The Score: May 1, Building Codes 0

Argelès building requirements for the old town used to require that the facades and roofs not be modified. To preserve the front of buildings that are anything from 500 to 200 years old makes good sense, but to preserve roofs so that birds and anyone in an airplane could see how Argelès looked in 1505 seemed a bit over-the-top. Thus the roof restriction was lifted.

After a day so hot and humid that water fell from the air, Barbara and I went to dinner at May’s. Before her retirement she was a Scottish midwyfe. The French call them sage-femme, wise women, and May is wise not just in her profession, but in her solution to building codes.

The other guest was Morgana, an American/English woman, who is fascinated by the Cathars. When Barbara and I first started researching the Cathars and the Rennes-le-Château mystery years and years ago, we received mainly a ho-hum reaction from most people. Thanks to Dan Brown and his Da Vinci Code people are now telling us about their great new discovery. However, we were more than happy to share our knowledge with Morgana. She never ho-hummed us, although that is not a criteria for our knowledge sharing.

May has a three-story house overlooking the Place de La Republique and has spent well over a year rebuilding and redecorating. We decided to risk eating on her terrace despite forecasts for rain.

Since building regulations would have prohibited her building a terrace, she simply took the one room that overlooked the street and removed the roof. The terrace is enclosed by the original walls and still has the original window. We talked, ate and drank the local wine as birds swept under the feather of clouds that gave way to a star-lit night.