Autumn in southwest France

Autumn in southwest France… who would have expected October to be like this? Every day, temperatures are hovering in the mid to high 20s (or 70s if you’re in Farenheit) – just as it was last year. The skies are a cloudless, deep blue. The harvest of grapes and plums has been mostly gathered in. The fig tree (figuier) in the garden is still dripping with figs, though. I have so many that I’m running out of ideas in the kitchen. Fig and ginger chutney, fig compote, fresh figs with roquefort and jambon noir, or my favourite Ottolenghi salad, figs with pecorino and honey…

The grapevines in the back garden have gone wild in the autumn sun, too. The extremely dry summer meant that there were very few grapes this year – in our garden, anyway. The vineyards certainly didn’t seem to have that problem! The grapes on the vines in the domaines all around were a wonderful sight.

The barn, which you can see behind the grapevine is the next phase of the building project. We are converting it into stabling for a certain someone’s classic cars. This barn is far older than the house (and there’s another even older one, phase 3 of the building project). It’s a little archeological site of its own. The historical records suggest that this grange might have once been the village boulangerie and you can see the remains of the domed 16th century brick bread oven and ancient grindstone.

The river Dropt runs through the village

The river is lovely in all seasons, but particularly so today with the autumn trees and 12th century bridge reflected in the still waters. It’s a perfect place to walk and ticked one of my top house-hunting boxes – to be near a river. I never tire of it. Having discovered the joy of Autumn in southwest France and how lovely Allemans-du-Dropt is at this time of year, next year we’ve added an October Flutes in France course to the schedule. Bookings open on 24 October 2022. Click here for more information.