I have a soft-spot in my heart for this village. When first visiting France, I met a woman from Leeds, England named Yvonne. We shared a room at the hostel in Carcassonne and spent time exploring the city and looking at properties. She bought one of the houses we looked at as a vacation home. When we parted, we stayed in touch through email and snail mail. She made me promise to let her know when I would return. When my house in California finally sold, I grabbed my Carte d’ Sejour and headed back to France. Yvonne met me and gave me a key to her house to stay while house-hunting for my own home. Her place was located in the heart of the old village with its door directly across from the église. Each day, I took walks along the beautiful Canal du Midi (another post in the future).
The day started out grey but the sun had other plans as you can see from some of the photos.
Just off the main road (old center of town) you can find the art gallery of English artist, Kathleen Burlumi. Kathleen teaches painting and drawing and give lectures (in french and english) on the work of her late husband, David Burlumi.
Bisous,
Léa
Looks peaceful and relaxing — isn’t village life great!!
Village life is FABULOUS!
Lovely photos & story!
Thank you!
Just lovely. I’m enjoying seeing France through your literal and figurative lens!
Thank you. However, I think you would enjoy it more, up close and personal! 🙂 For me, there is no place to compare…
That’s so nice that such a longlasting friendship came out of sharing a room at a hostel! I love the spot to sit with a book – especially the overhanging greenery there.
Yes, but Yvonne became ill and is no longer with us. She put off moving over for a few reasons and in the end, only spent a few weeks in the house. I have some lovely memories and a sweet letter from Yvonne’s daughter. The book spot is lovely and there are more. Thank you.
Sorry to hear that about Yvonne. It’s nice that you have those memories and lots of book spots! 🙂
Thank you. She is missed and I was fortunate to know her.
Great photos of an interesting place ~ love the pic of the ‘lovely spot to sit with a book…’
There are a number of such spots and I tried to make the most of each the few weeks I stayed there. Thanks!
Looks like a lovely village indeed. France has it’s own charm as do all European countries..
groetjes, Francina
Thank you. While Europe is magical, here my heart found its home. I hope you will stop by again!
Not sure how to work this so apologies if I get it wrong. And I don’t want to sound creepy but I think I now own this house (for some reason the photos aren’t appearing on your page). I bought it from the children/heirs of an English lady (who I think was named Yvonne (but not sure)) and it is directly opposite the church steps. I know Kathleen from the artists studio which, if we are talking the same place, is almost opposite the English bookshop owned by Kirsty (sp) and which is also an Internet cafe. Could you send me one of the pictures of the interior of the house and if its the same I’ll send you some updated photos as twice in the last 18 months I have travelled from Africa were I live and work (although I am currently in Australia visiting my kids for Xmas ) and done some renovations on the place in Trebes. And If I am wrong , just delete this and accept my apologies
Steve
Yes, it appears that it is the same house. I took your email address of this comment and you should have already received a few photos.
Best of luck to you and I hope you do find more time to enjoy this wonderful part of the world. Do you have a blog? I do not see a link to one. If not, I wonder how you found one of my blogs?
Kind regards,
Lea
No blog (Internet in Angola works on Wednesdays with an X in them).
Its pretty weird. I had searched for something to with Trebes and your blog came up. The description just sounded too close to not be the house and now that you have sent the pictures, it is the actual house though by the time I got it, there was little left in the kitchen and the wall paper had been removed from the bedroom. May take me a while as I am heading back to Angola on Sunday but I could try to send some photos of the current state of the house if you are interested. If you have any more pictures of the before, I’d be very intrigued.
Again, total co-incidence but I was sitting outside the house one day last year (we bought in August 2011) and the original owners turned up – were in town for the day. No English but we worked out their grandmother had lived in the house for 92 years. Given I am close to the oldest thing in Australia, I was impressed by this
Steve
The world just continues getting smaller. I would love to see the photos of what you have done and perhaps any future plans. Since this is mainly for blog comments, perhaps you could send any photos to the email address and I shall try to recover some of the few other photos.
It is interesting that I first met Yvonne in Carcassonne on my first visit to France. We spent some time house hunting and the agents were showing me the house which she ended up buying. She asked if I would mind but I wasn’t ready to purchase yet as I had to return to California to sell my house there and get the papers I would need to live here.
I love the story about the previous owner’s family and meeting them. It would have been fun getting a few stories out of them. Thanks for sharing that.
Lea