My best vacation rental find

As my travels in the southwest of France come to a close, I want to tell you about a remarkable 13th century house I rented in the tiny village of Le Faget (pop. 306), around 31km from Toulouse.

It was one of those rare AirBnB finds that is utterly unique, extremely comfortable, and surprisingly inexpensive for the value on offer. 

I knew from the moment we walked in that I could easily live there.

The house sits on the village square adjacent to the church, whose bells marked our mornings, punctuated our afternoons, and announced that it was time for the evening’s first glass of wine.

We entered through the garden gate, where a table and chairs are shaded by a roof amidst a remarkable profusion of flowers, shrubs and a slender palm tree.

The massive fireplace in the living room may once have transformed wood to warmth and food to meals; today it houses a wood stove whose cheerful crackle I could imagine as a background to winter reading.

Upstairs we found two spacious bedrooms, with a desk at the top of the stairs clearly inviting me to write. 

The upper floor balcony was the perfect place for morning coffee with a book. It was there that we could see most clearly how the house merged with the old town wall.

This house is much older than the 400 year old palazzo where we lived for the first three of our Malta years but it is far more comfortable, and with none of the issues we suffered on the island. Like all houses in Malta, ours smelled musty and suffered from mould and mildew, crumbling walls and a living environment that was similar to a cave. I loved that old house but it wasn’t comfortable.

The owner of this wonderful French retreat, Jean Claude, is a photographer. His careful renovation didn’t just add comfort; he decorated with an artist’s eye.

The garden is tended by his wife Genevieve, along with a remarkable profusion of plants that filled every room with life, purifying the air with gentle scents and an aura of tranquility.

Jean Claude shared the story of the house with me by email:

He said, “The Castrum, which already existed in the 13th century, was destroyed in 1580 during the Wars of Religion. Protestants driven from the region massacred and ravaged the villages they passed through (including Le Faget) with cannon fire. It was after this that a new castle was built below the old village.”

“My parents bought the ‘Castrum’ in the 1970s and then lived there. When they died, I decided to restore and convert it so that we could enjoy our stay there, which we do regularly. Up until the 1950s, cows were kept in what is now the living room, and the upstairs rooms were used to store hay. This was the case for many of the houses in the village, and the animals used to come and drink in the evening at the large pond, which was replaced by the car park in the 1960s.”

“In the 16th century, the region enjoyed a period of prosperity thanks to the cultivation of woad (isatis tinctoria), which was used to dye the colour blue. This trade ensured the fortunes of a number of Toulouse merchants, who built sumptuous red-brick mansions.” 

“The region is also known as the ‘pays de cocagne’, or ‘land of plenty’, and takes its name from the ball of woad leaves (la cocagne) that was dried before being crushed to make the dye. For many people, the expression ‘pays de cocagne’ is associated with this period of prosperity and represents a kind of paradise, a land where nature overflows with generosity.”

I’ve included the link in case you want to visit this place for yourself. I highly recommend the house, and I hope to go back.

I noticed a ruined chateau on the map around the corner from Le Faget, and we drove down the dirt track to its yard to check it out. Two scout leaders from Lyon who were camping on the grounds showed us around.

The Château de Scopont dates back to 1423 and was once the domain of the marquis de Castellane et d’Esparron. It has since fallen into a state of ruin. The chateau’s current owner hopes to restore it but the building is threatened by the planned expansion of a highway. You can read more about it here.

As we made our way to and from towns like Carcassonne, Albi and Cordes sur Ciel — places once touched by the Albigensian Crusade — we drove through a rolling countryside filled with sunflowers.

Our four day stay in Le Faget was far too short, and we were sad to leave. Our last dinner in that wonderful 13th century house could only be immediately local and regional cheeses, hams and wines.

And with that our travels in the Languedoc came to an end. 

Back to Berlin — and back to my desk, where I’m working on final revisions of a new book about a very different part of the world.