More French Rustic Charm

I first spotted this typical Bigourdan farmhouse about six years ago, whilst getting lost tying to find a friends house, it has always stuck in my mind and was the inspiration for me to plant red climbing roses on the front of our house.  I returned today to photograph it.  It still looks as good as when I first saw it.

Rustic France

The entrance of our next door neighbours potting shed.

It's been another fabulous day here, although very humid, a few rumblings of thunder in the sky, and dark, ominous clouds lingering over the mountains.  I think we are in for a big storm tonight, I love storms, one of the beauties of living here, on a ridge, close to the mountains is you can feel and see the weather coming in, you can smell it in the air, see the change in the wind, and plot the course of the storm and we have some spectacular one's, forked lightening, sheet lightening, very loud thunderclaps, followed by a torrential downpour, I love to watch them, from the safety of the covered  balcony, usually with some rousing Italian opera music on in the background, storm watching is one of my favourite things.

On the balcony, storm coming in.

The eerie but beautiful sky

I have digressed, I was supposed to be writing a post about rustic France, today has been a productive day, I have got round to doing things, that I have been meaning to do for ages! I went into the local town, booked a check up, scale and polish with the dentist, booked a colour, cut and blow dry with my hairdresser, deposited a huge number of clean but wrinkled sheets at the dry cleaners for ironing, went to the supermarket.  On the way back home, driving through one of the local villages I spotted a wonderful sign for a new beautician who has just set up shop, I screeched the car to a halt outside, popped in got on very well with the beautician and promptly booked a full leg, bikini wax and pedicure for Saturday, God by Saturday night I should look like a Goddess!

Apologies, still not sounding very rustic! Feeling smug and happy I decided to take a detour through one of my favourite villages, there is a house here that I covet, it's an old auberge, that is now derelict, someone started to renovate it about ten years ago, then stopped.  Reason, inheritance fallout, there are literally thousands of potentially beautiful, derelict properties in France, that are crumbling, because of archaic Napoleonic inheritance laws, up to forty members of the same family can own a single property in France, they cannot come to an agreement on what to do with it, so the house just crumbles and eventually nature reclaims it.

(French inheritance laws, were designed to keep families together.  In France it is impossible to disinherit your children, which in principle is a good thing, however more often than not it drives families apart).

Imagination and vision required.

This was probably the old mill house for the auberge, it would make an excellent guest house

This property is one of those, when we first saw it, we found a way in through the garage, you should have seen the bats that flew out, very cross that they had been disturbed, we looked round and saw evidence of renovation, it has the potential to be stunning, we were interested in it as a renovation project, we went to visit the local mayor, he confirmed it, not for sale, a complicated inheritance situation, that could take years to resolve.

The view opposite.

Looking left outside the entrance.

Looking right outside the entrance.

This land at the back, also belongs to the property.

A river at the bottom of the garden.

Same village, another property.  I was attracted by the roses growing through the gates.

Just want to slide that stone back into position, though at the same time I quite like it like that.

Lovely tree lined driveway.

 Now, safely back home and waiting for the storm.

Belle Mère's Move, Part 2. Curb Appeal

Well, I have to admit, I am now absolutely shattered, I have done an awful lot of packing and lifting.  But things are going to plan. The professionals are coming tomorrow to pack all the fragile items and paintings and on Wednesday they will be moving the furniture out and putting it into the container for storage.

I have somehow managed to take some more pictures, mainly when I have been taking Crusoe for his constitutionals and amazingly enough I have managed to bag the laptop to do this post, as MG is also shattered and I think is turning in, as we speak!

Photo subject today is curb appeal, I am fascinated almost to the point of obsession about houses and gardens. I love walking past interesting looking properties and peaking in.  There is plenty of material in this neck of the woods so I hope you enjoy, peaking with me!

Love this gate and the colour is typically Provençal.

I wonder what that person up there is doing?

Of course, waxing his surfboard.

This is such a pretty villa, but not much of a view at the back.

The view from the front makes up for it.

Pretty pink house with pale green shutters.

Look closely at this one, it is in fact the back of the building, everything is painted, it's a trompe l'oeil.

I would love to peak inside this characterful  house, on the cliff top, Picasso lived here for a while.

And this is the side entrance.

Love these gates and driveway, this house and garden, see photo below, remind me of the holiday house in the film of Bonjour Tristesse, with David Niven, Deborah Kerr and Jean Seberg.

The garden, which has a path straight to a little cove.

Town house, now apartments probably at one time belonged to a wealthy merchant.

Lovely little square complete with water fountain

This property is a classic turn of the (20th) century villa, it intrigues me, when it was built there certainly would not have been a main road, it was probably a little track, and it would have had fantastic views of the sea, now the other side of the road is all built up, so it no longer has great views. I would love to know it's story, who built it? Is it still in the same family?  I will have to find out more about it.  There is just something mysterious and romantic about this villa. I love it.

Close up

The front entrance, barley visible through the trees.

And finally, Mimosa tree, I cannot tell you how divine the smell is when you walk past.