Le Couvent Diary

This past week we've been privileged to have the Bloomberg Tricycle Writers Group staying with us. Each year, thanks to the Bloomberg Foundation and the Tricycle Theatre around a dozen writers meet together for a week here in Roujan where they find space to work on their current writings. Each evening we've heard scenes from plays, short stories, stand-up routines and seen short films made by the individuals in the group. It's been utterly fantastic to hear such wonderful imagination at play.

So thank you Hassan Abdulrazzak, Michael Bhim, Neil D'Souza, Jennifer Farmer, Amit Gupta, Amy Evans, Winsome Pinnock, Trevor Williams, Dolly Dhingra, Lorna French and Kwame Kwei-Armah, you've been absolute stars. See you next year?

 

It didn't start well. The four of us in the car were arguing about where exactly the restaurant was. We'd pulled up outside a huge wine factory and the signs for Bistrot d'Alex ran out, only to be replaced with dozens of others saying 'Vinipolis'.

I, because I am a Virgo and therefore always right, and because I'd looked it up on the internet moments before, insisted we were in the right place and to just park. The others didn't believe me. I was right, of course. This new restaurant is part of the wine factory and looks like the entrance to a small modern airport. Sliding doors usher you in, then you stop dead. The floors have a colossal section which is glass, so you can look down on hundreds of wine barrels many feet below. I'm not good at visual cliffs, so tiptoed round to firmer ground.

 

 

Photo pinched from Cwiosna CABANE - Merci.

We were at this new restaurant to celebrate the birthday of our friend Jackie Devereux . And what a find it is. If you can get past the place looking like the works canteen at IBM and concentrate on the food and the price of said food, you'll find it excellent. In a huge, lofty and airy space, with spacious seating for about sixty or so people, jolly waiting staff serve excellent food of the region. I had six of the freshest oysters from the Bassin de Thau served on a bed of ice, guinea fowl with the creamiest risotto I've ever tasted followed by a dish of strawberries prepared five different ways. Everything was beautifully, cleanly presented and perfectly cooked. For 18.50 euros. That's £14.36 at today's rotten exchange rate. The wines are largely from the cave co-operative which is part of this Vinipolis complex and are good and well priced.

We're on a winner here for at least another six months if they don't do something about the signage. No-one will be able to find it, so we should be fine for a table. Yesterday was Sunday, however, and the restaurant was full to the gunnels with savvy french locals all keeping quiet about the place. If you're coming to stay at Le Couvent, Roujan I'd advise you to ask us to book you a table well in advance. They could be making funky new signs as I write.

Just occasionally something completely unexpected happens in Roujan and it happened again last night. We got to witness an amazing cultural event way beyond that that you'd expect in a small village in deepest Languedoc..

Thanks to our friends Anne & Fran at La Maison Verte over the road we went to a fantastic concert in the church, just 150 metres away. Anne & Fran had heard that a choir of fifty girls from Hungary would be on their way to Spain to take part in a competition. La Maison Verte is huge so A&F invited the choir to spend a stopover night there. In exchange the girls gave a free concert, despite having spent 26 hours in a coach and arriving in Roujan a mere 3.5 hours before the event.

Wow, but were they good. They were extraordinary. Here's a video that does them no favours visually, but will give you a flavour of them. This piece is a bit frivolous in comparison with some of the beautiful Renaissance music they treated us to last night. I doubt there was a single person in the audience who didn't have shiny eyes and a skin tingle. Thank you Pro Musica from Nyíregháza in Hungary . Hála. Szerencse a versenyben.

We've had our lovely Cambridge friends Sarah & Dawn visiting for the past three days. No-one gets to stay while Le Couvent is closed during the winter unless they put in a bit of work, so they pruned olives, bushwhacked thistles and planted salad & strawberries.

 

Their reward for all this work this was taking us out to lunch in Meze where we had stunning shellfish looking out over the sparkling sea. The Picpoul de Pinet was almost a finely chilled as the sea. Ali & I passed on the latter. Our sweet guests got soaked, but reckoned it most refreshing.

Hope you got home safely - come back soon eh? Happy birthday Sarah!

Wow, today has been just beautiful. Ali, Alex and I spent the day pruning at Chateau Mal Au Dos. Ali & Alex were working in the Vineyard With A View and I pruned the espaliered pear trees. With the temperature running at 19 degrees it felt very summery - we peeled off until we were in our vests for the first time this year.

It was a little less peaceful than usual as Jean-Marc the shepherd, who'd brought his sheep to the crest above our vineyard, spent the afternoon yelling at his wayward collie, Bouffe.  Bouffe took a shine to our dogs Kit & Flynn and spent his afternoon rounding them up rather than look after his flock.

 The daffodils and almond blossom look fantastic against the current cloudless skies.

   

Have you booked your summer holiday yet? Why not come to Le Couvent, Roujan? You can contact us here .