One of the things I love about owning an old house in France is that I keep finding little details in the way it is made, in the nuts and bolts of its structure which appeal to me.

This is one of the several locks on the front door which looks like it was built to survive a serious siege, or at least an attack by abattering ram.

A simple and perfect door handle, polished by hundreds of different hands

This wonderful heart shaped motif which is part of the closing mechanism of the shutters.

Just last week daughter D brought me up to the attic to show me this hinge, previously unnoticed, on the back of a door.

By the good graces of the French Meitheal we now have lost the attic carpet to show us these shagged but wonderful old earthenware tiles underneath. We are going to try and save them.

From the new velux window at the very top of the house we have one of the best views in the house of the Peuch and of Cornheillon

A little plant pot holder found in the garden. I am very yempted to get someone to reproduce it, it is such a good design.

Le Bassin is the organ of Thezan Les Beziers, produced by the Mairie twice a year.

This is this summer's edition. on the cover is a great aerial shot of the village which shows that it is a true Circulade with the houses spiralling the church.

The shot was taken last summer. Those of you with eagle eyes will see our silver Megane parked outside our door just behind Serge and Dany's white van.
The even sharper eyed may spot in our back garden, between the tree and the house, the red tablecloth we used last summer as a sunshade.
It is a real feeling of having arrived to have hit the cover of Le Bassin !

We were in Roquebrun again today, it is really our favourite swimming spot on the Orb, and this time the church was open and we went in.
It has a rather nice statue of St. Roch in the church but this one we found in an exhibition of vestments and banners in the back of the church.
The banners were intended to be carried in processions.
It is very interesting as the figure of the saint is in fact a collage and stands in relief from the embroidered background.
The figure of the dog is also different as he is depicted with a human face.
This tallies with another picture of the saint I found in Pezenas (unfortunately at a moment without a camera) the figure proffering bread to the saint was an angel instead of the usual dog. The dog on this banner seemed to be a compromise between angelic and canine aid.

I send out unofficial word that if people were prepared to come to the Languedoc and help in the restoration work in the Presbytere I would feed and water them to the best of my ability (no pay mind)
This is the first team.

Ann-Marie,Deirdre,Brian,Ano and Steve in the hall they had just stripped of paper.

The heart of a French village is its Baker.
French people are devoted to their bread which must be as fresh as possible, it is common for the housewife here to go to the baker three times each day, before each meal.
When we first came to the village of Thezan les Beziers it had a busy bakery in the square.
This Boulanger (which was served by a particularly waspish but pretty girl) served particularly delicious desserts (including a chocolate mousse cake which I fully intended to serve to guests for dinner) but their bread just wasn't that great.
In fact last summer I made my own most of the time.
In September the inevitable happened and it went bust, the boulanger was foreclosed by the bank.
The people of the village took this extremely seriously.
It is reckoned to be the death of a village when the bakery closes.
Despite the fact that there exists a "Point Chaud" a shop in the village which bakes up ready prepared bread, and that the butcher became a Depot de Pain faces were grim when you inquired about the bakery and rumours abounded about it being sold.
When we arrived in July there seemed to be a fairly strong hope of the rebirth and at last, this morning, it reopened.

The prospects are good.

This mornings Baguettes were crisp and delicious-we opted for the Bien Cuit but there was a paler version available.

Later I wandered down to buy a Tart for dinner tonight and was lucky enough to get the very last piece of Patisserie in the shop, this Tarte au Pommes.
It looks good, I may yet find a substitute for the regretted chocolate mousse cake.