Montazels and the Maison Des Vignes

We moved from the Moulin Blau near Puivert, to the Maison Des Vignes in the small village of Montazels. It is a quiet, sleepy village on a south facing slope, overlooking Couiza and the river Aude. There is nothing really remarkable about Montazels, it is just perfect in it's ordinariness. Typically French and typically southern. It is just ordinary people getting on with their lives. It does however have a very pleasant view, across to Rennes Le Chateau on the opposite ridge and east towards the ruined chateau in the village of Coustaussa and Mont Le Cardou just beyond.

We feel very at home in Montazels, just as we do in the Maison Des Vignes. It is an old, stone built house that sits on a very minor village road, overlooking an orchard and down into the valley beyond. Sitting out on the terrace now, in the warm September sunshine, it is hard to think we are leaving tomorrow. The house has been nicely preserved and restored and feels like the perfect place to us.

When we haven't been out walking, we have spent most of our time out on the terrace watching the world go about it's business. Watching the lizards scuttle back and forth, the crickets doing apparently nothing much at all and the numerous and varied butterflies flitting about the olives and the fruit trees in the orchard. There is a soft and gentle rhythm to life in Montazels, kept gently in check by the regular chimes from the various church clocks around the valley. Time has little meaning, but it's there if you need reminding.
The village is surrounded by orchards, olive groves and vineyards, beautifully kept and fabulously productive. The walking from the house is not too strenuous, but very rewarding. When we have been in the spring, the flowers, particularly the orchids are just wonderful to see. Now in the early autumn there are still wild flowers, but not in profusion as they are earlier in the year. Now there is the harvest, of grapes, figs, peaches, apples, pears..... There is interest in trying to photograph and identify all the different kinds of butterfly and there's the walks, just beautiful in there own right. So much here to see and to learn about, beit natural history, prehistory, or just history. The whole area is steeped in it.