Le Couvent, Roujan B&B Bed & Breakfast Pezenas Languedoc France

First a new roundabout appeared at the Pezenas end of the village, by the Cave Cooperative, last summer. It was pretty ugly, and well, just round. Then another popped up at the other end of town on the road to Gabian - slightly prettier this time, with lots of decoration in the middle - as is usual for French roundabouts. As if that wasn't enough new pavements and a squillion laurier roses found their way along the road to Neffies - Avenue Henri Mas.

At the end of the summer all the pavements were torn up, heavy machinery caused chaos in the main road, traffic was diverted round various routes (one of which saw pantechnicons wedged on the sharp bend by the bank) all of which were fairly disastrous and nearly caused the local garde champetre a heart attack. No two days saw the same road diversions as each 'plan' was as flawed as the next.

Then just before Christmas the first roundabout had lots of new planting and interesting stonework installed to end its summer-long building-site look.

The reason for this flurry of activity? Yes, the municipal elections. Every six years towns elect a new council and mayor. So they hang around doing nothing obvious for five years then make major changes in the sixth year. We're about to start voting on 9 March (it's a dual-pronged process) so Monsieur le Maire recently sent to every household a newsletter giving details of all the major achievements of the council. Just to remind us.

Anyway, for those of you who've stayed at Le Couvent, Roujan before, we hope you like the changes. Just watch out for the axle-high speed bumps all the way up the main street. Oh and we're not alone, the same phenomenon can be seen in all the towns and villages around here - and probably throughout France.

It'll be a relief when the elections are over, then we can all go back to sleep.

Re Roujan
written by Penny and Tony from Viviez, March 19, 2008

Having passed through Roujan several times on Saturday 15th March on way to and from the Chateau Cassan I think Roujan looked very nice. I note the second roundabout, on the way to Cassan, marked another of Frances quaint traditions - the lotissements which they seem to love at the expense of typical, run-down properties which they happily leave to the English to renovate. The Chateau looks as if it will be attracting lots of visitors which will give Roujan an economic boost, but increase your traffic somewhat. We had a super time at an 8-course banquet which started at 9pm and ran out of steam about 01.30. Many patrons gave up on the final dessert (champagne and boudoirs), danced for a while and then took the bottles home. Le Moliere in Pezenas was very welcoming, and worth recommending. Lizzie, we hope you soon get rid of your cold, and don't pass it on to Ali.