Lauragais Blog

The Lauragais remembers

8/11/2018

To mark the centenary of the end of the Great War, the History Society of Revel has published a book called 'Le Lauragais se souvient' which chronicles the experiences of the people of the Lauragais between 1914 and 1918: those who went to fight in the trenches, those who were left behind, and the memorials to the dead that were erected afterwards.

This evening I attended an event entitled 'A Hymn to Peace' which included the launch of the book, an exhibition about the war, a short film made by the local high school, and a play about the ladies of the Lauragais and the letters they received from their loved ones at the front.

The mood was reverential and sombre until one of the book's authors - my friend Jean-Paul Calvet, President of the Revel History Society - made me wear a Tommy helmet and took me for a ride in a taxi. This vehicle was one of 630 Parisian taxis used in September 1914 to transport troops to the Battle of the Marne.

0 Comments

In search of a rhinoceros

29/10/2018

0 Comments

When I first travelled to Africa thirty years ago, I brought back many memories. Among the most indelible were those of Solomon – a gorilla I encountered high up in the Virunga Mountains – and the cattle egrets that loitered around the lowland animals.

But over the last twenty years, the héron garde-bœufs has become a common sight on the plains of the Lauragais, and this morning a flock of them descended on my field in search of a rhinoceros, or at least a horse or donkey.

Another sign of climate change, say our leading ornithologists, but others will no doubt continue to deny it until they bump into Solomon on a dark night.

0 Comments

Interview with Voix du Midi, 25/10/2018

28/10/2018

0 Comments

According to this article, 'I have the ideas and structure for my next book. I hope to start it this winter'.

As the Dalai Lama once said, choose to be optimistic, it feels better!

0 Comments

Book Launch: Sunday 21 October, Château de Garrevaques.

28/10/2018

0 Comments

Perfect weather, perfect hosts (Kinou & Caroline), perfect support team (Tony Milne and Donna Taylor manning the sales desk and brandishing the cameras), perfect helpers pouring the bubbly (Kayla and Ryan).

One hundred and twenty guests walked in, seventy happy readers walked out with a copy of 'Lauragais'; the other fifty may still be lost somewhere inside the château.

For me, one of the highlights was being able to introduce so many of the people who appear in the book and who helped me with my research: Sophie Bouyssou, Laurent Alibert, Jean-Paul Calvet, Bruno Berthoumieux, Jean-Pierre Suzzoni, Jean-Louis Enjalbert, Marthe Boyer, Marie-Christine Combes...

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this wonderful day. It's taken me a week to come down from heaven and write this post...

0 Comments

Interview with Journal d'Ici, 18/10/2018

18/10/2018

0 Comments

A timely piece of publicity in our local weekly newspaper just before 'Lauragais' launches at the Château de Garrevaques.

0 Comments

Vive l'Entente Cordiale!

9/10/2018

0 Comments

Some friends of mine have 'borrowed' five poster sites on the roads leading into my nearest town. They were even kind enough to print these posters and stick them up for me, all financed by goodwill. I spent a happy hour driving round Revel this morning trying to spot them all.

Not one of these Bill Stickers (Guillaumes Autocolleurs?) knows enough English to be able to read my book, so they have no idea what I may have said about them or their country. But they’ve put up these posters all the same, confident that the Entente Cordiale will persist despite Brexit. What nice people!

0 Comments

Interview with La Dépêche du Midi, 30/09/2018

30/9/2018

0 Comments

If you read French, follow this link to see the full text of an interview with our regional newspaper.

La Dépêche du Midi

0 Comments

'Lauragais' arrives in the Lauragais

26/9/2018

1 Comment

My personal copies of 'Lauragais' reached me today!

1 Comment

Who is reading my book before I have even seen it?

22/9/2018

1 Comment

On Thursday 20 September, my publisher Troubador posted copies of 'Lauragais' to my first customers. I won't receive my personal stock until next Tuesday or Wednesday, and I can't help wondering who may be reading my book before I have even seen it!

OK, I've looked at proofs, and corrected them endlessly, but it's not quite the same thing...

1 Comment

Why is Toulouse the centre of the French space industry?

7/9/2018

2 Comments

It was a natural question to ask during a rainy day visit to the busiest tourist attraction in Toulouse: la Cité d’Espace, Space City.

After much thought and a few silly photos, I remembered other pictures I had taken a year or so ago while I was researching ‘Lauragais’.

Villenouvelle lies on the old Roman road between Carcassonne and Toulouse. The Black Prince destroyed the town during his Great Raid of 1355, and the church one sees today was built sometime around 1509, almost certainly financed with the profits of pastel, or woad. Its most striking feature is its bell gable, or mur clocher. Cheaper to build than a tower, this is a single wall pierced by niches where the bells hang and occasionally clang in the vent d’autan.

They are a typical feature of churches in the Lauragais, but what is unusual about the mur clocher of Villenouvelle is its uncanny resemblance to a spacecraft ready for launch. Was this what inspired the aerospace engineers of Toulouse to design the Ariane 5 rocket that I admired during my visit to la Cité d’Espace?

Unfortunately, the effect is less impressive from the main street. Driving past one could be forgiven for thinking it was the fake façade of a Hollywood film set.

2 Comments

<<Previous

Lauragais Blog

Author