KEYS TO THE CHÂTEAU / Writing is rarely a route to riches, but when Colin Duncan Taylor moved to France, he found it was a key that opened the door to many a château (article first published in French Property News).

WAR DIARY: 20 JULY 1944 / This is the story of a massive ground and air attack by the Germans on the Resistance camps of the Montagne Noire, including the subsequent report by the pro-Vichy gendarmes of Mazamet.

LOUISA PAULIN, OCCITAN POET, 1888-1944 / Her work won several prizes, including an award from the oldest literary institution in the western world – the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals, or the Academy of the Floral Games, founded in 1323 by seven troubadour-citizens of Toulouse.

ROQUEFORT CHEESE – THE OLDEST FRENCH APPELLATION / This village in the south of France is famous for transforming ewe’s milk into blue cheese worth €350 million a year. Commercial success has left its mark on Roquefort, but not in a way you would expect. An interview with the mayor explains why nearly all the dwellings in his commune are uninhabited.

ON THE ICE HOUSE TRAIL IN THE MONTAGNE NOIRE / Pradelles-Cabardès lies just below the highest point of the Montagne Noire – the Pic de Nor. A century ago, this tiny mountain village dominated the ice industry in our region. The best way to grasp the scale of this enterprise is to take a stroll along Le Sentier des Glacières (The Icehouse Trail).

THE CANAL DU MIDI AT BÉZIERS / When it was opened in 1682, the Canal du Midi was called the Eighth Wonder of the World, a 240km waterway connecting Toulouse to the Mediterranean. ​From its highest point at Naurouze, the canal descends 189 metres to the sea via 45 locks. Perhaps the most impressive of these hydraulic lifts is the flight just outside Béziers called the Nine Locks of Fonsérannes.

A RARE LOOK INSIDE A PIGEONNIER OR DOVECOTE / A local historian told me about a pigeonnier which, he assured me, was the most fascinating example he had ever been inside. I took a short drive over to Saint-Germain-des-Prés near Puylaurens, and then off I went across a field of stubble armed with a ladder and a camera.

INTERVIEW WITH A LIVING LEGEND / Rugby fans of a certain age will remember the Spanghero brothers. Laurent played second row, but he brought fame to the family name through his career as a butcher. More recently, the King of Cassoulet has switched to making food products that are 100% vegetarian.

A MORNING RUN THROUGH 10,000 YEARS OF HISTORY IN THE MONTAGNE NOIRE / Why do I love the Lauragais and the Montagne Noire? Where else can you find a heritage trail that offers so much in such a short distance, not to mention seeing France’s most beautiful tree?

FROM THE CAUCASUS TO CASTRES VIA THE RED ARMY AND THE WEHRMACHT / This post tells the extraordinary story of Vakhtang Sekhniachvili who fought for the Soviets, the Germans and the French Resistance. After that, he was awarded the Military Cross in France and sent to the gulag by Stalin.

WHO WERE THE TWO ‘GERMAN’ SOLDIERS BURIED AT THE CHÂTEAU DE GARREVAQUES? / One day, the owner of the Château de Garrevaques shared a memory from her childhood: a few years after the end of the Second World War, the German army came and disinterred two dead soldiers buried in the grounds of her château, but were they really German?

NOTES FROM THE NATURAL WINE FAIR AT DURBAN-CORBIÈRES / I spent yesterday exploring the world of natural wines at the Glouglou natural wine fair in Durban-Corbières. Most of the exhibitors were certified organic, but they have all gone much further in their quest to minimise the artificial techniques used in most modern wine production.

WHERE THREE FRENCH GENERALS REST IN PEACE / How many generals are buried in your local graveyard? I found three in mine, all from the same family! I did not discover my three General Reys while wandering among the grandiose funerary monuments in the Catholic cemetery of Puylaurens. I found them buried in the Protestant graveyard hidden away on the steep northern slopes of town.

THE FRENCH CONCEPT OF LAÏCITÉ / Living close to the Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle pilgrimage route has often made me toy with the idea of making a pilgrimage of my own. Last weekend I had the opportunity of making a much shorter pilgrimage which also provided a brief lesson in the French concept of laïcité.

OVERDOSING ON CHÂTEAUX: LASTOURS - ONE VILLAGE, FOUR CASTLES (PLUS A FIFTH!) / Drive twenty minutes north from Carcassonne and you will reach the village of Lastours. Red and gold Occitan flags flutter from lampposts alongside the river, and high on a ridge above the village, four separate châteaux stand in a line: Cabaret, Tour Régine, Surdespine and Quertinheux.