Updated August 30, 2009

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Here we are at the end of August (already!) and wondering where the summer has gone.

Mrs W and I did manage a few days away in the south of France, having taken niece Laura, who is studying in England, back to her mum for the holidays.

There’s something about the blinding light in the Languedoc that reminds me of black and white French films we used to see as part of A level studies.

What with that and miles and miles of tree-lined roads, the Canal du Midi and the wine, I was actually feeling quite at home and wondering how soon it would be before I could start testing the new PCS system from a veranda somewhere close by.

Given that we’re supposed to be slowly coming out of a recession, there seems to be a fair amount of optimism around, particularly among people we met in the south of France, who were determinedly building their businesses regardless.

They included Mike and Val Slowther, our hosts at Le Vieux Relais in Pepieux, between Carcassonne and Narbonne and Wendy Gedney, who is developing her established Wine Wise Company in the UK into providing wine tours of the Languedoc under the catchy title of Vin en Vacances.

They were part of a network of ex-pats living in the area. Mike and Val have been in Pepieux for about four years, I think, and seem to be very much part of the local scene, while Wendy seems to be making a real go of wine tourism. They’re linked over on the right, so go take a look.

We really enjoyed the chambre d’hote set up at Le Vieux Relais, particularly the fact that everybody eats together.

Breakfast’s a discussion of what’s coming up and dinner’s a run through of the day in a communal, unfussy way with good company and good food.

This isn’t Pepieux, by the way, it’s Colombiers – beautiful village on the Canal du Midi not far from Beziers.

We found a similar thing with a great little restaurant in another of our favourite places, Sao Bras d’Alportel, just north of Faro on the Algarve in Portugal. There was nothing posh about Luis dos Frangos (Chicken Luis’), just bench tables, paper table cloths, good food and fast, friendly service.

You could be sitting next to anyone, because it was a place for the locals and visitors alike with no room for heirs or graces.

It would be interesting to try it in the UK. I’ll have to suggest it to Richard and Eve Harvey, who’ve just taken over the pub across the road from us, the Tayleur Arms in Longdon on Tern, which was shut for a while earlier this year. They’re brave people, starting a business in a recession, but they seem pretty confident of making it work and good luck to them, too.

Actually, Laura’s mum, Sam, has recently become her own boss.

She’s lived in various places across the south of France, including Istres, Avignon, Arles and now in Sommieres for more than 15 years, first teaching business English in French companies and recently as boss of an ‘association’ that looks to immerse French jobseekers into language environments in the UK – and more recently in China – with the intention of making them more employable.

No website as yet, but you can contact her at Arrimagelangues on 0033 (0) 467656491 or on email at infolangues@arrimage.org.

I’m sure there’s a place for an ex-newspaperman with a bent for systems and the odd dabble into PR to do something in the Languedoc other than chill out with a few bottles of the local produce. I’ve just got to find it, I guess.

The pig is from the Les Marronniers restaurant in Pezenas, where they were obviously not letting fears about swine flu get them down.

You’ll notice I’ve signed up for Twitter, but as of yet, I’ve not really got into it in the Stephen Fry, David Lloyd way. Nice to see the other day, though, that David Lloyd linked to me! Bumble on Williams’s Twitter, fancy that! I’ll really have to start thinking of something even vaguely interesting to say.

Not like former colleague Aidan Goldstraw, who I see has been playing at the Manoir au Quat’ Saisons. There’s posh. Do you think Raymond handed him a Blanc cheque at the end of the evening? I’ll have to give him a ring, we’re about due a pint.

Meanwhile, Spa . . . Jenson, Jenson, Jenson. He’s going backwards, I fear. Talking of F1, anyone know of a way of mixing the BBC commentaries so you get Martin Brundle’s TV stuff and David Croft’s radio commentary, so bypassing the need for Jonathan Legard completely?