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Sainte Cecile For Sale

23rd January 2012 by Helena 1 Comment  

When we bought Sainte Cecile in the year 2000, I never thought we would sell it. “These people must be crazy, selling this place,” I whispered to Rupert as we were shown around. “It’s utter heaven.”

It is utter heaven, as anyone who has ever visited us will confirm. And we have seen so many momentous events there; the babies, several books, unforgettable lunches with, among others, great friends who are sadly no longer with us.

But the time has come to move on. We are not leaving France, but leaving the region. It is too difficult to get to from here, added to which La Belle Maison, a property I have had my eye on for years, is now ours. Well, we have had our offer accepted, and we just need to sell Sainte Cecile to pay for it.

So if you feel like relocating to our former paradise, please let me know. The house has five bedrooms (three with mezzanines), two sitting rooms, a kitchen, dining room, office and terrace from which you can watch the swallows diving into the pool to drink while enjoying a glass of Languedoc white.

It is sad in many ways, even looking at the pictures now makes me nostalgic. As Bea (the family member I was most worried about, who has always maintained she wanted to live there forever) summed up: “It will always be my first home, but it is time to move on.”

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2011


Filed Under: France, Languedoc Tagged With: cecile, sainte

One thought on Sainte Cecile For Sale

  • bea says:
    13th August 2020 at 8:44 am

    hej mamma

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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