Lauragais Blog

Interview with Voix du Midi, 25/10/2018

28/10/2018

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!

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Book Launch: Sunday 21 October, Château de Garrevaques.

28/10/2018

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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...

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

18/10/2018

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

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Vive l'Entente Cordiale!

9/10/2018

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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!

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

30/9/2018

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

La Dépêche du Midi

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'Lauragais' arrives in the Lauragais

26/9/2018

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My personal copies of 'Lauragais' reached me today!

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

22/9/2018

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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...

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Why is Toulouse the centre of the French space industry?

7/9/2018

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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.

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'Lauragais' book launch

29/8/2018

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There will be a book launch for 'Lauragais' on Sunday 21 October 2018, from 14h00 to 18h00, at the Château de Garrevaques, 4 allée du moulin, 81700 Garrevaques.

Click the button below for more details!

Book launch

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Revised publication date for 'Lauragais'

17/8/2018

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The publication date for 'Lauragais' has been brought forward by three months from 28 January 2019 to 28 October 2018.

Watch this space for news of the book launch taking place in the Lauragais towards the end of October.

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