A fully renovated 1st floor apartment in the centre of Saint-Chinian, offering comfortable accommodation for four

On first floor -- two bedrooms -- fitted kitchen -- bathroom has bathtub and shower -- eat in living room -- balcony -- full central heating -- Sleeps four.

Accommodation

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The visitor to Madeleine will find a comfortable modern apartment on the first floor (2nd for North Americans) of an older building near the center of town. All the furniture and furnishings are new (2006) - this includes sheets, towels and kitchen equipment. The apartment has central heating throughout and shutters on all windows.

  

The living room, which includes a dining area has a built in fireplace as its focal point. The sitting area is furnished with a two seater sofa, a built in seat and an easy chair. The round wooden dining table seats four comfortably. There is a telephone in this room (incoming calls as normal and outgoing calls with a pre-paid phone card), as well as a CD/radio/cassette player, and a television.

French doors lead from the sitting area onto the balcony, perfect for enjoying aperitifs or just relaxing. A small table and chairs are provided, as is a sun umbrella.

   

The custom built kitchen is entered by a door from the living room or from the corridor, and is fully equipped with gas cooker, electric oven, refrigerator with freezer compartment, electric kettle, coffee maker and toaster, as well as all glassware and crockery etc.

From the living room French doors take you back to the hallway, which runs through the apartment. Off this hallway are two bedrooms: one on the street side which has French doors on to the balcony and is furnished with a double bed (160cm), wardrobe, easy chair, dressing table. The other bedroom has two single beds which can be pushed together, and is also furnished with a wardrobe, easy chair and small drawer unit.

     

The tiled bathroom has a bathtub with handheld shower and the separate toilet is adjacent.

On the ground floor is an entrance lobby where you can leave shoes or hang coats etc. There is also a utility area, with washing machine, iron and ironing board and vacuum cleaner.

2 minutes from market and post office, 4 minutes from supermarket and town center. The nearest bakery is only a short walk away, and there are two others in town. There are altogether three ATMs in Saint-Chinian. From the charcuteries you can buy local delicacies and ready-to-go dishes. The municipal swimming pool is open during the summer months.

The market takes place on Sunday and Thursday mornings from 8:00 a.m. to noon. The food there is a little more expensive than the supermarket but it seems to taste better. Not surprising since a lot of the products are home-grown.

St Chinian is about a 30 minute drive from Beziers and about 40 from Narbonne. Both towns are good for shopping, eating and sightseeing, The nearest airport is Carcassonne (one hour away) which is served by Ryanair from London Stansted. From Montpellier (just over an hour) you can fly to Charles de Gaulle at Paris and also to Gatwick and Stansted. Toulouse is two hours away to the west, in the other direction.

Languedoc is a unique corner of France and St Chinian is a unique corner of Languedoc. First and foremost it is wine country. Vineyards are everywhere: striping the valleys with neat rows of vines, climbing up the hillsides to the rock ridges, and higher up still settling in little pockets of fertile earth between the dark green scrubby garrigue which is the natural vegetation of Mediterranean coastlands.

In town you can taste all the products of the Saint-Chinian appellation in Espace Vin on the Beziers road. They also offer wines from the Minervois, Corbieres and other Languedoc wine regions. Wine is not the whole story, however. Not too far away you can find traces of the prehistoric, Greek, and Roman civilizations that occupied the area: a prehistoric burial site, a Greek port, a Roman road. For the mediaeval history buff there are two cathedral towns nearby, some fine examples of Romanesque abbeys and, most famously, some of the important sites of the 13th century crusade against the Cathars, a sect accused of heresy against the Catholic church. You can visit their ruined castles perched on impossible crags. Minerve, a well-preserved mediaeval island village, site of a notorious massacre, is not far from St. Chinian.

Languedoc is also simply a place to relax and enjoy the outdoors. Rent a bike for a day, or take a kayak trip on the river Orb. Take a barge trip on the Canal du Midi or spend a day on the beach. Go hiking on one of the many marked trails in the garrigue. The air up there is perfumed with lavender and rosemary and thyme. On a clear day you can see the Pyrenees. Swim in the river at Roquebrun. Go to one of the local festivals, especially in autumn. And, of course, since you are in France, don't forget the food. St. Chinian's twice weekly market has all kinds of tempting picnic food: cheeses, olives, sausage, pate, bread, pastries, fresh figs, dates, fruit, even paella and oriental spring rolls.