This September, the esteemed estate of Lou Calen in Cotignac (Provence, France) will host the launch of Eric Idle’s new memoir, Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme (Ebury Press), with a Book Launch Weekend on 4 and 5 September 2026 that brings one of Britain’s best loved comic voices back to the village he has called a second home for more than fifty years.
Idle bought his first, famously derelict property near Cotignac in 1971, two years after Monty Python’s Flying Circus made his comedy troupe global stars, and he has returned to the Var every year since.
His new memoir traces that half-century: the friendships built in the hills above the village with George Harrison, Robin Williams, David Bowie and physicist Brian Cox among others, and the more recent chapter in which Lou Calen’s owners, Graham Porter and his wife, became close friends and collaborators. The book’s acknowledgements thank them by name, alongside the wider Lou Calen team, for the part the estate has played in his life in Provence.
For Lou Calen, the weekend is the clearest expression yet of an ambition the estate has been building since its restoration: to be not only a hotel but a genuine cultural address, a place where a classical music series’, women’s somatic retreats and now a literary and film event of international standing can share the same gardens.
Staged in partnership with the Les Toiles du Sud film festival, the Book Launch Weekend is the highest-profile test of that ambition to date, and a chance to introduce Lou Calen to media audiences who have not yet encountered it through a travel or hospitality lens.
The programme opens on Friday 4 September at the Théâtre du Rocher, where guests will enjoy a screening of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, in its original version with French subtitles. The film’s producer, John Goldstone, will be present for the evening, and Idle will introduce the screening before signing copies of the book.
On Saturday 5 September, the celebration moves to Lou Calen itself: an afternoon book signing at the estate’s bookstore, open to the public, followed by an aperitif reception, dinner, and a second screening, Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, under the stars.
“Cotignac has been my home away from home for fifty years, and there is nowhere I would rather launch this book than at Lou Calen, surrounded by the friends who made this place what it is,” said Eric Idle.
“I am so happy that Eric has chosen to have his book signing at Lou Calen.” said Graham Porter, owner of Lou Calen.
“He has lived quietly in our tiny village for over fifty years, and I love sitting with him, hearing the stories of the amazing people in music, film, art and science who visited Cotignac and Lou Calen over the years, often without the village even knowing. Some of those stories are in his memoir. Bringing Lou Calen back to life has given us the chance to reconnect with that history and open a new chapter, and that has been one of the most rewarding parts of it all.”
Idle in Provence: A Brief History of Thyme is published by Ebury Press on Thursday 10 September 2026, in hardback, ebook and audio.
