Preparing for the vendange

I've just seen Michel in his tractor pulling a load of grape crates...

The lady in the boulangerie says that they will be starting next week; that's going to be hard work as the heat finally seems to have arrived.

It was 30°c in the shade yesterday (and dropped down to 20°c overnight), and I was heartily glad to call it a day when the sun came onto the potager; two hours of back-breaking work was enough for me to cope with, so the thought of full (long) days of bending down really makes me feel sorry for the vendangeurs.

Speaking of back-breaking labour, the chap next door is stripping the render off the front of his house. Purely in the interests of research [I'm not nosy, me; why do you ask?], I said hello to him on the way to the boulangerie [isn't buying fresh bread a great excuse to pop past someone's house?], and obviously got chatting about the work...

He's taking the crépi off with a hammer drill, and has got to the point where it's all hard work: standing on a ladder, and reaching up above his head, before moving the ladder a couple of feet and lugging the drill up for another shot. He's getting on really well.

I was itching to know whether he was going to re-render it, or point up the joints, and thankfully he's going for the beautiful option!

One website states that 'render is essential for the well-being of the house', but I think we can guess what they're selling, don't you? M. "Voisin" says he's taking it back to the traditional finish, which we both agree is much more attractive.

AND it doesn't discolour over time as obviously as does render.

Fingers crossed that when we have saved up enough money we can do the front of our house the same.

He was rushing to try to finish before heading off to Troyes for a meeting so I didn't delay him too long, but long enough to find out that the roofers came from Troyes and slept in the house during the three weeks that they were working...

[As opposed to arriving daily at 9.30-10.00am and leaving at 4-4.30-ish.]

Next time I see him and he's less busy/pressed for time, I'm going to ask for the name of the company that will work like that! I saw them at nearly 8pm one day, and heard them several more times. They've done a beautiful job, using reclaimed tiles, and unlike our roof have used a mortar that's very close to the tile colour to "cement" on the ridge tiles; at least our joints are starting to weather down a bit now (after about 15 years, we think).

Plus, he's got two lovely weather vanes, so they must have the right sort of eye for detail!

Oh well, shouldn't delay any longer as I want to cut another swathe through the weeds on the potager; I'm not able to leave the bindweed untouched, so I'm pulling as much root out as possible with the intention of spot treating when re-growth starts, and I would like to get that done before the autumn, so obviously need to finish clearing as soon as possible, so that the warmth will encourage the plants to grow.

It just occurred to me that it seems odd to encourage something to grow quickly, only so that you can kill it, but almost immediately that thought was followed by 'that's what livestock farming is about' (mostly), so I'm in good company!

And my end result will be food, so it's not too bad an analogy?