Last spring, a very interesting family spent time living at our house…..

Our kitchen was recently filled with laughter, spices, and a touch of British Christmas magic. A few French friends joined me for a festive workshop — learning how to make the iconic Christmas pudding. It was a joyful few hours spent chatting, mixing, and preparing something truly special for the season ahead.

I’ve been fond of watching birds since I was young. However, Julie and I lived in cities around the world for many years; it was a part of the job. When we moved to Occitanie, to live in the countryside, I wasn’t sure what to expect but was very happily surprised; La Selve is calm and quiet, surrounded by trees, and in the middle of fields, with birds everywhere.

In April 2014 the first student knocks on our door. Ten happy years later.....

The moon in Lauragais is the same moon as seen anywhere in the world, but once a month in Lauragais, it takes on a special significance.

“But what exactly happens during an English immersion programme?”

Our prospective students sometimes have difficulty imagining their stay at La Selve, totally immersed in English. “How will we fill the day?” “How will I learn English?”

Read on, for detailed insight from a recent visitor.

Who doesn’t eat pizza? Nobody that I know of. The choice is almost unlimited: meat, cheese, fish, vegetarian, with this, without that. It’s this flexibility that has made pizzas such a worldwide success, rather like the English language really.

From our home on a clear day we can see La Montagne Noire. Is it called the ‘Black Mountain’ because when seen, at least from the north, its silhouette always seems black, or is there some other reason?

At the end of my last blog on the Little Owls that live close to La Selve I said “perhaps next year we will have a nest of little Little Owls”. I am happy to report that we now have at least one young owl, perhaps two. One of them paid us an unexpected visit ......

Amongst the regular visitors to La Selve is a little owl. It was some time before either of us saw the owl, but ‘all things come for those who wait’; and one morning, on her return from walking the dogs, Julie came into the kitchen excitedly, saying ‘I’ve seen him’.