Anyone need a new old car?

Three cars, a scooter and six bikes are too many vehicles for an eco-friendly B&B like Le Couvent. Two of them have to go and the first up for a thorough scrub is this handsome Mercedes 450 SL which was originally owned by the illustrious Albert Finney. It has a hard top and a soft top and a stonking 4.5 litre engine (so it goes like the clappers). At 25 years old and with just 69,000 miles on the clock it's in good condition, is barely run-in and is a snip at 5000 quid (no offers) for the first person here with the filthy lucre in their hands. It has been exported here to Roujan, but we have not changed the number plate to a French one yet. You could either drive it back to England and re-import it, or do the necessary paperwork here in France if you intended keeping it here. Ali and I are just too hopeless to do the official stuff, so it would be up to you. Hence the low, low, low price.

A single bed for affectionate friends

This bed is in the only single room at Le Couvent. It has a private shower room and super pretty beams, but it's absolutely not a double room. Occasionally, however, when we have no doubles left and slim, insistent guests, we offer them a very snuggly night in a 1.20m bed. You'd be amazed how many accept - even famous TV presenters. To make up for the discomfort we put on the prettiest antique linen sheets. It seems to work.

Crikey, it's still summer

It's the 25th September and 25 degrees. The water's glacial, but we and the hardier guests are still managing to squeeze in a few lengths. Now that's about ten days longer than most summers so we're thrilled.

With just five days to go until we close for the winter we're thinking back on all the lovely guests we've had staying this summer. Far fewer were house-hunting. Many more were simply enjoying all the fantastic things the Languedoc has to offer. Ali and I have been horribly jealous of our guests' day trips to interesting places, so this winter we're going to visit them all ourselves. It's hard to believe that we've lived here about five years, but have yet to see all the major places of interest. Although Le Couvent will be closed until 1 May 2008 we're going to continue the blog all winter. We hope to be able to give you lots of information so you can plan next year's holidays here. Some weeks are already fully booked by the forward thinkers (and stoolball players!) so start planning.

Grapes a go-go

The harvest (vendange in French) is almost over and the mornings are decidedly nippy at 14 degrees. I'm struggling to walk the dogs before sunrise and still be back in time to have breakfast ready for 8am. It's a little worrying to walk in the vines in pitch black having so recently seen a chunky wild boar. Anyway, with just eleven days to go to the end of the season it's not exactly a major problem.

My observation from daily visits to the vineyards is that the bunches of grapes look smaller this year, with individual grapes appearing much smaller than previously. I'm assuming this comes from no rain at all for months on end, coupled with a falling water table over the past five years. However, speaking to the lovely Christa from Domaine Bourdic last night, it appears that their superlative husbandry has seen them double their crop of Grenache this year, where everyone else has seen a falling yield. Their only problem now is where to put all the extra grapes - they've run out of tanks!

An hour later ....

I've just been to Domaine Bourdic to repair their computer. Christa says everything's broken down. The tractor broke down and the huge harvesting machine fell over when the driver misjudged the lie of the land. No doubt the labelling machine will break down when they start the bottling too! Who cares, they've got loads more grapes.

Punctured blogs

I haven't blogged for ages. Normalement (Norman Lamont for the initiated) I cycle the dogs before breakfast, get breakfast ready, then do the blog. However, for the last month there have been horrible little seeds from puncture vines littering the vineyards. Seven new inner tubes and two teflon tyre liners later I have given up. Now I have to walk. It takes much longer. Hence no blog. I'm praying for rain so mud swallows up the seeds. They're horrid and their latin name is Tribulus terrestris. The Latin name tribulus originally meant the caltrop (a spiky weapon), but in Classical times already meant this plant as well. They are formed so that wherever they sit there is always a spike facing upwards. Poor Kit the dog gets them in her paws all the time and we have to stop every few metres over some patches to remove them from her foot. I blame it on the fact that she's so fat. Flynn the husky moves so lightly they rarely lodge in his paws.

I've also read that the pesky Tribulus terrestris is sold as nature's viagra. Kit the labrador has several little pricks of this every morning and she's showing no odder behavioural traits than usual. Should I just be shovelling the seeds up and flogging them as the first sex aid ever to be sold from a convent? More later.