The fall here is beautiful. The pattern of vineyards changing color is amazing. The different varieties of grapes turn different colors, and turn at different times, so the view from my living room (and when driving through the countryside) is a patchwork of yellow, orange, and burgundy, with the deep green of the garrigue in the background, and the stunning hill villages sitting above it all. You could not make up a prettier scene if you tried. Today at sunset I was driving back to Roquebrun from a nearby village and the landscape was as I've described with the patchwork of colors, and the hilltop villages were still in the sunlight, and it was unreal. The cluster of buildings, and at the top a spire from the church, and in the countryside, a chateau sticking up out of the garrigue with its surrounding vineyards. Priceless. I've taken and posted a photo of the current view from my living room, but I don't think it does the scene justice. Compare it to the green and sunny summer view that I posted a few months ago.

Lots going on here these days. In the village, basically directly above my house, the tenth century tower is being restored. I'm including photos of the professional climbers going up to attach the things needed to hold the scaffolding that will be going up. The tower cannot be approached by a vehicle, only a small path for walking. The path actually does not go all the way to the tower, which is (as you can see from the photos) built on a rock outcropping. Over the last couple of decades it has lost a lot of rock from the top, and the State of France and Departement de Herault have provided funds to restore it. There are photos and drawings of what it looked like, so it will be easy to get it correct. I don't know if they will use the stones that fell off and are probably at the bottom. The scaffolding and all of the materials for the restoration are being delivered to the riverside, and then being taken to the tower via helicopter! Today, Nov. 5, they took the scaffolding up via helicopter, and I have posted photos. It was an amazing sight, the chopper seemed very close to the tower, it took about 6 trips. All of this action is taking place right above my house, so I have had a front row seat for the climbing and the chopper. I could hear the climbers talking to each other, and even loaned them my electricity the first day to the get the huge generator going -- its the size of a small travel trailer. They drilled into the rock with drills about 6 feet long. The tower itself was a lookout post, and I understand that fires were built on the top to signal other villages about the proximity of enemies. It is not a tower with internal stairs or any rooms, its filled and the access was from the outside. There was once a chateau around it, which is gone except for the vestiges which remain in some of the houses below it. Possibly even this property had part of the chateau on it, as this part of the village is a labyrinth of old collapsed buildings and passages with new buildings on top. There are 7 old vaulted passages and rooms on this property alone.

Work on the house has gone along pretty well. I decided to have it rewired professionally, as the panel was too small and as it turns out drilling through two feet of rock is quite tiresome. I ran across an English electrician I like so I just decided to have it done. All wires are now hidden, everything is safe, and I have plenty of lights and sockets. I bought a do it yourself heat pump and a friend and I installed it, so I have heat. It works well, its called "reversible climatisation", is air conditioning as well as heating, and is what everyone here uses now, as it is efficient and reasonably priced to run. The new kitchen is mostly done, except for the wall finish, fake cabinet to hide wiring and plumbing, and the new door. I'm very happy to have that behind me. When the walls are done I'll post a photo. I also decided to do what's called "pierre apparent" on one wall of the living room (photo included), which is exposing the stones in a wall, then regrouting it to pick out the good stones and hide the rubble. I borrowed the electrician's hand held jackhammer and took off the two inches of plaster and old mortar, then redid the grouting with lime mortar. I haven't got a photo yet of the finished product, coming with the next issue.

About the fireplace: As far as I can tell, there may never have been a real fireplace there. The hood appears to be old, at least its in the old style. However the floor under that part of the house has been concreted, and there's a steel beam in the basement that obviously replaced a wooden one. Remember the basement is a very old house that was used as the foundation for the current house. The grand-daughter of one of the former owners stopped by a few weeks ago because she was visiting in town and had heard the house was sold to an American. She is about my age, and her grandparents (Belgian) owned the house when she was a child. It was their holiday home, and the stove I found in the basement and am using was her grandmother's! She was surprised to see it. She said that her grandpartnets had bought it as a holiday home in the 1950s, and it was almost a ruin. I believe it was they who put in the first bathroom and real kitchen, and the steel beam. She said they had a wood stove in the fireplace. The next owners were the people I bought it from, and they created the fireplace. It was concrete blocks on the tile floor, with a heavy steel plate across them -- sort of a campfire on the floor. It didn't look quite right, and as it is not old, I decided to remove it and investigate further the construction. I took off some plaster at the back of the fireplace, and found it has been covered with a layer of concrete. Along the side you can see in the photo there is no evidence of a fire, or of any construction of a hearth, so I'm thinking at this point that even when the house was new it was a stove, not an open hearth. I prefer an open hearth, as its for looks not for heat, so will rebuild it to a nice design. I know someone who knows how to build fireplaces,and he and I are going to rebuild it in the next couple of weeks.

I've also removed the plaster from most of the living room beams. At the time the house was built, the beams were plastered, they were never left uncovered. In the mid-1800s it was a mark of class and wealth to have the beams plastered, wood beams were for peasants, so it is not unusual for the beams to have never been exposed. However, being your basic peasant, I decided I would rather have the wood. Getting the plaster off is easy, not even too messy. However, going over the beams with the angle grinder and heavy duty wire brush is absolutely filthy. You have to wear goggles and keep your mouth closed, sawdust and splinters everywhere. However, it goes quite fast. It takes less time to do the beams than it does to clean up afterwards. I had plastic up, but it wasn't good enough. I have a little of the beams still to do, on the side of the living room where I had put all the furniture, so I need to move the furniture to the other side and do a really good job of sealing it all up. We still have channels to cut in the plaster for the wiring upstairs on that side of the living room, which also makes a terrible mess, so we will do it all at once, probably next week. I'm very happy with them, it was worth the mess and effort, and will post a photo of the oiled beams next time. I will probably eventually do them in the bedrooms also, but not until the grenier is done and I've moved my sleeping up there.

The village will continue to get more quiet and deserted over the next few months. By December most of the restaurants will have closed entirely for the year; the bar, grocery, and bakery will still be open, but that's about it. There's a new bar/restaurant in town, and they plan to stay open thursday thru sunday, but we'll see if they get enough business to make it worthwhile. This time last year I was in Paris, where there's always something to do. I may get very, very bored here, especially if I don't get the internet and TV installed pretty soon. Planning to get both of those things going in November, which require installing two satellite dishes. Think positive thoughts.

That's it for this edition. hope you're all well and warm.