Starting a new business in a foreign country at the age of 60 may seem like a daunting task to some but ebullient chef Martin Dwyer can’t wait. “I’m dying for it,” he laughs as we talk about how he and his wife, Síle, hope to open the doors of their own French-style bed and breakfast in the Languedoc in September.

After selling Dwyers, his acclaimed Waterford restaurant, in 2004, Dwyer became a consultant chef, combining that with writing and broadcasting about food. He also started a blog at martindwyer.com, which features recipes and family stories, history, photography and a charming account of how he and Síle found, bought and renovated an old presbytery in Thèzan-lès-Béziers.

After they married in 1973, the Dwyers spent time working in France. They returned there at regular intervals over the years, firstly with their three daughters and then, as the girls flew the nest, with a group of friends. “Cooking isn’t a thing that you could do unless you enjoy it,” comments Dwyer. “I loved cooking for my friends on holiday, even though I was running the restaurant at the time.”

These busman’s holidays made him realise that he wanted a future that still included food and cooking, albeit at a more relaxed pace than in a restaurant. “We had always planned to retire out to France,” says Dwyer, “but there was a huge flaw. I’m one of seven, Síle is one of six and it would have turned into a B&B anyway.”

The solution? To find a house large enough so that they could run a chambre d’hôte, or French bed and breakfast, and also offer evening meals to residents.

Armed with a list of essentials, they set off on a series of trips through France in 2006 to find their dream premises. This they managed in a remarkably short space of time, completing the purchase of the presbytery - just 100km from the airport in Carcassonne - in December of that year.

Formerly inhabited by three elderly nuns who, according to Dwyer, were “doing a line in selling off holy water from a well in the cellar”, the interior of the house had to be pulled down and rebuilt. Now, just over two years on, it is almost finished. Dwyer admits that, after the house was re-roofed, there was not a “humongous” amount of work to be done; “nothing structural, just destroying and rebuilding partition walls”.

It is a journey that he has entertainingly related to his blog readers, documenting all phases of the project - mishaps while hauling van loads of furniture the length of France, sun-soaked drinks and dinners on the terrace, dealing with the local building fraternity, unexpected discoveries of doors in odd places - and whetting people’s appetite for holidays to come.

Dwyer doesn’t intend on working too hard, though. With four bedrooms to let, they can only accommodate a maximum of eight people. As he points out, it’s easier to fill a small B&B than a 40-seater restaurant and, unlike in Ireland, there’s no need for a cooked breakfast when you can run down to the baker for warm croissants to serve with your own homemade jam and fromage frais. One thing he is really looking forward to is cooking no-choice evening meals from local produce, which, he says, “has always been a real plus in going to France”.

In the middle of organising and cooking a series of dinner parties to celebrate his 60th, Dwyer is fired with enthusiasm for his new life. “All my friends are looking at me as if I am mad. They are winding down, with pipe and slippers, and I’m embarking on a new venture!” However, as he waxes lyrical about Thèzan-lès-Béziers, how it is close to the sea and how the Languedoc is a gorgeous yet relatively undiscovered part of France, it’s easy to get caught up in his vision.

“When are you coming out?” he asks. Time to start booking those flights to Carcassonne.