Ménusé de Catalan is my sliver of paradise in the French countryside, south west of Toulouse, only an hour away from the Pyrenees and the Spanish border. The house is an oasis of peace and tranquility, somewhere to escape from the madness of the world, when it all becomes too much.
Its name is a bit of a puzzle.The house is located in an area referred to in cadastral maps as 'Catalan', probably in reference to Catalan peasants who may have settled there in days gone by. This is after all a region of France where migration across the Pyrenees has been a widespread phenomenon throughout the centuries. 'Ménusé' is a greater mystery. The word does not appear in French dictionaries and its origins as a name are not clear. It could be slang for menuiserie which is French for carpentry or, more precisely, joinery. It may also simply be a name without a specific meaning. Any insights that may shed further light on this little mistery are welcome.