Postcards From Abroad - July
Living in one of the coldest areas in Australia where my garden sleeps under a blanket of elm leaf mulch for months and months, I do a runner and fly up up and away to warmer climes to enjoy spring and summer gardens afar as well as lead tours over here.
As I write this I have a jug of wild flowers right in front of my laptop. Picked during yesterday's walk back from the nearby village of St Hilaire to where I’m fortunate enough to call home while in France - L’Ancienne Presbytere in Villebazy in the Languedoc area of southern France - views to the distant Pyrenees in the distance and cycling distance from the Mediterranean!
Is like living a parallel life having the chance to experience living in a small authentic French village - far from the madding crowd. No tourists comes to Vilebazy and no cars pass through.
L’Ancienne Presbytere is adjoined to an ancient Church which has stood here for centuries and the only sounds are the birds, dogs barking, neighbours chatting as they walk past and that’s it! Splendid and utter quietude and calm. Perfect anecdote to rather full on life back at Bobundara where the garden is huge and the wonderful old outbuildings that have been restored to habitation are all consuming.
Here, there is just a small courtyard - large enough to have two old marble tables and French cafe chairs around for eating all meals outside and having friends over, as well as somewhere to hang the washing and that’s about it. There is a fruiting pomegranate, the most delicious grapes, herbs and the only flowers being lavender, cistus, acanthus, honeysuckle, salvia, lemon verbena and a red rose.
With no inkling that COVID was ahead, four years ago I decided to gravel the entire garden for ease of maintenance and appearance. Laying down weed mat over the entire area, I then cycled to a nearby large town to see if there was a gravel pit there - enquiring at a Nursery they sent me on to another town where in my very rudimentary French, I ordered ten tonnes of gravel to be delivered.
One hitch!!! The only access to the courtyard is through the house! So, undaunted, the gravel was dumped outside and every bit of that ten tonnes was wheelbarrowed by two of us through the house to the courtyard….
Voiila!!!!! Many of the neighbours, intrigued as to what was happening, popped in to see and it was all definitely a different look….
Alors…COVID came and no trips anywhere, let alone back to France.
And so it was two and a half years later that I returned to Villebazy and rather than having to hack my way in through a weedy jungle, there was the gravel courtyard and the pomegranate I had planted, flowering away along with the lavenders, wild thyme and Cistus planted nearby.
And so - nothing needs watering - although as am here for a while now so have planted some basil, parsley and lemon verbena in two large pots and water those from my nightly baths. And what joy to eat each and every meal out there, have friends for drinks of meals and have such a beautiful space to sit and write or read or simply be!
Vive La France Vive Le Sac…. Trisha x
