Ploughed up

The vines around this old mazet (vineyard shelter) near Servian have been uprooted, and may or may not be replanted. In the foreground some of the vines are still trying to grow. Because of overproduction of wine in the Languedoc there is a compensation scheme for uprooting vineyards and replanting, often with olive trees. It seems a good idea not to have a monoculture and it's good to see olive trees, many of which were killed by frost in 1956 in this area, becoming a more important part of the local economy again.

We were passing Servian because we went to the Emmaus project there - it's a charity which shelters homeless men and gives them work restoring and selling old furniture. We were looking for a wardrobe, but as always found something else - an oak cupboard which is a bit of a restoration project as someone has painted over the very nice wood, but which will look good in our kitchen when it's finished.