Clé France

Jublains is a very pleasant little village on the road between Mayenne and Evron. You could almost be excused for sailing right through it without stopping or noticing that it has an amazing wealth of Roman history hidden from the main street. It was, in fact, a Roman fort and town of some importance. The fort is not large but the amazingly thick exterior wall are still standing and a number of the internal buildings are evident. The fort has a small but new state of the art museum attached to it and contains many of the implements and artefacts that have been dug up over the years in and around the old town.

After a visit to the fort and museum a gentle walk of about five minutes will lead you to the church in the centre of the town beneath which, and now well excavated and lit up, is a complete Roman hypocaust. About a quarter of a kilometre to the west of the church lies the remains of the Roman temple (to whom is not yet understood). Here the outline of the outer and inner walls are still just visible but the alter is in fairly good condition. Next to it and heading towards the church, in what is currently a pasture field, the vague outline of a street and little houses can be seen.

About the same distance east from the church is the amphitheatre still in remarkably good condition considering the amount of stone 'recycling' that has gone on over the centuries. Here you can sit on the old stone benches and imagine the comedies and tragedies being acted out by itinerant groups of troubadours that wandered the Roman empire in days of yore.

If you want more? then follow the links above, in the images, where you can buy Fraser's published books.

Fraser Blake, 70, author of 'Dear Chips' and 'A Rant Too Far?' grew up in Africa, was at school in Scotland, and worked for the British South Africa Police in Southern Rhodesia. He has taught English in Saudi Arabia and sold and renovated hundreds of properties in Northern France.

In 1998 Fraser was selling houses in the Mayenne department of the Pays de la Loire region and so was the obvious choice, when Cle France was started, to be their first agent on the ground in France. In retirement he writes, blogs, cooks, drinks wine, and hosts to dinner unlimited numbers of ex-pats.

Always on hand with a viewpoint, Fraser is going to share his views on France, the French and the British, and other people who buy in France. Sometimes informative, sometimes funny, painfully true, outrageously opinionated but always entertaining so we hope it adds a slightly different dimension to the usual normality of searching through the fantastic properties for sale on the Cle France website.

Watch out for more rants and opinion next week or buy the book today for a rollicking good read.