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The interesting Monsieur Roland Amiel
Whilst in the graveyard today, there was a man tending a grave. It was his father’s grave, a man that had grown up in the village. A typical local. A vigneron (person that work on the vines) overalls, beret, southern accent. I got chatting to him, and he was just full of information about the…
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House Owner Timeline 1769 – 2016
Here’s a timeline of the owners I have discovered so far. There are 11, but I’m sure there are others that I still haven’t unearthed. As the house was passed on by succession, I have listed the elder of the children that received the house by inheritance. In fact, although the surnames change, it’s the same…
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Original House Owner – Update
Another neck-breaking session in amongst the musty old tomes at the archives in Carcassonne today. The reading room is light, airy and really modern, yet behind THAT door (where only the staff get to go!) is probably another world altogether. It’s a really marvellous place – not the sort of building you would expect to house such a huge mass…
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St Frichoux – a map of the village 1826
Interesting day at the archives. I found an old map of the village dated 1826. It was a really interesting find, along with a whole mountain of other unearthed information. Its really quite an accurate drawing compared to todays laser GPS cadastres – these were the first town maps of 10 million ‘parcels’ (areas of land with…
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Old Postcard of St Frichoux
Came upon this old postcard online of a general view of St Frichoux from the vineyards. It clearly shows the old house, which in those days had pride of place on top of the hill. Thanks to minervois-gen.org for the picture
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Some house history, 1900-2016
I’ve been meaning to at least jot down some of the history of the house, or at least some of the facts and indeed, some of the fiction. This is just a draft really, jotting down some of the things I’ve heard, so that I can put everything together in a timeline later on. I’ll…
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The Scallop Shell – a potted history
So as explained, the village where the house lies is on one of the routes that leads to Compostela. Three main routes start in France, but there are many minor ones, (after all your pilgrimage starts from where you start) – you simply join a more arterial one the closer you get. Our one…