “cire”, but you can take any light colour and put a “cire” on top. If you do not use white I suggest you test first.

Here is the time for some warning!

It is tempting to make your wall very even but do not do that, because you want to keep the old look. They put this artificial coating unevenly on modern plasterboard walls to make them look old so you should not overdo your plasterwork and your coating with “endui” to make your old wall look new. The trick is not to make the first plaster too even and to apply the “endui” in different directions and finally not to paint with the acrylic paint as you are used to. Do not use even stokes as you are taught to do; try to paint as you five years old child would have done. The way you do this determines how “lively” your wall will be in the end.

When your paint is dry you start with the fun work – to apply the ”cire”. The “cire” is a coloured wax with the same consistency as soft shoe polish from a tube. You apply it on the wall with a brush and rub it in and away with a sponge. Here you can decide how much colour you want to leave on the wall to get a deeper or more subtle look.

The final result is exactly what you can see in old houses from Provence. When the “cire” is dry the wall is washable and has got a silky shiny look. Beautiful!!

Just a few more thing!

If you have very deep dents or holes in the walls or have wooden beams or other moving constructions, you should mix the plaster fifty-fifty with something called MAP. This makes the joint a tiny bit elastic so it can take some movements. You can also use MAP as it is for very big holes and where the movements might be large.

If you have parts that are painted with old linseed oil paint you can not apply modern paint on top of it. It will not stick or it will crackle. In this case you have to isolate the old paint with a coat of a paint based on “glycérophtalique” (I think it is an alkyd paint). You can use this method to isolate any old coatings or stains from sot in chimneys or any other agents that might come through the finished paint.

We have renovated an ancient house here in France and I guess many of you are in the same situation. There are two reasons why I think I have some experiences that are valuable to share with others. The first reason is that I have done a lot of mistakes that you should not have to do. The second is that I, being a retired university professor in architecture, have the ability to reflect on my mistakes and learn from them. I might also have some abilities to communicate my know-how to others who are in the same situation.

The latest project I did and that rewarded me with a serious attack of lumbago was a pergola on the roof terrace. The reason we wanted to have a pergola is that I want the shade – my wife does not – but we both want a more sheltered place for our dinners and breakfasts. My wife has always dreamt of having some climbing plants and we don’t have a garden – thanks good - so a pergola was of great need.

The first thing you have to decide is the design of the pergola. I choose a standard construction that I like best. The difficult thing is however to decide the dimensions of the construction. The eye will easily fool you. If you go strictly on construction principles it tends to be to thin and it will not look nice. If you on the other hand want to be on the safe side you tend to make the construction too heavy and that is not good either. You like a pergola to look light but not spindly and when the plants start to grow they add some visual weight to the construction.

So I decided on a construction with two primary beams with the dimension 100x40 mm. The length was approximately 2.5 meters. On top of these I put three secondary beams with the same dimension and approximately 3 m long. The actual “roof” of the pergola was 2.5 m long planks with the dimension 100x25 mm with a distance between them of 200 mm.

Three layers of construction would be quite thick however if I had just put them on top of each other so I let the top beam always cut into the lower one 40 mm. In this way I could reduce the construction height from 300 mm to 220 mm which made it quite nice. I only needed 1 pillar and I found that 100x100 mm is a good looking dimension. Remember not to let the pillars have direct contact with the ground or the floor. It will draw water and by the time rot, but there are constructions that allow a distance between the supporting floor and the end of the pillar.

The second important decision is what wood to use. I decided on red cedar. In the French climate this wood is very good as it resist water and do not rot and it also contains chemical substances that different bugs that eat wood do not like. You do not even have to treat it. It is light, which is good if you have a bad back, it is very easy to work with and it looks beautiful. It is however poisonous so be careful when you work with it. Use gloves, do not get dust into you eyes of breath it in and be careful not to get splinters in your hands. It is allergenic to many people and I noticed my hands got very funny after a while. Off course I read about the hazards too late to benefit from the knowledge.

Another thing you have to know is that the wood is corrosive so you need to use stainless steel screws and nails and at least galvanized fixtures if you think stainless is too expensive – which it is.

A piece of advise when you cut the beams to fit into the lower one – cut the top beam, not the lower as that will cause pockets for water to get into. Also put the beams on place and mark where to cut in place. If you cut the beams by measuring where the cuttings should be they will not fit. It is easy to do these cuttings – just make two parallel cuts with a sharp saw to the depth you need (in this case 40 mm) and give it a blow with the hammer. The bit just pops away as the cedar wood is very even in its structure. Even the bottom of the cut a little with a rasp. If the dimensions are a little too thick to just pop off, use a chisel and take it a way bit by bit.