28 October

Our last chance to finish any gardening, and we made a good stab at it, but I was really lethargic - it all felt far more effort than I had within me (a marked contrast to in the summer; I felt superhuman then!). We had to leave the gîte because it had already been rented to other people before we had booked, and had booked a hotel just for one night. We knew that we had to get to Bar-sur-Aube to have showers & get changed before going to Chaource to dinner with Sergine & Patrick. If we hadn't had so many other things to think about, we'd have booked a hotel in Bar-sur-Seine! That would have cut out 2 return journeys between Bar-sur-Aube and Bar-sur-Seine, but hey-ho! Something about penguins...!

We'd worked out that we needed to leave the house by 4.30, but at about 3.15 I'd really had enough. We had bought another padlock and wanted to get spare keys cut, so we used that as our justification to pack up early! There were 2 key-cutting places: one was closed for holidays and the other had hundreds of blanks, but not for our size key! It made me feel that chocolate might be the answer (and I'm not that kind of person normally; I can't remember the last time I bought chocolate [as opposed to eating a bit that someone else had given me] - not this year certainly). When you don't eat anything regularly, it's difficult to know what to choose, but in the end we decided on milk chocolate with praline & hazelnuts. It was disgusting (so sweet and teeth gumming), whilst being just what I wanted!

We had a lovely time with Sergine and Patrick, and the food was wonderful, but I can't remember a thing that we ate (didn't write yesterday's & today's blog contemporaneously like the earlier posts). That's no comment on the food - I bet David will know; must remember to ask him. Sergine is in the (equally slow) process of renovating her house, so parts are lovely and finished, some is 'work-in-progress' and some is most definitely 'before'. It will be wonderful when it is finished; what she has achieved so far is marvellous. It was comforting to see what can be achieved.

27 October

For some reason, we felt a bit deflated... I had plenty of gardening to do (thigh-high crucifers to hack back, for a start & another 125 bulbs to plant; I had wanted to do the patio, but we'd lost the will to live, so no chance), and we still needed to finish cleaning the fireplace, but just couldn't summon sufficient energy.

We had a visit at the house from Sergine (immobilière) - she'd called us to see if she could come round. It seemed a bit odd; we were scheduled to go to her house for dinner the next day. It turns out "Mr Laid-Back" isn't; he'd phoned up CAIG and given a roasting to Isabelle and Sergine. We really weren't happy with that; we hadn't felt we'd 'gelled' with him as well as the other gentlemen, but that sealed the issue. How dare he phone and insult our friends - he's not even working for us?! He had said that Sergine shouldn't have recommended Dominique and why was she letting down her clients, and a load more besides. I hope we managed to convince her that we hadn't wanted him to do this, and apologise enough (although that we should be apologising for a 'professional' didn't sit well). When Sergine recommended Dominique to us, he was doing perfectly good work for her and she had no reason to doubt he would continue to work well. Even when he started working for us, it all seemed OK at first (the enlarged doorway between the kitchen and entrance hall looks just what we'd hoped for), it was just the slow progress that bothered us. Later, everything started to look rushed (and we now know it was done in a hurry; not just looked like it - neighbours in rural France are a fabulous source of information!). It was only after Sergine had told Dominique to stop working for her (for the slow progress/not turning up when he said he would), that his work started to cause us concern.

Well, M. Jacquard has ruled himself out of the selection process. He made a big point of telling us that he is the only ISO 9001 (2?) certified project manager in the Aube. But if he alienates people outside of the work, how would he get on with workmen? We have a (tiny) hope that we may get some refund from Dominique, but if M. Jacquard has spoken to him already, I think he will have ruined that for us!

We went for apéritifs with the Bouzenards; it was nice to just have an evening without thinking about or discussing the house, except in the lightest of detail. Mme Bouzenard is looking a little better, but I'm not sure if that's just the steroids plumping out her face. She says she's feeling a bit better, and is eating again, so we're keeping fingers crossed for her swift recovery.

Going back to the gîte and an open fire reminded us why we are doing this; we did need reminding! I often think you appreciate things more when you've had to wait/struggle to achieve them, so we're going to love it when we have the house how we want it (whenever that will be).

26 October, later...

The good news is:
All our experts agree
The bad news is:
All our experts agree that Dominique D's (OK, let's name him [if not shame him!]: Dominique DROUOT of 11, rue Desirée Briden, Troyes) work is rubbish. [Note: Rubbish here is a polite euphemism for a heap of #2's!]

This afternoon M. Beauvineau (for whom I couldn't hink of a nickname - perhaps he be "Mr Urban Warrior"? See later), showed up as part of a double act with M. Dufour, his partner in crime. [Tweedledee & Tweedledum would be unfair, as would any other comedy double acts I can think of; they were both really nice blokes.] Happily "Mr Urban Warrior" (or maybe "Parker"? See later) had read the maître d'œuvre/philosopher handbook and showed up in black combat pants, black military (paramilitary?) style jumper & salt-and-pepper van Dyke beard. Clearly and urban terrorist; but let's not use that work. Nihilism/anarchy are OK, guerilla just (maybe) the right side of borderline but not out-and-out terrorism (these days). I'm not sure why I'm thinking Tony Benn when it comes to his eyebrows...? But if it's a Tony who sticks to his principles, I'll take that as a good sign (rather than the other sort!). [Later I realise that he was actually the human incarnation of Parker from Thunderbirds, dressed for the 21st century!]

Sadly, M. Dufour had come as an accountant. What was he thinking of? Clearly he lets his mum buy his clothing - why else would he be wearing a stripy (work, not trendy) shirt & stripy (work, not pin-striped denim or elephant cord) suit pants? It turns out "Mr Urban Warrior"/"Parker" will be the one who will deal with us if we choose this double act, so that's OK; have got used to the ideal of philosopher-as-project manager by now.

Saw M. Lorin: unfortunately "Mr Asterix" was a no-show; perhaps he was off fighting the Romans with his partner in crime, who (through no fault of his own/genetic makeup) will have to be "Mr Obelix"! At least if he's let us down at this stage we're not going to waste any time considering him as a runner.

Nice to see M. Lorin who, despite our being absent, didn't steal our wallets/passports/mobile phones when he dropped off our walnuts earlier. [Note to selves: lock up the valuables rather than leaving them unattended and in the room closest to the road!]

I forgot to mention another thing: I could envisage seeing various project managers in England, talking about estimates, costs, building reg.s & planning etc. But I don't imagine we'd come across restaurant critics! The double act, just before they were leaving, proceded to give us a (fairly long!) list of 3 star restaurants in the area! So much more interesting that costs per 1000 of bricks

26 October

Meeting with "Mr Laid-Back" - he was the more typical-looking philosopher: black pin-striped jeans, black shirt, black jacket, black wrap-round shades, pointy sideburns & flowing white hair. (Hell, what do I know about philosophers' sartorial habits; Nietsche may have bought off-the-peg suits from M&S and worn jumpers knit by his granny!)

The good news is:
At least we're not crying (yet?)...
The bad news is:
It's even worse than we thought!

How can that be? Well, till this morning, we didn't know the electrics were actually dangerous (not earthed; now particularly glad we came back the last time when we'd forgotten to turn the power off at the mains...). [Although John Knighton reckons it's not as dangerous as we'd been told - I'd need to stand in a bath of water holding an electric fan heater to be at risk; yes he's right, that is a horrible thought (probably why I'd edited it out!). Sorry for not making that clear (and hope it is now). But I don't know if there is an earth trip... Everything else seems to be done wrong!]

There is a glimmer of hope: we could take Dominique (D) to a tribunal that could order him to repay all the money we've given to him & then some more to pay to undo everything he's done before we start again from scratch.

As is necessary for every silver lining, there is a cloud: this will take a year, during which time we won't be able to do anything to the house. Well, at least it will give us loads of time to do a plan of action (17 or 3-point, depending on which maître d'œuvre we choose) and get quotes from different firms and draw up a contract!

Almost wish I hadn't started the garden; we could just drain down the water, lock the house & come back in 12 months, Napalm the yard & start the building works...

25 October

Finally got here at 4am - first the comedy of getting past 20 metres' worth of road works in Catford: 1¼ hours to go 5½ miles round the South Circular (I can walk faster)! Needless to say, there was no sign of anyone working... Then, bizarrely they "closed" the M20 between J11 & J12 - we spent 1 hour at a snail's pace (when not actually stationary) getting off at J11. We were anticipating massive roadworks - whole carriageway closed & "boys' toys" as far as the eye could see. Imagine our surprise when having finally got off the motorway [in 2 lines - the one on the left for lorries; the one on the right for cars], the police were directing all the lorries back onto the motorway just the other side of the roundabout! A lot of the lorries were in a much longer queue in the left-hand lane, so I bet it took some of them 2 hours to get off. We saw the M20 another couple of times before J12 and not sign of any roadworks. AT ALL. What was that all about??!

Deep joy, then, to have the usual trouble- (& virtually traffic-) free journey on the French motorways. [Remind me to explain why I love toll roads sometime!] Having made the bed, and put the food in the fridge, we got to bed at 4.30 (third time lucky getting the hire car to lock without the alarm going off 10 minute later!).

Thankfully, our first appointment wasn't till 3pm, so we stayed in bed till 11.45 (up in time for the Angelus!). A quick trip to the 'Champion' to get food & wine (and champagne, naturellement!) & rapidly consuming some bread & cheese and then we went to the house. [Thank you M. & Mme. Bouzenard for your wonderful gîte; staying in an unfurnished, and indeed unfinished, house is not fun when it's been as low as 6½°C there!]

We were picking up stray walnuts when M. Boyer ("Mr Efficient") arrived. I know that the French and English are very different, but it's often brought home to me how different after an absence... I was expecting a chap to detail (possibly with more minutiae than a mere mortal could stand?) what was OK; what was borderline; what was bad; how it could be fixed/whether it needed ripping out & starting from scratch. Also prepared for a disucssion of costs; timetables; schedules of works...

What I had forgotten was that Adam Smith was right: England is "a nation of shopkeepers"; that's one of the reasons why thousands of hardworking immigrants from the Asian sub-continent have integrated so well, and is probably reflected in our collective eBay usage!
It's true, we think in terms of buying & selling or service providing/usage (buying & selling by any other name!) - it's highly skilled commerce - even when I write a (rare) letter of complaint, I tend to focus on how the company can better serve their customer [and how kind I am in helping them achieve that - can I have a refund? ;-) ].

Conversely, the French are a nation of philosophers. I think that was rammed home today when “Mr Efficient” spent the first hour “conceptualising” (I’m sure I’ve got the right word!) outside, before even setting foot in the place. I swung (wildly) between liking his approach, being alienated & totally seeing the sense of what he was saying. Of course your use of a building (we tend to garden/be out of doors & come in to crash/hoover aperitifs; office workers may be away from their homes for a long time & want to spend their evenings looking at the garden) matters much more than whether the builder’s done a good job. I was expecting the mechanics to figure more highly, but hey-ho!; he was so much more Zen than I was expecting.

W.T.S.

Was on wagon; now off. Someone said something like “When you are happy, you don’t need champagne, it’s when you are down that you should drink it” [Wish I could remember who; I could Google it & get the quote right.]

As I said to “Mr Efficient”, half of me is sad the work is done so badly (he gave the building works 4/10, I reckoned 3, and the plumbing/electrics 2/10) & the other half is happy I wasn’t imagining it! At least I’m a good judge of quality…

There are times when a girl (particularly) misses her dad… :-(

Oh, I forgot to describe him: Brown stripy velvet jacket (“looks like carpet”, according to him indoors), red/maroon stripy shirt, brown trousers, brown boots. I liked it (very much, actually), but I know plenty of people (not all of them in the Biblical sense!) in the property business (game?) who might look down on brown (not to mention velvet!). Tant pis!

The good news is:
I was absolutely right (it’s always nice to have that confirmed, isn’t it?!)
The bad news is:
I was absolutely right – the work’s substandard & needs re-doing…

Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people who get pleasure out of saying “I told you so!”…

Previously: had an email from “Mr Efficient”, with, amongst other things, a 17-point plan of action!

I'm thinking of re-branding « Chez le Baron » ...

We put together a list of questions/concerns & points we wished to raise with the gentlemen we are going to meet for the project manager rôle; I never realised what "Sans Soucis" as a house name meant! Now I'm hoping to be in a position to re-name « Chez le Baron » to « Sans Soucis »!

I always thought the 'amusing' house names weren't particularly funny, and the more tortured the pun, the less hilarious I found them, but now I'm starting to see the charm! We didn't name the house « Chez le Baron » - that's what all the neighbours call it; M. Thaelle (I think that's his name; I must check) was known as « le Baron », so of course his house was « Chez le Baron »! It doesn't seem to matter that he's been dead for over 20 years; it seems he was such a character that the name will live on as long as any of the children who used to visit him are still alive. Of course in this time of heightened paranoia, no-one in their right minds would let their children go off to visit a strange man who lives on his own who likes children!! A sad loss, I think. But then I belong to a generation who walked to and from primary school either alone or with a friend...

Sorry, that's all a diversion from where I started! We compiled 3 pages (and it was only 3 because I made the margins really small!) of 'issues'. That includes the most minor, and points that we have verbally agreed with the builder, but are not written down. I do hope the gentlemen do not think we are massively nit-picky; we wanted to get the balance right with giving them all the information they might need, but we shall find out when we meet them...

I think the relief of having our trip all prepared for (and enough time to think of any points we may have forgotten, rather than rushing to take a list with us that we did just before leaving - like homework!), has left me bereft of stress; I've been sleeping much better! So much so that I'm frightened I might be turning into a dormouse!

A letter from another project manager...

Saturday's post brought a surprise - a written response from one of the maîtres d'œuvre also saying he would be willing to inspect the house/oversea the project. Both he and "Mr Asterix" are partnered with another maître d'œuvre in the area, so that means we've had 80% success from the SYNAAMOB (SYndicat National des Architectes, des Agrées et des Maîtres d'Œuvre en Bâtiment) website!

David has contacted the two latest candidates and we are seeing M. Beauvineau (I'm sorry, nothing springs to mind as a 'nickname'!) when we go to France, and "Mr Asterix" can't make it then, but our neighbour kindly agreed to let him into the house to inspect some time before we go, so we'll still be able to get an opinion from him.

We spent several hours (over six, I think) over the weekend writing a comprehensive list of things we're not happy with/concern us, which we'll send out tomorrow or Wednesday. Now we have to wait till we go to France before we can go any further.

It will sound ironic, I suppose, if I say that I hope the builder doesn't do any more work before we get there! I never took any photos of the holes in the concrete - I can't think why not, as I've taken photos of everything else! I'm hoping that he hasn't patched up the concrete, so that the project managers can see how badly it's cracked...

Would you like to buy a (somewhat) second-hand gixxer?

If so,

Another contender joins the race...

Usually I switch off the ringer on the phone & turn the volume right down on the answermachine, but last night (for some reason) decided not to, in case anyone wanted to contact us. [Normally late night calls are drunken wrong numbers & early morning calls are weird wrong numbers; why are morning wrong numbers always weird?] The phone rang just before 6.45, and as I was awake, I got up to answer it (and possibly deliver a pithy lecture on the desirability of dialling carefully before 8am!). The caller started to leave a message in French (you don't know how heartening it is to actually receive a call from a French speaker, rather than just being successful in calling them!), and I realised it was another maître d'œuvre so I called David & got him to the phone in time to speak with candidate number 3 for the position of saviour of our project.

David was chatting away for about quarter of an hour & laughed throatily several times, so I guessed the chap had a sense of humour. He doesn't think he can visit when we are out there later this month, but maybe M. Lorin would be kind enough to let him in? [That's top of David's to-do list today; nicely ask our kind neighbour for a favour.] He gave David his mobile number and his website address, and said we would recognise him by his moustache. I asked David whether he would be Asterix or Obelix. After a quick look at the website, he's "Mr Asterix" - check it out if you don't believe me!

I (very often, anyway) believe in 'third time lucky' - that's not to say we will go with "Mr Asterix", but getting three opinions will give us a majority decision. I foresee a couple of alternatives: either Dominique D's work is OK (in which case we will happily accept that that is just the French way and go with it), or it is not OK (then we need to decide whether to try to get Dominique to put it right, or engage another builder), and: the maître d'œuvre will with either be willing to oversee the work to (successful!) completion or he won't. The fact that the three gentlemen are willing to have a look seems to indicate a willingness to undertake the project management rôle... So the main question is going to be: is Dominique's work OK?

Either way, please keep your fingers crossed for us that we get to a successful conclusion in a timely manner ( I won't say 'quickly', as I have a nasty suspicion that the bits Dominique has done that I'm not happy with were done 'quickly!).

Chrysanthemum

Part of what keeps my spirits up is “House Doctor Make Believe” – imagining what the house will look like when it’s finished… The kitchen (with units, and a floor, oh but without a shower!) with our big round table set up in the corner, and the dresser with Mrs Smith’s china on it. A couple of sofas in front of the insert, and maybe another table that I can do baking at. It’s all real; it’s just not happened yet, but it’s real to me…

I plan to clean up the old iron bedstead we bought from M. Lorin (might even paint it Wild Sage?) and use it as a day bed in the entrance hall. Most of that room will have exposed stonework, but I might paint the exterior wall a buttermilk/golden sandy colour. I think that a light colour will go with the green of the windows & door. I’ve also chosen the fabric for the curtains (in winter when we’ve stayed at the gîte the cold gets noticeably fiercer as you open the curtains, so heavy lined curtains for winter are a must!). William Morris has long been a favourite – I was a child in the seventies, and it was popular to have huge prints as soft furnishings, I guess it just rubbed off, so I was trawling through my books, and wanted a large flower print in shades of green and gold/cream/beige.

Chrysanthemum it is then! Now that’s not something I ever thought I would do – voluntarily choose a chrysanthemum!

Not that things can’t change…

Maître d'œuvre

We have enough queries about the way Dominique is working, and the quality of work (I know that things are done differently in France; we don't have a problem with that, & wouldn't expect things to be done in an English way, but cracks in the concrete floor already?) that we want to get a second opinion as to whether he is doing things properly. The doubts, coupled with the (phenomenally!) slow rate of progress, have led us to look for a maître d'œuvre (project manager).

Hands up! We have done things completely the wrong way - we should have had a signed contract stating exactly how long the job is to take, and probably also displayed a declaration of travaux (when we asked the Maire whether we needed planning permission, he told us that we could do what we liked to the inside of the house; that is up to us, the Mairie only gets involved if we change the outside - we never thought to ask if we need a declaration; didn't even know such a thing existed 2 years ago!). Most of the problem stems from dealing with builders like my dad and Bob (yes, our English builder is called Bob!) - we're just used to doing things on an informal business!

We have sent out letters, emails and clicked on the "contact" button on a couple of websites to contact project managers, maîtres d'œuvre and architects who will project manage, and have had responses from 2 maîtres d'œuvre. We plan to meet with both of them (and possibly someone else if anyone else responds - there are still another 9 potential respondees out there!), later this month. In my mind I have labelled the 2 who have contacted us "Mr Efficient" and "Mr Laid-back" - one responded promptly with a (long) list of questions and a detailed fee schedule for a visit and report (negotiable if we engage him as project manager); the other promptly replied that he'd be willing to work on the project and he hoped to hear from us to arrange a meeting soon!

We want to meet them both, because I know that hyper-efficiency can be great at running projects (but can also be counterproductive if too control-freaky & alienates workers! I know that from personal experience - hi Julia!). I also believe that a Zen approach can produce the best results (although not necessarily what one wanted; what you need may not be the same as what you [think you] want... I know that from personal experience, too - hi David!).

I'm working on trusting that we make the right decision!

Will keep it posted when we've decided between M. Boyer & M. Jacquard...

Mum's OK

I was delighted to get a phone call about 7pm last night - from mum. I think she was feeling a little shaken, but was OK; as it's the second time in just over a month that she's had kidney stones, she's worried that it's going to keep happening. I hope she'll drink loads of water and cranberry juice (it might be the bladder infection that caused the stones), and goes to see Mr Johnson (her naturopath) when she gets home...

Fireplace 2

We started stripping the paint off the "new" fireplace. It's taking a lot more coats of nasty glop than I was expecting, but we are nearly there on most of it - just two flat sides on the two big uprights yet to be started; we didn't want to wedge these stones (100kg each?) upright in case they fell! There has been some crystallization, that worried me, but it seemed to brush off quite nicely with a wire brush, so I am keeping fingers crossed that I'm not doing any damage . There are still patches of nasty brown (and some black in places). We have been mixing lessive de soude and wallpaper paste, and painting it on, leaving it for half an hour (or so), before blasting it off with a pressure washer. Repeat as necessary!

I'm not sure if it is caustic soda or liquid washing soda (but I think that's just a dilute version of the same thing?) that we're using, but everyone has told us to wear gloves & be careful. We saw some (delightful, Kermit-coloured!) gloves in the supermarket that said suitable for bleach & "aggressive" products - that sounded just what we needed, so we bought a pair each.

David was doing the first coat while I planted an acer (palmatum dissectum, if you're interested) and some cyclamens (coum, I think, but they might be hederifolium), wearing shorts & a t-shirt. A bit later we decided that I should carry on as I was wearing gardening clothes (combat-style trousers, long-sleeved shirt & ancient cricket hat) and wellington boots (found a lovely lavender coloured pair; also have a pink pair with yellow & white daisies in the next size up for wearing over thick socks in winter - the neighbours think we're a bit weird anyway [all strangers are in rural parts of the world, I think?], so why not?). Coupled with the plastic safety glasses and the green (seriously green) rubber gloves, I felt I cut quite a dash!

I wished I'd asked David to take a picture - but as we still haven't finished, there's still time (as I don't have a mirror in France, I may not look as fetching as I'd imagined, so reserve the right to withhold any picture!!)


The man from Duchesne arrived to deliver our patio & gravel while I was cleaning of one of the layers of gunk/paint; I never think it does my image any harm when someone arrives and my husband is in the kitchen doing the washing-up and I'm in the barn using power tools!

Actually I'm not a complete cow!!

The last two photos show what a mixture of lessive de soude and wallpaper paste (and probably soot, nicotine, tar, distemper as well as paint) will do to your paintbrush if you are naïve enough not to wash your brushes out immediately after use!!

I ended up applying the stuff with a really heavy-duty scrubbing brush - added benefit of working it into the crevices!

What we did on our holidays!

We came back from a week in France on Saturday. We took some more plants (for the new bit of garden) and a lot of bulbs, so it was another round of gardening! If we didn't have to weed everywhere first, we would be less pushed for time. And equally, if we didn't have to plant anything, there'd be loads of time for leisurely weeding (very therapeutic when you don't have loads else to shoe-horn into a limited time)!

We planted over 800 bulbs, so we're keeping fingers crossed for a lovely display in spring. There are a few autumn flowering ones, but that's not likely to be much of a show. The hope is they will all naturalise and spread. We also had a delivery of gravel - hopefully that will keep the weeds down. We had gone to Bar-sur-Aube on Wednesday to see when our patio was likely to be available for delivery, and they had got it in stock and could deliver it on Friday! As they were coming to our place anyway, we asked if they could bring gravel as well, so by 4pm we were the proud possessors of 270cm of paving circle (in kit form, of course!) and 1m³ of gravel.

I don't think it will be enough, but we shall see how far it will go, and then will have a better idea of how much more is needed. It's quite interesting to have finally found gravel: being used to the English system (and no I'm not one of those people who thinks everything is done better in England!) of choosing what colour of gravel (green, purple, pink, black, white, brown, gold etc, etc), what shape (round, rounded flat, grit, chips), what size (5mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm) and what material (granite, slate, pebbles, marble, glass!), I have found it frustrating going round garden centres and bricolage and builders' merchants not being able to find anything other than aggregate (rough stone chips mixed with sand). M. Lorin had left a pile of red grit (he said it was road grit), so I knew it must be possible to find that, but the thought of the garden looking liking a badly-laid road wasn't appealing! So when David found some flat rounded gravel at Duchesne, I was delighted. They look like mini dunkers!

Déjà vu...

Got a slightly weird message on the answermachine at 7.50am (had not heard the phone because I was in the loo!) from Karen; not really saying anything. As I had only just missed it, I called her back & got Miche (I didn't think it sounded like Karen) & said Karen had just left a message & I'd just missed the call. She said it was mum, she'd got kidney stones again, but she was alright. Apparently she'd felt she was getting a migraine yesterday, so they'd gone for a swim & she was fine after that (don't know if that was related or just a coincidence), and then she'd started feeling poorly about 2am, and at about 6am knocked on Miche's door. They called an ambulance and she's now in hospital. Karen couldn't find her phone (it was switched off and plugged into the charger) so Evelyn had lent her her mobile (which is why I got Miche when I called Karen)...

Miche said she's ok (well, as ok as you can be with kidney stones - I thought as she'd "got the t-shirt" she wouldn'd be doing that one again!). I sent a text to Evelyn's mobile from David's French mobile (still got some credit on it, and he's got my mobile as he's without a UK mobile at the moment - new job, but that's another post), saying I'd spoken to Miche & would talk to Karen later.

Another day of sitting by the phone, but I'm less panicky this time... So it's another case of:

Watch this space...

Oh, I forgot to mention, mum's in France!

Missing Photos...?

Hello!

I seem to have lost my photos... So am waiting to see if they come back before posting about the last week's work in France...

Seem to be able to load a new one, though...?!

Home grown nosh!

It's really lovely to be able to eat home grown food! This year we have had (ok, not many, but that's not the point...): courgettes, mirabelles, greengages, plums & damsons. M. Lorin showed us an old (early 1900s) encyclopaedia with pages of different layouts for training fruit trees; it's put ideas in my head!

Spiders, etc.…

I’ve beenwaiting for the opportunity to invite friends & family to come and stay at the house. But I’ve now realised that even when (when??) it’s done, there will still be some people who we won’t be able to invite… My English neighbour for one: she doesn’t like spiders AT ALL (when she looks after the plants for me whilst we are away, I go round and evict all the spiders I can find; I don’t mind them, so they are normally allowed run on the flat). So she would hate the denizens of our new home.

I woke up on the first night we stayed there this year to a huge chap on the wall about 3’ away. I saw him (her?) again later & measured - >4”/10cm and it wasn’t lying flat out!

We’ve also got huge black beetles (1” long) and crickets (male & female, I think – one’s bigger and lighter in colour than the other), and the occasional lizard. And that’s just indoors! If we factor in the birds (owls & swallows occasionally - I had to keep chasing them out in June; didn't want them nesting like the redstart...) and the odd bat, not to mention the rodents (can hear & smell them, so I know they’re there!)… Feels a bit like a menagerie.

When we go outdoors there’s all sorts of interesting fauna, including my current favourite: the huge black bee with blue wings. I also like the red & black bugs: striped (like a shield bug) & patterned (“gendarmes”) – but you only seem to find the adults copulating; so difficult to get a “decent” picture!

New Door? Old Door New Paint?

Dominique B’s efforts in replacing the front doors in the exact style of the old ones has been a resounding success! One of our neighbours called round and was asking whether we’d repainted the doors or whether they were new – so obviously from a distance (the road is about10-12’ from the nearest door) they are indistinguishable! Just what we wanted.

Kingfisher

We saw a Kingfisher. I thought it was a redstart at first – a blur of brown, and then it settled and showed its tail – a flash of turquoise and I was then thinking “could it be a kingfisher?”. It turned its head to face the side and then no doubts remained; it was a kingfisher.

Not what you’d usually expect to see in Maxi Brico!

Fireplace

We found and bought a fireplace for the entrance hall. Now all we need to do is clean of the eau-de-nil and black paint (mmmm, nice!) and persuade Dominique to fit it!

Finally finished dealing with the soil heap

In the end it took us 24 hours to level out the soil heap, with another 3 and ½ hours levelling it flat on the garden, but it feels a job well done!

Now all the ground is levelled (or as level as I want it), apart from a small trench with some gravel in it (but I need to move the gravel first, & there’s a heap of soil under the horse chestnut to fill that), and I’ve done the paths and planted all the plants I brought out (42 in total). It really does look like a garden now, and will only get better and better.

Having moved all that soil, I reckon there was at least one lorry load (by the time it was all un-compacted, nearer 1 ½ or 2 lorry loads?) – so that’s probably 11 tonnes (if not 22 tonnes, & not including digging out for the patio!). It was gratifying when M. Lorin call & was really impressed; I’m not doing it to impress other people, but seeing their amazement is quite pleasing.

Dominique let us down

By Thursday afternoon, we had given up on Dominique (he obviously wasn’t coming & neither was he going to call to let us know! Not too happy about that…). David started to move the spoil heap while I was levelling out the gravel in the patio hole. We’ve only moved it over about 4’ onto the driveway. I know it’s not much, but it’s enough to let us flatten out the soil heap & not have rubble where we want garden.

While David finished moving the spoil, I started levelling out the soil heap…

Patio

We did level out the patio hole (I had a horrible feeling that I would have to flatten it out), and make it round, and laid the weed-suppressing membrane while we were waiting for Dominique. It was quite satisfying throwing all the stones back in, and collecting up piles & piles of other stones to use as hard-core. I’d unearthed an awful lot of stones when clearing out the ivy under the lilacs by the snail pits, and all the small ones went into the patio hole. We then found even smaller ones to make it level, then did a layer of gravel (M. Lorin had left a pile of road gravel behind – perfect for this sort of thing). I levelled that off, but we decided to see if the rain makes it settle before putting a layer of sand to lay the patio on; there’s no hurry – we still don’t know when the delivery will be, so there’s plenty of time.

Again, watch this space!

7 August 2006

Finished digging out the patio (did I say that?) before David got here, and went to Bar-sur-Aube on Friday (4th) to see if we could find one in a circle (i.e. that we didn’t have to cut to shape). Owing to tiredness/randomness, I didn’t measure how big the circle was. They had one at Duchesne Gedimat which looked about right – 270cm in diameter, but as it was 349€, we didn’t want to buy it if it was going to be too big (didn’t fancy digging out another 50cm! Took me best part of 12 hours to do that!). We checked they did deliveries, which they do, for a “small” charge (don’t know how small), and they could deliver on the 11th – we’d better hurry up & order. Went home and measured (I knew it was a bit flat – but didn’t want to “round” it up if it was too big…) the circle 250-270cm – only a small bit of extra digging out necessary! By then we were both knackered so planned to go the next day & order. I ended up having an afternoon nap on Saturday, so David went on his own to order the circle of paving – comedy of errors! He couldn’t make one shop assistant understand there was only half a circle stacked on the pallet because the other half was incorporated into their display (and not because David’s French is bad; it isn’t!)! They ended up going to the warehouseman who said he’d have to order one – we’ll probably get it mid-September! Of course you can’t get them in August!!

At least now we’ve got the hole (and the weed-suppressing membrane) we can fill the hole with hard-core (a.k.a. all those small stones we keep tripping over!) & build the pathways. All we are waiting for now before we can plant the plants is Dominique to remove his rubble. He said he’s coming today…

Watch this space…

Bolting Angle Iron to Close the Shutters…

…May be a thing of the past.

Dominique B says he’s doing our shutters in September!! If they are of a similar standard to the doors and windows (and having seen those and all the other work he's done on our visits to his workshop, we've got no doubts) the place will look like a palace - fit for a baron!

I should probably explain that « chez le baron » is what the neighbours call our house, and it feels right. Even though M. « le baron » died over 20 years ago, I don't suppose the name will go away... He sounded quite a character! Even if he wasn't too hot on cleaning...

Created Compost Heap a.k.a. “Snail Pits”

Getting back to my peasant roots! [Actually, I don’t think my family were peasants – more skilled manual workers/artisans: blacksmiths; wheelwrights; butchers; publicans (!) from the genealogical research so far.] Now have cleaned out the snail pits – beautiful (there wasn’t even any slime!. Did I mention that the [French] neighbours think I’m mad because I kill snails?! Wait till I tell my English neighbour that we’ve got a snail farm in our garden – she’ll think that’s mad!). I have decided that the deeper one will be compost heap at one end & leaf mould heap the other end. In the shallower one I’m dumping: rotting wood (to create wildlife habitat – I think it’s stag beetles I’m encouraging?), sticks & twigs (kindling, for when we get a fireplace/insert/poêle) and stones (for, well, who knows? Maybe hard-core to fill in the patio pit – how ironic is that? Dig out all the stones, to… fill the hole with stones!). I’ve partially cleared the pathway between the two pits and once I finish chopping up the fallen branch from the greengage, will be able to easily get at them.

Also cleared under the walnut trees – essential so our kind neighbour can collect the walnuts He kindly agreed to this last year – we said if he’d collect them for us he could have half – everyone a winner! So we’re hoping he’ll do the same this year (and he can leave his tractor in the barn).

Am now picking up all the fallen horse chestnut leaves – they don’t seem to mulch down, and as the ground is uneven it makes a real trip hazard. May just level out some of the bumps when I’ve done that… After I’ve pulled out all the ivy, taken out all the dead wood (& brambles) from the elder bushes, moved a second compost heap to the snail pits (had nearly finished moving the first one when r.s.p. [rain stopped play],), picked up all the rubbish (seem to have cornered the world market in degrading scraps of baler twine – why?!), picked up all the (remaining!) broken tiles for hard-core & taken a couple of loads more rubbish to the tip. Oh, and of course I need to flatten the soil heap, lay paths, plant plants, spread gravel, lay the patio, weed kill the drive, and maybe eat & sleep!

Did I say I was getting back to my peasant roots? Hard physical exercise – with no time limits/deadlines; (if it doesn’t get done [with the exception of the plants – and I’ve plenty of time to plant them] it will still be there next year) – is really therapeutic. And I may even get fitter/lose some of the excess poundage!

My darling is still fast asleep (10.30). I’m letting him sleep, as he’ll need all of his strengthlater when we try to get to grips with the French mobile phones – like how to make the display stay lit for more that one second, why it doesn’t show who’s calling, what PIN to insert when we swap the SIM cards with the English ones, how to top them up (mine’s on subscription in the UK), etc., etc., etc.

Rain Stopped Play

I finally finished digging out for my patio (OK, it’s not level, but as what I’m digging into is effectively hard-core, I may decide that doesn’t matter!) about 3 hours before David was due to arrive. He couldn’t stop me then (I knew he’d think it mad & suggest getting a little man with a digger – but I want it NOW, not in a “quinzaine” – which technically means in a fortnight, but is actually the French equivalent of a Japanese “Yes” – i.e. “We may be considering considering your request”! [An Italian friend explained that the Italian “domani” was like the Spanish “mañana” “but without that sense of urgency”!]) - I need to be able to flatten the soil heap (after Dominique’s moved the heap of spoil; he says he’s coming early next week) – I need to see any odd lumps & dips to try to get it more even, then put in the paths to & from the patio (this is why I need to do the patio now) before I can plant the plants! I’m itching to plant the plants. I bet they are too…

Watch this space…

So the point of that ramble was: having achieved my goal (patio dug), I was delighted when it belted down with rain. And I got exercise running around & shutting 12 windows! I could get used to living in something bigger that a one-bedroom flat… I couldn’t do any more gardening and the garden was getting watered. Perfect!

Luddite Blog (4 August 2006)

I’m sure I’m doing this wrong! Handwriting my blog? Can’t be right?! Still there’s bit & bobs I want to say & writing them down makes sense. And I can copy type reasonably quickly!


I could always bring the laptop, but then I’d have to get WiFi (or whatever), and then I’d play Solitaire & email friends & browse on eBay and it would be no different to home! And that’s so not what we want. Not having TV & computer makes it a proper holiday for us. You hear the sounds of the countryside, and go for walks in the evening or visit with neighbours or read or sit *in front of the fire by candlelight/outside the house watching the sun set (*delete as appropriate, depending on time of year). It’s much more relaxing than watching telly!

When I met David, I’d got rid of the TV licence – first I got rid of the cable (when I worked out how much it was costing per hour for the ½ - 2 hours a week I watched seemed an easy choice to make; especially as I was broke at the time: not all London wages are huge! My brother was earning more as a builders’ labourer in Staffordshire!). After Sky One & UK Gold had gone, I couldn’t even find ½ an hour a week to watch, so saving over £100 on the TV licence was easy. Telly to cellar. For a week or so it was weird, not having the moving wallpaper & noise for company, but then it got really easy – listening to CDs whilst doing yoga/stretch for those evenings I didn’t go out. I didn’t miss it at all and was fit & relaxed.

I used to get the reaction from some people: “you don’t have a telly – how sad!”. From a 15 year-old boy that seems perfectly reasonable, but from women in their 20s to me that seemed sad (and not in a “Loser!” kind of way’ genuinely sad in the old context). TV is the focus of so many people’s lives… Whereas I had a social life & did exercise!

I’m sure some people won’t like it here without telly or Playstation, but those people aren’t necessarily relaxing to be around, are they?

Which brings me to crickets. If you’re sitting indoors, you’re not outside watching the evening primroses “ping” open at dusk, so you miss the falling-light changeover from swallows to bats and as the light fails you’d miss the sound of the crickets. Now that would be sad! Nearly as sad as not being able to watch the lizards lifting their feet when the sunbathing gets too hot…

31 July 2006

You will either remember that scene in Trainspotting …

…Or you won’t. For anyone with a dirty-toilet phobia, there is only one scene that comes immediately to mind when you (we!) think of the film.

Now, my loo is pristine; disproportionately happy!

I’m digging a patio. After 4 hours effort (really hard effort) it’s starting to look like something. Another day, and I should be ready to start the paths either side.

Seems Odd…

… English people hoping for rain!

Since we were last at the house the temperature has dropped as low as 20ºC! and has been up to 35ºC (inside). France has had the same heat wave that we had in London, and a lot of plants have suffered in the garden. I think if they were more established, they would have coped better, but we have lost quite a few plants because of the lack of water. The neighbours are hoping for rain to swell the grapes, too.

I have a nasty feeling…

…That I will get fit! Being tired & not sure where anything is stored, I’ve been up & down stairs like it’s going out of fashion… When you live in a (one-bedroom) ground floor flat, the kitchen not being 2’ from the bathroom is a lot of exercise!

My hand has “crashed”, bye!

Weird or What?

How strange to have to go into a little room to use the lavatory! And the kitchen seems oddly empty without a loo! Yes, our partitions have become rooms! “Plus ça change; plus c’est la même chose” – we still have a shower in the kitchen though! And another one in the bathroom, (to be on the safe side? Perhaps Dominique knew how dirty & smelly I was going to get?!). The immersion has also gone.

We no longer have any lights in the kitchen (I’m in the grain loft – the light is better!)… but I’m sure that will come back!

30 July 2006

It’s 6.30pm, and about 27ºC and I’m sitting here with a gin & tonic (& ice!), relaxing! Mum & David left about 2.45pm to return to London (& mum to Cobwebs) and I started pottering around the house – very little to do, but I cleaned the (new!) basin in the (new!) bathroom and the (second-hand) shower tray. I’m putting off the loo (only used by builders for the last 12 months…) till tomorrow. I will do it, but couldn’t face it and was saved by a drop in temperature (mid 30’s & above; too hot for gardening) & thought “I’ll plant those plants; if we have a storm it will water them in well.” Forgetting, of course, about the entire boxful (30? 40?) that mum gave me! So I’m back to plan A: create some more space, then plant the plants. I spent 1½ hours with the piochet hacking off weeds, but I’m tired, and not really in the mood; I’d rather start at 6am tomorrow when I’ve had (hopefully) some more sleep and it’s cooler.

Whilst I was contemplating the plants, I was buzzed by a humming bird hawk moth – he loves cirsium (a type of thistle) & verbena bonariensis, but not enough to wait around while I went to get my camera! To me he looked more like a “humming bird deer’s head moth”, but that’s probably only me!

Bird

No sign of the bird; will have to ask Dominique D if he knows anything… It doesn’t look good.

29 July 2006

Unloading & setting up home takes a couple of hours (we will be so glad when we have floors – everything can stay downstairs, rather than us carting it upstairs & putting it back in boxes every time we leave!), so when we got to the evening’s glass of champagne it was really appreciated! After dinner we sat out again – still light & warm

Watched the right hand evening primrose opening – 11 flowers, taking 3-4 (?) seconds to open; it was like watching time-lapse photography!

28 July 2006

We arrived at the house about 9pm and were delighted yet dismayed to see new front doors… Delighted, because new front doors had been fitted; dismayed because we had old front door keys! A fruitless hunt around just in case our builder had left a key under a stone (in the dark, of course, but so much nicer to admire the almost fluorescent flowers on the evening primroses – oenothera biennis & oenothera glaziomana erythrosepaia, I think?), before calling a hotel in the nearby town. We’d decided to stop going there (enough small niggles, like not being able to turn off the heating/air-conditioning, I can’t remember what else & 80€ a night) and haven’t been for well over a year (18 months?), but boy were we glad when they said they had one room left, with 2 double beds! A dash to get there before reception shut (this part of the world is not somewhere that will wait if you are late; possibly part of the charm?), seemed small beer in comparison to the last 48 hours (see earlier post about mum’s journey down!).

Equally delighted that the Iron Horse was still serving once we’d checked in: Leffe for him & her; kir for m-i-l. And a refill to be on the safe side. Mum delighted next morning because she got the swim she’d missed out on in Brixton (she says she really will curb her appetite for excitement!).

I know they say you should always take a change of clothes in your hand luggage (we virtually only travel with hand luggage, so don’t usually worry about that), but it seems a little unnecessary when you are travelling to your own home… How wrong can a girl be?!

Needless to say, when we called the menuisier and the builder (both of whom must have known our doors had changed; Dominique B made & installed them & Dominique D must have been there/lent him the keys!) all we got was answer machines, so we were wondering if they were both off on their holidays – this weekend is when France goes on holiday. The hotel was full on the Saturday night, so we would have had to either abandon the furniture in the barn & hope no-one stole it (couldn’t leave the plants – they would die without water) or take a whole vanful back to England, unload & do it all again later (I’m guessing we’d have left the furniture to take its chances!!), if we could get a tunnel crossing without paying an extra (full?) fare…

Delight again, then, when Dominique B’s daughter called when we were at the bar to say her father had keys & we could collect them the next day. After the stress of thinking my holiday was off, a 90 (100?) mile round trip seemed like the answer to a prayer.

We were nearly at Troyes the next day (in yesterday’s [sweaty] travelling clothes) when Dominique D called to say he’d left a key under a brick in the barn & Dominique B had emailed David to let him know! Too late to turn back, we carried on!

That’ll teach David to leave the office before we go on hols! Or to leave his out-of-office in 2 languages! When we finally got to the house (did a shop in Troyes & had lunch), we found the key DD had left – under a brick David had looked under on Friday night! It was covered in dust & he hadn’t seen it by torchlight; it was only just visible in broad daylight & by then we knew where to look.

At least we appreciate staying in our house a lot more now.

Angelus starting… (I’m writing this on Sunday 30th).

I’m getting writer’s cramp – p.c. at home, but I still want to blog, so handwriting this (and now copy typing; much more fun!); not used to it!

You know that old Chinese curse…?

..."May you live in interesting times!"

Have had an interesting day... Got a call at 8am this morning: the Operations Manager at a motorway services; my mum was in a lot of pain, they had called an ambulance & the paramedics were taking her off to hospital... Apparently mum thought she had really bad wind (as well as the pain, she had a distended abdomen)! I called mum's mobile (in case the ambulance people hadn't switched it off), and spoke to a lady paramedic who said she was already off her head (she didn't put it quite that way!) on morphine with a suspected kidney infection, and they were just arriving at the hospital. I waited about 10 minutes & called A&E who hadn't heard of her, but hearing that she was likely to be going to urology, transferred me to a lady who dealt with ward admissions. She didn't have any record of her either, but said she'd call me next time she was in A&E, and took my name & number. About half an hour later, she called me back to say mum had been in A&E for about 35 minutes (must have not been registered straight away?). I spoke with an A&E sister who said her obs were fine, and that she’d been given painkillers & was waiting for blood tests and X-rays.

By this time, John & Rich were on there way to the hospital (Rich to collect mum’s car from the services, if necessary), so I called them to let them know I’d tracked her down (when I spoke to them before they left the house, I didn’t know where she was), and could they call me when they got there. I didn’t want to try and travel up to Sutton Coldfield if she was going to be released fairly soon (I reckon it would probably take me about four hours to get to the hospital, if I got really lucky with train times, and knowing that they’ve changed the way they charge for travel I would have had to pay full fares – could be a couple of hundred pounds?), so all I could do was sit near the phone & wait. Normally in a circumstance like this I’d be straight on the phone to David getting some moral support… But guess who’s in Germany with his phone inaudible owing to motorcycle noise! I couldn’t even chat to Rich for long, as his batteries were low on his mobile.

A little later, Rich called; they had been in to see mum (who was understandably woozy – the morphine still clearly working), but got kicked out almost immediately as they were going to give her another painkiller that should reduce the abdominal bloating, but French style! I can still remember that from having bronchitis as a five-year old!

Thankfully Rich called back fairly soon to tell me that mum had got four enormous kidney stones (about 3/8”), and that kidney stones are often very hard to spot on X-ray, but these were obvious! They were talking about keeping her in hospital overnight, so I’d written off her visit to us (and she was due to come to France for a flying visit, as well). I went from really worried to ecstatically relieved and then to really disappointed that she’d miss her visit. Because there was some blood in her urine, she had to see a surgeon – not for surgery, but apparently he’s the person you see for kidney stones! As the stones had already left her kidney, she couldn’t have ultrasound, so it was “wait & see”, oh, and “drink lots of fluids”.

The surgeon said she needed a scan, so more waiting. After about 4 hours I called Rich again, but she still hadn’t appeared, so he went in to check what was happening. A few minutes later I got a call to say she’d been discharged 40 minutes earlier, but he couldn’t find her anywhere! Massive relief that she’d been discharged (they wouldn’t have let her go if she wasn’t on the mend), but no surprise that she’d gone AWOL! Something about ‘leopards’ and ‘spots’ sprang to mind…!
Just got a call – she’s on her way to collect her car from the motorway services, have something to eat (her first meal all day), and then she’s coming down. That’s the spirit that survived the Blitz!!

I’ve sat at home, doing nothing (other than a load of laundry – house is tidy, & didn’t want to leave the phone to do shopping) for over 8 ½ hours, but it’s been one of the more exhausting days of my life!

Mum: glad you’re going to be OK!! And is that enough excitement for you?

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A Big Thank You to Computer Aided Draughting Services

I need to say a massive thanks (long overdue; apologies!) to John D Knighton of Computer Aided Draughting Services. It's seemed a long old haul to get to this point: we can nearly see some of the proposed changes to the layout becoming reality. Apart from a fertile imagination, the main thing that has kept us positive is the help we've received from John - he has been producing plans and virtual rendered images (I think that's the term; if not please let me know & I will change it!) that have made it all seem real.

Visiting a house that's a fair way away (at least 5 hours travelling each way) makes it more difficult to visualise how each room could/will look - and we can't just 'pop round' to check we've made the right decision. When we are there, we can lay out bits of wood on the floor to show where we are planning kitchen units or partition walls or doors etc, but trying to remember that when we're back at home is tricky to say the least. John has uncomplainingly made massive changes to our plans, and numerous 'fine-tuning' adjustments as we have thought through the implications of each of our decisions, and his rendered images have helped (David particularly) to "see" how it's going to be.

All I can say is: Massive thanks to you, John. And if you are reading this and need drawings or 'visualisations' for a project, John has been (almost scarily) efficient & at times has had to badger the clients (rather than the other way round)! Also, the plans he has drawn up for later phases of our renovation are suitable to give to a French architect (when we appoint one), so that will save us a considerable amount of money… So, if you would like to contact him, (or to have a look at another of his projects) please click on this link to his website: Computer Aided Draughting Services

Garden

We were planning to think about the garden after getting the apartment in the house liveable/finished… That now seems still quite a way off, so this year we decided to start on the garden.

There is a front yard that had been used to store old machinery and equipment, so even if it ever was a garden it hasn’t been one recently. The house faces South and the view is over Champagne vineyards in the gently sloping valley, so the (planned!) patio in front of the kitchen would have an even better view if there was a garden in front of it rather than… Well, soil & weeds & bits of builders’ rubble! Oh, and more bones & teeth than I was expecting; a reminder that it used to be a fermette!

Last summer we had cleared most of the space of weeds (and pile of stones!), but when we got back there in November it didn’t look as though we had done anything. Great fun in April, then, when we had bought a load of plants (nearly 150) to plant on a long weekend!

But now we do have a (fledgling) garden. Visiting in May meant another weeding marathon, but most of the plants had survived, and many were flowering, so we were really pleased!

When I’m there this trip, I plan to spend the cool part of the early morning (i.e. before about 9 am!) doing weeding/hoeing, and maybe a bit more in the evenings, so hopefully I should get on top of it – fingers crossed! When we were at the neighbours gîte in June I went round several mornings while David was able to have a lie-in & was happily bashing away at the weeds before 7.30 (one day before 5 – very productive!). The only worry I had was if anyone saw me carrying my huge mug of green tea round there they might think I’m weird! But I was consoled when I remembered they probably think I’m weird anyway because I’m English!

I never thought I'd see the day when my wish-list contains a piochet (I don't know what it is in English, it's not in my dictionary or on Babel Fish; I think it's a type of mattock?) - never have been a Jimmy Choo type of girl, but seem to be getting less girly as I get older! Scarily, that seems to run in the family (Hi, Karen!)...

Apologies to Flickr™

I store a lot of my digital photos on Flickr™, and have tried to post a photo here by clicking on the 'Blog This' button - it worked fine, but the text saying where it came from was so tiny that it just looked like a broken line. I don't know if that was because I edited the text in Blogger™ after posting it or if I did something else wrong? I also tried to do one of their groovy 'dynamic badge' things, and that just came up blank...

I'm a bit concerned that by uploading my photos from the computer I might be infringing the Community Guidelines as it says "However, pages on other websites that display images hosted on flickr.com must provide a link back to Flickr from each photo to its photo page on Flickr." I don't know if that includes images stored on Flickr™, but not posted to the blog from Flickr™... I can't believe that I lose control of my images that easily, but working with lawyers a lot over the years makes me worry about inadvertantly doing the wrong thing!

Hmmm!? I'm hoping that giving them a mention in this post might make up for the lack of links...? Apart from this (minor) problem I love Flickr™ - great to mail to friends who can view the latest photos as a slideshow (and flick through them as quickly as they like!), and just browsing other people's photos is fun.

Might give it another go, another day & if I still can't get it to post a legible/visible link to Flickr™ I guess I'm going to have to contact the Support Team...

Home Alone

David is off to Germany, to do a Motorrad course at the Nürburgring (Nordschleife), and a half-day's riding first, so I'm home alone! He was deciding yesterday what colour gaffer tape (Duck® tape) would best go with the bike for reattaching a loose bit of fairing... For those of you interested in the selection process, apparently black is more stylish!

The photo is here as a reminder of what NOT to do. At the start of the season last year, he came off at Brands Hatch on his first track day, but this year he's been for a few rides to get in practice so that he enjoys the German trip.

When he gets back, we are hiring a van to go to France & take a load of furniture (we keep reading about how cheap/easy it is to buy secondhand furniture at vide-greniers or dépôts-ventes, but so far all we've seen are really expensive [and nasty!] items - I'm keeping an eye on The Evergreen Trust furniture warehouse now!).

I'm hoping the bird survived... Watch this space & keep your fingers crossed that I'm not reporting on a load of tiny corpses! Oh, sorry, didn't do that post yet (we think it's a Redstart that has nested under the beam in the entrance hall)...

Holkham Linseed Paints

As promised, a bit more information about the wonderful paint used on our windows (as before, watch this space for news of the doors & shutters)...

For more of the background, please click on this link to the Holkham Linseed Paints website - it's an interesting story! But the short of it for me was that this sounded like a paint that met all my criteria:
a) Environmentally friendly - made from only linseed oil & natural pigments;
b) Low-odour - no solvents;
c) Long-lasting - only needs repainting after 10-15 years (a coat of warm linseed oil after 5-7 years will refresh the colour in the meantime);
d) Doesn't crack on exposure to the elements - the linseed oil penetrates the wood grain rather than sitting on top, and allows the wood to 'breathe', so preventing rot/decay;
e) Doesn't need sanding back before repainting - my personal favourite;
f) Really pretty soft greeny-grey colour - Wild Sage!

As the website points out, the paint is more expensive than conventional paints, but most of the cost in repainting comes from the labour required to strip back old, peeling/cracked/flaking paint. Also, conventional paint needs replacing/renewing after 3-5 years, so the paint cost itself adds up over the long-term... If you are still reading this blog in 15 years, I'll let you know!!
It all sounded so wonderful, I passed on the details to my cousin (who is having a house built in the Vendée - hi Karen!) in case she would be interested. She bought a tester pot, tried it out & gave it the thumbs up! As we have both done a lot of painting over the years, I trusted her evaluation, so we ordered as much paint (& all the associated bits 'n' bobs) as we needed and took them out to France.

The paint is applied on top of a coat of warmed pure linseed oil, using a different kind of brush, needs special soap to wash the brushes (no white spirit!), uses different filler etc, etc, so we had a box full of stuff that we delivered to the carpenter's workshop. Holkham Linseed Paints are collecting together translations of the instructions (other people have either used non-English speaking workmen or taken the paint abroad), but did not have a French version. As the whole system is so different to standard paints & their application, instructions are vital... So, I did my best translation using schoolgirl French & Babelfish (some interesting choices were made!). Then David worked his magic and turned it into French! Dominique B seemed to think it read OK, so David has emailed the Word document to Holkham to add to their files. [If you haven't read the previous post: the carpenter loved the paint so much he was asking where he could buy it for himself; we had been worried he wouldn't like it, and therefore refuse to use it.]

The finished windows look beautiful, and it's quite odd to walk into a room (bearing in mind the house has been closed up since the windows were installed) and smell putty rather than headache-inducing solvents!

Whew! That was a long post; but it's not so often you come across a product you want to rave about. And when you do, you want to spread the word! Oh, and the people at Holkham were also incredibly friendly and helpful - did I mention that yet? Keep up the good work!

New Windows

Our lovely new windows (a massive thanks to Dominique B & his crew; fantastic work guys!) are an exact copy of the old windows, created in the workshop of a true artisan. The carpenter has done restoration work on the Cathedral and mediæval quarter in Troyes (the knitware capital of France!), and he really knows his stuff.

He kindly agreed to paint our windows with the paint of our choice, which I'd read about in a newspaper article years ago (and saved in case I ever got around to stripping the windows at home; that hasn't happened!) - Holkham Linseed Paints. We were worried that being a strange, foreign (foreign to us, too!) idea the carpenter wouldn't like the paint, but he loved it and was asking us where he could buy it. Sorry, French buyers, Holkham does not ship outside the UK (yet?)! The Wild Sage colour is (to me!) perfect to match the mellow creamy colour of the stone buildings in the Aube.

I think Holkham Linseed Paints deserve more of a mention, so watch this space! But meanwhile back to the windows...

This is a bit of a "Spot-the-difference" moment - one of the old windows fell apart whilst it was being removed, so the removal was probably not before time! Dominique D (the builder) had nagged us for ages to change the windows, but we didn't want new, characterless, replacements. Thankfully he introduced us to Dominique B (the carpenter), and we haven't looked back!

It was fascinating seeing the windows during the fabrication process (particularly so for me; my father used to be a one-man-band builder, and did a lot of woodwork in his own woodworking workshop - he would have loved the set-up in Charmont!). And yes, Dominique D, you were right! His argument had been: "Why are you putting all this insulation in, when you have draughty windows and doors?". Now we have double-glazed windows (with rubber [silicone?] seals on the casements) - so efficient we can barely hear the Angelus !!

Now we are looking forward to new front doors (yes, for some reason we have two!) and shutters (particularly the shutters, as the combination of angle-iron and bolts to open and close them loses a little of the thrill after a few days!).

History...

I thought I should probably put some more details in about the house...

The house is attached to a (single-storey) stable and (two-storey) barn, all under the same roof. The living accomodation was all on the ground floor (to the left of the building), with a grain-loft above it. (Old layout above)

We are currently turning the living area into a self-contained appartment that we can heat in the winter (and close off from the grenier - there's no way we could heat that!), so that we can go and stay at the house all year round. Our estate agent recommended Dominique to us as a builder, so he is doing the building & plumbing work for us. We have already had the bathroom/WC/bedroom/lounge/kitchen knocked through to create one large living space - kitchen/dining/living room, and a steel joist put in to hold up the floor above.

We plan to have the bedroom where the old study was - this room needed very little structural work; keep the hall as an entrance hall & put a loo, shower room/laundry & cupboards in the back hall/logstore area. This was earth floors and... well, not much else!
We now have the metal rails that the insulation fits into & plasterboard is attached to in place. We can really get the feeling of the new layout; we (and visitors) are looking forward to the loo moving - at the moment it is in the middle of the kitchen (using the existing pipe to the mains drainage) in full view of the road if the door/shutters are open! (See previous post for a photo!)

First Step

Not sure quite how to start this; I'm new to blogging and am only doing this to update all our interested family & friends on the progress of our restoration project in France...

For those of you who don't know the story (& assuming, if you're still reading this, that you want to know), we bought a beautiful old fermette in the south of the Champagne region in eastern France. It was love at first sight (or as I'm learning to say: "un coup de cœur"!) and we have not looked back. The house had been empty for nearly 20 years when we bought it, and was not habitable to our way of thinking... There was an earth closet in the garden (I know, very up-to-date and green - except that it was completely derelict), and no indoor plumbing (although we had the original sink in the entrance hall - it looks like a shelf for the builder's radio in the picture!), although water was connected to the house. We were lucky enough to have mains drainage to the edge of the road by the house (for anyone who owns, or dreams of owning, a house in France that will mean a lot to them!) and electricity as well.

It's starting to get boring now, so I'll get to the point:

Latest progress - we have started to create a garden, have partition walls in the old logstore (and concrete floors; better than the earth floor that was there) & beautiful new windows on the ground floor. We do have an indoor toilet now (have had it for nearly a year), but it is still a bit open plan... We are really looking forward to when the partition walls are finished and the loo can move to its permanent position - that should be done before we next visit, but we are running on French builder's time here, so who knows?

All the ceilings (in phase I) have plasterboard (and insulation) and several of the walls have been insulated too; it is noticeable how quickly the house heats up now. The focus on insulation and double glazing is owing to the Continental climate (we are far enough east in Europe to have Continental climate - hot summers; cold winters). I bought a minimum-maximum thermometer last year and left it at the house over the winter: the minimum temperature recorded was -8ºC (indoors!). I know those people who live in places like Northern Canada, Russia etc will think that's quite balmy, but for the nesh Southeners (yes, I have turned into one!) of England that is just too cold for happiness!

Having not known how to start, I don't don't know how to sign-off (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get better with practise!), so... 'Bye!