The pleasure of Golf in the South of France is enhanced by the warm and welcoming climate, the scents of wild herbs and the colours of the garrigue and often the blues of the Mediterranean.

Close to Villa Roquette only ten minutes from our door, we have a superb 18 hole course at Golf De Saint Thomas

We list other good courses all under an hour from us in Herault, Languedoc-

Golf De Lamalou-les-bains -  Route de Saint-Pons, 34240 LAMALOU-LES-BAINS – Tel. 04 67 95 08 47
Golf De La Grande Motte -  Avenue du Golf, 34280 LA GRANDE MOTTE – Tel. 04 67 56 05 00
Golf Du Cap D’agde -  4 avenue des Alizes, 34300 CAP D’AGDE – Tel. 04 67 26 54 40
Golf De Saint Thomas -  Route de Pezenas, 34500 BEZIERS – Tel. 04 67 39 03 09
Golf Club Montpellier Massane -  Domaine de Massane, 34670 BAILLARGUES – Tel. 04 67 87 87 89
Golf De Coulondres -  72 rue des Erables, 34980 SAINT GELY DU FESC – Tel. 04 67 84 13 75
Golf Du Verchamp -  34 170 CASTELNAU LE LEZ – Tel. 04 67 64 12 11
Golf De Fontcaude -  Route de Lodve, 34990 JUVIGNAC – Tel. 04 67 45 90 10

Our village, Montblanc, is slap-bang in the center of Languedoc just a few miles from the Mediterranean – it is typical of a confident, prosperous farming village in Southern France and for centuries has been a working community. It is much the same today as it has been for the last couple of thousand years.

Building Our New High Street

There have always been visitors coming and making their home here. From Hannibal on his way to Italy for the world cup 2,500 years ago (descendants of his war elephants still live in some of the trees in the woodlands around here – to beautiful lasses from the Scottish highlands here a holiday this week – the local villages offer their usual welcome and glasses of wine.

Some of our guests are out on a stroll (a balade) this morning – with frequent stops for wine and foie-gras under the trees. Talks about the flora and a team of horse drawn carriages (one mule drawn) are there to bring them home later.

‘Tis a beautiful day.

One of the joys of living here in the South of France is that my mother can live with us in her own private apartment in Villa Roquette. She has always been a keen gardener and we are proud of her results in the Mediterranean climate.

An interesting feature of many old houses in France is the wonderful ironwork, railings and metalwork decorations used in houses.

The last big job (almost) I plan for Villa Roquette is the front terrace to, what will be, our new front ground floor apartment – this project took a big step forward this week when I finished the brickwork and concreting. it is now ready for the wall and railings.

Terrace for ground floor apartment - a picture window will be fitted next week

I decided to make two short pillars and then insert some two meter panels of old railings. When I went round the secondhand builders materials places I discovered that prices for good ornamental railings are high – some over 1,000 euro a meter for wrought iron railings. What I was looking for were the 19th century cast iron railings which many larger houses had.

We are lucky, the first floor of our home at Villa Roquette has a balcony of cast iron railings with a vine leaf decoration running the length of our house and I thought it would be great to find something similar, but that I could afford.

After a long search and a lot of negotiations I found the perfect pieces.

Cast Railings with a chestnut motif

I found two complete balconies in the corner of a field, covered in weeds – in fact I found a treasure trove of railings and balconies – the ones I chose have a Chestnut design of leaves and fruit and are fantastic – they are complete, but need a little repair, but I was once taught how to weld cast iron and plan to put them back to the way they were over 150 years ago

Inspired by Christo, I have decided to wrap up our home in blue plastic – I only had enough to do about a tenth of the front of the house, here is a picture of Villa Roquette gift wrapped for you……

Villa Roquette Gift Wrapped

It is covering the opening for the work on out front ground floor apartment, the big advantage is that I can now make this accessible for a wheelchair and I am planning the interior to be easy to access.

Since moving to Languedoc; in the South of France, over 15 years ago, Carole and I have offered b&B and apartment rentals, firstin out home in Nizas and now in our home in Montblanc near Pezenas and Agde.

When we sold our Nizas home and bought our home in Montblanc, we were able to use the years of experience and feedback from our guests to adapt our new home for visitors. For the last two years I have been building and constructing the new services for our apartments and I have made them so we can arrange the accommodation to suit a wide variety of demands.

There are four main double bedrooms, four bathrooms, four kitchens and three living rooms which can be put together in a wide variety of combinations, all living rooms can also accommodate two more people in good double or single beds, so we can, in total, comfortably have 14 guests staying with us. We also have our own home with four bedrooms which is carefully integrated, yet insulated and isolated from the guest accommodation.

Getting the heating, air conditioning, sound insulation, private access, dishwashers, washing machines and all the paraphernalia of a total of seven complete family units with parking access to the swimming pool and yet maintaining privacy and a calm environment – has been difficult – fun – but difficult – yet I have done it and I am blogging today to give myself a small pat on the back.

Sunday mornings I usually make coffee and fetch bread from the bakers just a few yards from our front door. Today is Valentines day so Carole will get chocolates with her coffee, Sunday paper, fresh bread and jam in bed this morning.

I have blogged a few times about the pleasure of being able to have warm bread and croissants on the table fresh from the bakers seven days a week – but today was exceptional – I like a type of bread called pavé, a “plumper” loaf than a baguette or banette, there was none on the shelf this morning, but my (very pretty) baker was just taking some from the oven in the shop as I walked in – the bread was too hot to hold so she gave me a shopping bag to carry the bread home.

Vive la France

On my blog at Twiku.com I put a jigsaw puzzle of an image of our village – this has proved very popular with my friends on Facebook so I have put one on this site.

Our home is ready to receive you. We have worked hard for two years to make our home in the South of France ready to offer vacation apartments and bed and breakfast in a classic Maison de Maitre by the center of a medieval French village near the Mediterranean.

To launch our service, we offer a once only sale – any bookings made and paid before the end of January 2010 will be at half the listed price on our website http://villaroquette.com/ – that is a 50% discount off prices we know are already highly competitive – no extras, no charges for towels or linen – wifi – air conditioning – private swimming pool, many extras and services.

Contact me, or leave a reply here, with your details and dates required and I will confirm your booking (subject to availability) with a booking reference you can use any time until the end of January 2010. All bookings must be confirmed and paid for before the end of January 2010 to qualify for this offer.

I have often tried to keep a regular and up-to-date news post about local news, especially the latest travel information for people coming to our home.

There are many Internet sites with pages of information about weather, flights and rail services. To add this t oa web page is a full time job, using syndicated feeds also has problems as so much other rubbish can be loaded. We have a local site which focuses on these services and the travel page is one of the best have found, so as I cannot improve on a good service, her it is

HeraultWhatsOn Travel News