Life In A New Geography & Saturday Lunch

1. Moving.

I spent about eight years living in a town outside of Bordeaux city in southwest France. It was a good life. Yet I moved to find another welcoming locale in a different wine region.

That was over a year ago.

Inadvertently, I discovered a wonderful village in southern France. I rented several apartments over many months before finding a small home.

400 year old trees and a marble fountain

Below are thoughts about moving here—written months ago in a journal.

Sister Trish (right) and neighbors at Le Clos wine garden in Caunes Minervois

I rented an Airbnb in Caunes-Minervois and that afternoon saw a sign about music at the Abbey so walked down a cobbled trail and found no door but saw a beer/wine garden across the street jammin’ with live music so I sauntered in and sat on a shaded bar stool and a young woman with wavy full hair and intelligent eyes from Edinburgh served me a Lagrasse Mule and said she knew nothing about abbey music so I decided to stay …

Near the pink marble quarry above Caunes

… and she asked my name to open a tab and I slammed down a mule and then another and reveled at this glorious sunny afternoon/evening garden sprinkled with dozens of happy pairs and families and live music and thought I like this town and so decided to stay some weeks but then months passed and I ate scrumptious French and Indonesian food and drank stellar Minervois wines at the local L’Atelier restaurant run by …

Winemaker Benjamin Taillandier’s 2023 harvest lunch that lasted eight hours

Scallops and local Grenache Gris white wine

… Marcel and Petra from the Netherlands and one weekend while departing from my sister’s home after lunch in Bize Minervois received a phone call from bartender Coran at La Cantine Curé beer/wine bar and he invited me to lunch at the winery of Benjamin Taillandier and I soon parked nearby and walked inside and realized this was a fete-du-vendage or grape harvest festival and sat at a long table in the cellar fermentation building with Coran and Amy and Marcel and Gregor and Jean-Marie and Roxanne and Sophie and dozens more for what became an eight hour …

… lunch and wine tasting and then walked a short distance to the rented apartment and thought again I sorta like this town at the base of the black mountains and I’ll stay awhile and so rented a few other homes over months and winter came and winter went and during that time I’d go for pre dawn runs along dirt paths wearing a wool hat and headlamp and during evenings enjoyed wine dinners at homes of generous residents and visited the market in the town of Villeneuve while wearing a scarf and gloves and bought truffle buttons and rich local honey and squishy luscious cheeses and …

Summer open air concerts outside the abbey

… before it closed for winter drove over to the Grand Cafe Occitan in the town of Felines-Minervois to sit outside on a mildly gritty and blown leaf terrace where a cat lounged next to tables and Ana and Hannah said hi and served Naive Grenache which is soft as butter but more seductive, as well as duck confit and the time and place reminded me of rural Ireland in the 1970’s or 80’s and sometimes in the summer here the heat beats down and sometimes not so much …

Alex (black hair) guides Mark and daughter (and Decanter wine writer) Nat through the latest wine menu additions at La Cantine de Cure

… and that day a trio of musicians from the UK played ancient instruments and then I returned to Caunes where locals have spent centuries shipping famed pink marble to Versailles and throughout the world and even now Italians from Carrara come to deal business with Caunes’ quarries and all this …

… region surrounding this village includes space, lottsa open space and vacant country roads that are sometimes thin, sometimes twisted and punctuated by villages with markets and locals discussing the price of coffee or baguettes. So – I decide to call this village Home.

Great choice.