In the Beginning

Alex's first post - sitting at the kitchen table Le Couvent, Roujan, in the warmth of a log fire on a cold, windy winter evening. Lizzie and Ali have just persuaded me to start a blog. In fact, Lizzie just grabbed her tiny laptop and set this up in an instant. I'm out of the starting block even before I realized I had a foot in it. Now she says I've got 5 minutes to write something and I haven't a clue what to put. I'm feeling self-conscious and at a loss what to say - no doubt this will soon change...

I'd like this blog to be full of anecdotes funny, sad, illuminating about life in this part of the Midi and not just about me. If I come across a good joke, a delicious recipe, an interesting fact or such like then they can be included.

This all came about because Ali and Lizzie were telling me about a website named Deux-Pieds (from 2 feet in the earth/ground) they've just set up for a German-Swiss couple here named Christa and Hans, who own a lovely vineyard, Domaine de Bourdic, just outside Roujan.

C and H make some delicious red wines we enjoy drinking. Like all winemakers, Christa & Hans are keen to interest people in their creations. By chance, everyone came up with the same idea at the same time: to offer, via a website, the chance for people to adopt 12 vines, follow progress at the vineyard and then receive 12 bottles with that individual's name on the label. One can then also be taught how to blend wine and have the chance to attend the vendange (grape picking). There'll be lots more on the site than that and the whole thing is a fabulous, fun idea, so do please follow the Deux-Pieds link above (and the others too!).