Villa Roquette Bull Running in montblanc
I took this photo as three bulls were running straight towards me (I was hiding under a lorry) close to our home in Villa Roquette
In summer many French towns have a Feria – bulls are released in the streets and aimed at local residents – it is “safe” (ish) as long as you don’t try to be too brave, the bulls do have their horns covered, but they are big and look mean.
Our family has lived in this region of the South of France for nearly 20 years since we moved from the UK.
Six years ago, we bought a very large house, bit enough for a commercial guest house, but also, importantly, large enough for my mother to come and live with us and have her own private and e-secluded apartment and garden.
My Mum will be 90 next year and, thanks to the climate and wonderful services here, as well as her active mind, she is a valuable member of our family – her Sunday roast lunches are a highlight of the week and the kids always seem to be around for them, so we have traditional family lunch – perhaps this year with five generations around the same table.
Recently Mum has been writing about her life – she kept diaries and has edited these into an auto-biography for us – I only know the story since around 1951 when I was taken to the Festival of Britain – so reading about her schooldays – the land army – joining the navy – the war in Egypt and Palestine – is fascinating – she was a communications officer in the WRENS and took the signal as it came in about the sinking of the Bismark, evacuated from Tobruk, many fascinating scenes
She met and married my Father in Palestine and along I came 9 months later – but that is another story.
My Mum is keen for me to make a blog about her memoirs from the writing she is doing and publish these online – it is a real living snapshot of history and I am part of it in a small way.
Villa Roquette is located in the South of the South of France – recently, to avoid confusion with the other bit of the South of France, North of us, the coast from Marseilles to Menton, including St Tropez, Cannes and Nice, the tourism people here started calling this area Sud de France. Call it what you wish, but Languedoc gets more sunny days than any other part of France and is in the same temperature belt as North Africa.
With all this sun it seems silly not to use it for heating. I have been planning to do this for years, but always had something else to do more urgently – I still have a pile of work to do, but next week (if it is not raining) I will start on a heating system for our Swimming Pool.
Thanks to the Internet I have found plans which are simple, inexpensive and work – I found a calculator online which takes into account pool size, latitude, sun, shade, and a host of other factors and reckon I need about 15 square meters of solar heating to give me a very comfortable pool temperature and this will extend the use of the pool from April through to October.
Making and fitting the system is straightforward and materials cost abut 100 euro, but I already have most of the items in stock, piping, plastics, tubing, mountings etc – so, hopefully the cost will be very small and the befits enourmous.
I will make notes and write up the progress.
Here is our pool as it is – next time I will outline the first stages of construction and installation of the heating system.
The Pool at Villa Roquette