We re-open for the summer at Easter - book now while the flights are sooo cheap. 00 33 467 24 64 37

RyanAir - yukky but cheap airline. Travels from Stansted, Luton and many other airports to Montpellier, Perpignan, Carcassonne & Nime - all within 1.5 hours from Le Couvent

Eurostar/TGV - lovely superfast train, loads of hand luggage and not much use of fossil fuels, but probably more expensive - catch it via Eurostar in London, one platform change in Lille, then the TGV all the way here to either Montpellier, Agde or Beziers - all less than 45 minutes from Le Couvent.

Independent reviews of Le Couvent with Tripadvisor, just so you know what others think.

And a bit of inspiration for an insignificant Wednesday in February.

'Tis the season to be busy, tra la la la la, la la la la

Having said the blue bedroom was no longer going to be blue, we've changed our minds. It looks lovely in the summer light. So here are Freddie (aka Justin) and Ali up ladders a-plastering and a-painting.

Last night nephew Josh & I went to a talk about Mediterranean gardening in Beziers. Josh is 14 so I wasn't hopeful that he'd bear up to someone droning on about plants, but it was clear enough and short enough at just over an hour. Then we bought a fantastic book - Kitchen Gardens of France - which led him to proclaim divinely beautiful vegetable plots totally cool. His summer veg box scheme looks a go-er if he keeps up this enthusiasm.

Meanwhile the hens are coming back into lay. One of them had a bit of a lie-in the other morning. I wonder if she was the one that laid the odd-one-out in the photo. It's a tear-jerker, and enough for an omelet.

The Six Nations Cup Rugby's happening at the moment, and we're able to see all the matches on ordinary french telly (unlike Ali's family in Oz where it's on the pay-for channels only). I'm dying for the Rugby World Cup to arrive here in France at the end of the summer. We have tickets to see matches in Montpellier, and B&B guests who are coming from Australia to go to various games. It'll be a great way to end our season. If you're planning to come to this area in September, you'd better be quick, places are getting booked up.

Changes to the landscape - inside & out

What is it about blogging that one should feel guilty when one hasn't posted for a while. Anyway, it's because we've be doing major amounts of gardening and re-decorating. The warmer weather and longer days are here and we've just realised we re-open in six weeks' time. So, how to make Le Couvent even more beautiful?

For the past five years I've struggled to keep a section of grass in front of the 17th century part of the house. I've always thought it relaxed the eye and made it all look cooler in the blisteringly hot months of the summer. But it's been a huge struggle to keep it looking good. I've had the heat, lack of water and dogs against me. So, in the process of reflection to see what we can do to reduce our effect on climate change, I've decided to let the grass go. It's been seen off. The shingle comes in next week. It's meant moving the roses that used to be in the middle, so now they're here, where the table and hammock used to be. Josh had a little help from Kit.

Meanwhile Ali passes her days modelling a particularly fetching pair of white overalls whilst redecorating the blue bedroom. It's not going to be blue any longer, although I'm sure we'll still call it that, just to confuse guests. This is a huge disappointment to Poppy and Yvonne and John and all those people who've enjoyed the soft and faded blue. But Ali and I never really thought the room worked as well as it promised when we saw it as a wreck all those years ago. So this is the last you'll see of it like this:

Today I'm off to a wine tasting in Marseillan. It's the wine of the son of Christiane, one of our wonderful women who comes to the English class. There's a lot of good rugby on the box this afternoon, so this will be a labour of love. I'm not really given to chinking glasses at 3 in the afternoon. It's difficult not to get a bit drunk on the fumes, a fact corroborated by our friend the wine expert Rosemary George who spends her life spitting out wine.

But Christiane is a good and kind woman who, each summer, invites us to the most amazing meals in a little mazet in the middle of her vineyards. There, by the light of the moon and hurricane lamps, we have a feast. Christiane prepares it all at her home then transports it lock, stock amd barrel into the mazet which is just one room with no water, drainage or electricity. So who am I to be churlish about missing a rugby match?

Hands up those who like winter

Ali's on the fabulous TGV, the high speed train that whistles through France from top to bottom in very few hours. She shouldn't have been, of course, but she went to dinner in London last night and woke to find snow so deep the airports had all been closed. So, unable to bear the thought of a second night away from the lovely Languedoc, she abandoned her flight and hit the train. The photo is of Blackheath Church in London this morning. It's from the BBC website and was taken by Maurice Tunney - thanks.

I spent the morning working on the Deux-Pieds website. This is where you can buy your last minute St Valentine's present (for your lover or yourself) - the adoption of a dozen vines. It includes a complete package of details about your vine, a soil sample, a dozen wines each labelled with your name or to whomever you wish. There are lessons in blending wines and invitations to the harvest. Take a look eh?

France goes no-smoking

Unbelievably, it is now illegal to smoke in public places here in France, and in a year's time that will extend to cafes and restaurants too.

"A world is collapsing," writer Philippe Delerm wrote in a front-page ode to the cigarette in Le Monde newspaper, referring to the alluring image of the chain-smoking intellectual. "Those were good times. But nobody thought about the collateral damage."

One of the things I just loved about coming to France was the instant recognition of where I was in the world, defined by the infusion of Gauloises everywhere. I shall miss it.

Of course, giving up smoking the year before last has left me with a huge body as I swiftly went from 20 cigarettes to 20 meals a day. I no longer want to smoke, but the food thing - ah, now that's much more difficult.

Ali, in an (very successful thus far) attempt to reduce smoking moved on to roll-ups. She's an elegant woman, but rolling one's own in public is not so chic so they can be rolled in the privacy of one's home in advance. This is the tin in which they are kept.

Deux-Pieds - adopting vines in the Languedoc

I realise I haven't told you about our most recent project. With three friends we are creating a vine adoption scheme which is called Deux-Pieds giving people the chance to bury their own two feet into the soil of the Languedoc.

For a 190 Euros you can adopt 12 vines which will be labelled with your name. You will receive a certificate of adoption, an information leaflet about the parcel of land that contains your vines and a sample of soil from the vineyard. Over one year you can follow the progress of your vines via the Deux-Pieds blog to which each member of our team contributes. You'll learn a great deal about the raising of vines and the creation of wine. Ali & I have learnt more in the past four meetings of the team than we have in almost five years of living here.

During the year you will be invited to come to take part in the harvest and the blending of the wines. At the end of the year you will receive 12 bottles of wine from Domaine Bourdic where your vines are planted.

We can think of lots of people who'd like this as a gift (us included) - perhaps you do too.

Trams, Valmagne and St Pons de Mauchiens

You know, we never go outandabout during the summer. Our house is a B&B so we're here to look after the every whim of our guests. But in winter, when we're closed, we can go exploring. Last weekend we went to Perpignan, primarily to go to the flea market, but for a for a bit of a look around. No-one was about, the weather was glorious and I had the best paella ever in a wonderful old bistro called Casa Sansa which has been knocking out scrummy food since 1846.

Yesterday we toddled off to L'Abbaye de Valmagne with the lovely Alex, Ali and my belle-soeur, Michelle. On the way we passed through Montagnac and spotted a new tram for Montpellier being hauled on a magnificent truck with at least 48 wheels. It dwarfed everything around it and we could only wonder why they hadn't chosen to use the motorway.

On we bobbled in Alex's Noddy-Kangoo to the magnificent Abbaye de Valmagne - an extraordinarily beautiful Gothic and Romanesque wonder in very good repair. Well worth the visit if one reckons that a good part of the rather steep entrance fee (6.70 euros per person even in the depths of winter) goes to its upkeep. I was touched by the presence of an IKEA uplighter in the picture below.

Continuing our jolly jaunt, St Pons de Mauchiens was our next stop. It's not a very inviting name for a very beautiful ancient village. Legend has it that one of the lords of the castle owned a pack of ferocious dogs ("chien" in French) that he let loose at night. One day he arrived home late and the doors to the castle were locked. The dogs did not recognise their master, so savagely attacked his throat and tore him to pieces.

Despite the dodgy story I thought St Pons rather a kind place. Needing to top up on red wine, but being low on funds, we called in at the cave co-operative. A friendly chap filled the foil liner of a BIB (bag-in-box - yes, it's that in French) with 10 litres of perfectly quaffable wine - straight from a petrol-station type nozzle in the wall. He apologised for having to charge us 2 euros for the bag and box on top of the mere 9 euros for the ten litres of wine. Mmm, about 85 pence a litre in UK terms - including the box. Not bad methinks.

Today I'm waiting for the log man. One of two log men. Last week I ordered 3 steres of logs from one of them - a new supplier recommended by our lovely plump butcher, Frank. I'll deliver at the beginning of the week, he promised. That was ten days ago. Meanwhile, after such a long no-show, yesterday I ordered 4 steres (cubic metres) from my usual log man. He rang this morning to say he'd be here in five minutes. That was eight hours ago. The other log man's due tomorrow morning, according to his wife who pleaded with me not to cancel the order. So by the end of the weekend we could have 7 cubic metres or none. We'll see.

Ali's gone off to walk the dogs in the vineyards and find inspiration for her new blog.