Day 5, continued

Jean-Marie did show up eventually, by which time we'd spoken with M. Huguenot and sorted out almost all his queries regarding electrics: height of switches/wall lights, location of sockets, etc.

We do have a lighting plan [and this time it has been updated - SO much easier than my pale blue pen amendments!], but when faced with stone walls that we are keeping visible, things have to "give", and that includes placements of power points vs joints in the stonework.

He seems OK with it, and we're happy, so that was painless.The builders are at the stage where they seem to be rattling along.

They get all the "glory" bits - knocking down walls, building walls, breaking through windows, finishing around openings - it's all relatively rapid, with a lot to show for a day's effort.

David is really impressed by how fast they are going; I'm happy with progress, but being much more familiar living on a building site, know that all trades work equally quickly, but you only "see" the bits the builder, tiler & joiner do...

Plumbers, electricians (and especially anyone doing air-conditioning) tend to have so little to show on the finished project it can be easy to wonder why they seem to spend the longest time on site.

Answer: try living somewhere where they haven't spent much time on site, and you'll soon know why...

Just the one light and two sockets in a room brings more inconvenience than waiting the extra week or two to get an adequate supply of power!View from our bathroom window.

OK, so it's not a window yet, and it won't be a bathroom for quite a long time, but it's definitely a view!

We're off for apéros with Lydie & Laurent to meet Aude's friend's [Anna?] parents: we're wearing our other hats as "exchange visit brokers", so until the girls are safely back from Stuart & Tracey's we'll be keeping everything crossed that everyone gets there safely/gets on/has fun/gets home safely!

And I'm keeping everything crossed that with me on site everything will go smoothly with this phase of our renovation...