that it's close to several major tourist destinations including fabulous Carcassonne, Toulouse and Albi - it ticked all our boxes.
Finding the dream home
As we drove over the Monts de Lacaune from nearby Roquefort on July day, the clouds began to clear, the temperatures started to climb, and we descended into the town of Mazamet – once famous for its international wool trade. The azure blue skies and the stunning Montagne Noire providing a picture-perfect backdrop and, as we were an hour early for our rendezvous at the property, we made our way into the centre ville. We stumbled across an amazing chocolatier with a queue out the door – which, being British, we dutifully joined.
Mazamet felt right. There was a small Sunday morning market selling the essentials and a few bars where French men sat on the terrace - sipping espressos waiting for their wives to come out from morning mass. What struck us was the beautiful architecture of the buildings in the centre of town which would not have looked out of place along the boulevards of a much larger, grander, town.
As we turned into rue Pasteur, there ‘she’ was – standing proud, the burgundy coloured shutters shining in the summer sun. The moment we set foot through the front door we knew that No. 4, rue Pasteur, Mazamet was meant to be ours.
We learnt that the property was built in 1934 by an accountant in Mazamet’s wool industry. The owners explained that the property needed to be re-wired but that was the extent of the major works need (little did we know then that it would take more than three years to complete all the work!).