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Old Magazine find
As the internal partitions start coming down to replace all the rotten floor beams beneath, I’ve come across a few little finds. This is a nice coloured publication from 1919, just after the First World War. It was found blocking up a hole where there was an enormous mouse nest running half the width of the…
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Pottery find
I recently knocked out a small piece of the right front wall of the house to install a new postbox. French postmen don’t get off their electric bikes so need somewhere accessible to drive up to and deliver. There’s even a set of standard heights and positions. Quite anal really. He told me where he’d…
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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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Cemetery revisit and a great surprise
A few weeks ago I had a wander around the cemetery in my village St Frichoux. I wanted to try and find the graves (or rather tombs) of the old house owners. Some names and dates. In France they generally have these great big stone and marble graves, several metres high, sometimes very ornate, marble…
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Bedtime reading
Dont know what you’re all reading in bed these days. I think I’m taking this archive business too seriously and need to take stock! I’m trying to find clues as to the original owner and their family, but along the way I’m having some laughs at least. Bedtime reading this evening….. Its really a series…
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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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New Discoveries
This old place doesn’t give up its secrets easily! Features that I thought might have been original, aren’t, but it took some working out. I was delighted to see that the old decorative plaster surround was still intact when I bought the place. I was convinced it was an original feature, as was my brother…