Dominique Drouot’s insurance
M. Boyer has spoken with Dominique’s insurance company – there is a problem getting copies of his certificates. M. Boyer thinks this is because either Dominique has stopped paying his premiums, or because there is an existing claim being made against him. Either of which doesn’t look good. Apparently M. Boyer needs to contact the head office in Paris to get copies, which he is trying to do. Bureaucracy always takes time!
In the meantime, he believes that Dominique is not insured for: insulation, metalwork, building work and plumbing. So that’s pretty much got our job covered! Obviously this will influence whether Dominique can re-do the work, so we need to know the answer…
Thursday, May 03, 2007
March visit 3
Meeting with M. Boyer
We went to M. Boyer’s office (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that) for an all day meeting (9 –5.30, phew!). It seems as though there were no points left unaddressed, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten most of them by now. We looked at some sketches (by the end, I knew that we’d have to send some scanned alterations, but I can only think in French for a certain time before losing the will to live!), and David has christened M. Boyer “nitpicker pursuivant”. This made me think of a certain beautiful young lady of my acquaintance (hi M – you know who you are!), but nitpicking to the highest level is what we need!
The Boyers took us to see their house; they are in the process of renovating an old house themselves and are keen to use environmentally friendly processes wherever possible. We really liked the hemp/lime wall covering – it’s rougher than plaster, but apparently a really good insulator (doesn’t need rock wool or glass fibre as well). Also, the finish can be left as it is; no painting, I like that idea! If all our insulation/plasterboard has to come out (and it sounds as though it does!), that would be a very good alternative.
While we were saying goodbye to the Boyers, a flight of cranes went overhead; they sure are noisy brutes! It was lovely to see them; perhaps we’ll get around to trying to see them nesting next year… Once we’d seen the first skein, we saw them again several times on the journey home. They fly much more untidily than geese, whose neat V-formation made it comparatively easy to tell the difference. Also, if they are low, the noise gives the game away!
We went to M. Boyer’s office (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that) for an all day meeting (9 –5.30, phew!). It seems as though there were no points left unaddressed, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten most of them by now. We looked at some sketches (by the end, I knew that we’d have to send some scanned alterations, but I can only think in French for a certain time before losing the will to live!), and David has christened M. Boyer “nitpicker pursuivant”. This made me think of a certain beautiful young lady of my acquaintance (hi M – you know who you are!), but nitpicking to the highest level is what we need!
The Boyers took us to see their house; they are in the process of renovating an old house themselves and are keen to use environmentally friendly processes wherever possible. We really liked the hemp/lime wall covering – it’s rougher than plaster, but apparently a really good insulator (doesn’t need rock wool or glass fibre as well). Also, the finish can be left as it is; no painting, I like that idea! If all our insulation/plasterboard has to come out (and it sounds as though it does!), that would be a very good alternative.
While we were saying goodbye to the Boyers, a flight of cranes went overhead; they sure are noisy brutes! It was lovely to see them; perhaps we’ll get around to trying to see them nesting next year… Once we’d seen the first skein, we saw them again several times on the journey home. They fly much more untidily than geese, whose neat V-formation made it comparatively easy to tell the difference. Also, if they are low, the noise gives the game away!
March visit 2
New shutters
Dominique Baty has fitted our new shutters – I was so concerned in the last post with getting down the stuff from our meeting with M. Boyer and the “breaking & entering” that I never answered the first question: it was Dominique B who replaced the chain, when he came to do something to the shutters (I think he came back & painted the têtes-bergères and hinges). He had come to the house a couple of days before we got back, and found the chain cut. He had noticed that Dominique D’s stuff was missing, so we think DD must have gone to the house, knowing that we were due there at the weekend. Sneaky, I think just about sums up how I feel about him at the moment!
Because it had been so rain-soaked, the paint that Dominique B had touched up was still wet and that, coupled with the knowledge of how the damp upsets new joinery, made us reluctant to open the shutters. So we didn’t! Of course that meant no sun got into the house, so it didn’t warm up much.
Dominique Baty has fitted our new shutters – I was so concerned in the last post with getting down the stuff from our meeting with M. Boyer and the “breaking & entering” that I never answered the first question: it was Dominique B who replaced the chain, when he came to do something to the shutters (I think he came back & painted the têtes-bergères and hinges). He had come to the house a couple of days before we got back, and found the chain cut. He had noticed that Dominique D’s stuff was missing, so we think DD must have gone to the house, knowing that we were due there at the weekend. Sneaky, I think just about sums up how I feel about him at the moment!
Because it had been so rain-soaked, the paint that Dominique B had touched up was still wet and that, coupled with the knowledge of how the damp upsets new joinery, made us reluctant to open the shutters. So we didn’t! Of course that meant no sun got into the house, so it didn’t warm up much.
March visit 1
Journey down
On the journey down, we were amazed at how much standing water we saw. We’d just missed the rain, judging by the road surface, but fields were absolutely sodden, once more, and streams had overflowed their banks. England has had plenty of rain, but had been dry for a while before we left home, so we weren’t expecting that.
Needless to say, the garden was, still (again?), so soggy that we couldn’t get on to it to weed! Boo… It needs it, desperately.
When we chatted with the neighbours, they all told us that the rain had only just stopped before we got there – we’d missed the flooding, but still saw the evidence of enormous rainfall when we were leaving four days later, so they really did have it come down.
My obsession with how cold our house gets was fuelled by a look at the thermometer… –11°C, inside, of course. I think it was down to –15/16°C outside – really must buy another minimum/maximum thermometer!
One thing I found upsetting, not in itself, but in case it had been left for us, was the mummified cat I found upstairs. Thinking it over later, we think it had probably got itself caught in the rafters and an owl (or another cat) had knocked it off much later. I know the wind can’t have blown it, because the house has been shut up, and in the summer I had all the doors and windows propped open, letting a howling gale through on some days. I know it sounds paranoid to think someone might do something as nasty as leaving a dead cat in our house. Until last summer I wouldn’t have thought of such a thing, but we were talking with M. Lorin about his tractor (we’d said he could leave it in our barn again if he wanted), and he said thank you, but no. The last time someone had put sugar in his fuel tank. The thought of someone trespassing on our land to do something that mean was disquieting. Oh, well!
On the journey down, we were amazed at how much standing water we saw. We’d just missed the rain, judging by the road surface, but fields were absolutely sodden, once more, and streams had overflowed their banks. England has had plenty of rain, but had been dry for a while before we left home, so we weren’t expecting that.
Needless to say, the garden was, still (again?), so soggy that we couldn’t get on to it to weed! Boo… It needs it, desperately.
When we chatted with the neighbours, they all told us that the rain had only just stopped before we got there – we’d missed the flooding, but still saw the evidence of enormous rainfall when we were leaving four days later, so they really did have it come down.
My obsession with how cold our house gets was fuelled by a look at the thermometer… –11°C, inside, of course. I think it was down to –15/16°C outside – really must buy another minimum/maximum thermometer!
One thing I found upsetting, not in itself, but in case it had been left for us, was the mummified cat I found upstairs. Thinking it over later, we think it had probably got itself caught in the rafters and an owl (or another cat) had knocked it off much later. I know the wind can’t have blown it, because the house has been shut up, and in the summer I had all the doors and windows propped open, letting a howling gale through on some days. I know it sounds paranoid to think someone might do something as nasty as leaving a dead cat in our house. Until last summer I wouldn’t have thought of such a thing, but we were talking with M. Lorin about his tractor (we’d said he could leave it in our barn again if he wanted), and he said thank you, but no. The last time someone had put sugar in his fuel tank. The thought of someone trespassing on our land to do something that mean was disquieting. Oh, well!
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Testing...
I thought I'd try to see if I can access Blogger - it seems OK so far... So, I'm going to try saving as draft & see if it will let me edit afterwards...
W.T.S!
W.T.S!
This looks as though it could be working...
Now I'm going to try adding a picture
It all seems to be working OK... Now let's see if it posts...
That doesn't mean I'm going to abandon Shoutpost - that's a really friendly site!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
New blog address...
New Blog
Blogger seems to be working, at the moment, but I don't know for how much longer - I tried twice this morning, and got nowhere!
I have set-up a new blog on ShoutPost; I'm finding it a bit tricky, but I've only just started, so it could be a 'getting-used-to-it' thing... I remember thinking the same about Blogger, Flickr, Picasa etc. in the beginning.
So fingers crossed I can get my blog updated one way or another!!
Blogger seems to be working, at the moment, but I don't know for how much longer - I tried twice this morning, and got nowhere!
I have set-up a new blog on ShoutPost; I'm finding it a bit tricky, but I've only just started, so it could be a 'getting-used-to-it' thing... I remember thinking the same about Blogger, Flickr, Picasa etc. in the beginning.
So fingers crossed I can get my blog updated one way or another!!
Monday, March 19, 2007
Today I've got the icons back in the Posting window!!
I HOPE this is going to publish; if not I am just days away from finding a new Blog site - if anyone can recommend something attractive and reliable, please leave post a comment, thank you. I'm busy with various other things for about a week, so am not going to change in a hurry, but can't cope with the unpredictability - and when it's not working I can't access the help/contact us functions adequately/at all. So I can't let Support know the problems!
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Most recent visit to the maître d'œuvre
We went to see M. Boyer on 2 March - another all day marathon, with (obviously!) a break for lunch. It was good (mostly), but Dominique is still the main cause for concern...We got to the house on Thursday afternoon, and were surprised to see a brand new chain around the gates; the old one was perfectly adequate. Who had put the new one there? And why?
The second question was answered much more quickly than the first: Dominique's machinery for installing plasterboard had gone from the house and barn, and his plastering platform was missing as well. I'm not saying Dominique cut the chain, but someone did: I found one link on the ground near the gate. It looked as though it had been cut with boltcutters and bent apart - that took some effort; I tried to bend it and couldn't make it budge! It's probably leaping to conclusions to guess that Dominique is guilty of breaking-and-entering (we already know he's not trustworthy), but someone who didn't have a padlock key but did have a house key took Dominique's belongings from our house... The only person we know with a house key, but without a padlock key (we changed that lock) is Dominique...
We told that to M. Boyer, who thinks it's probably Dominique who took his stuff. I'm not sure if it's breaking and entering if the breaking relates to the gate rather than the house, but it's criminal damage if nothing else, and we had asked for our keys to be returned in the letter we sent by courier in October (we've got proof of delivery to his business address: his mother signed for it), and told him that he could collect his belongings, but only by arrangement with us, so I'm sure that's some other law broken there. I know French law is different than English, but I doubt they let you just go to someone else's house and let yourself in when you've been ordered not to, having cut the security chain on their gate! The only reason we didn't report it to the police is that we are trying to get the matter resolved in as friendly a manner as possible. And we still can report him to the police later, if he won't be reasonable...
M. Boyer had finally had a meeting with Dominique (one that he showed up to - I think it was the 6th attempt; he was a no-show all the other times) on the Friday before we saw him. He had told Dominique there were 3 possible courses of action:
- We go to a tribunal. This now predicted to take up to four years, and M. Boyer estimates it will cost us €10,000, and Dominique €20,000 - enough to bankrupt his business,
- Dominique pays us back the money we have given to him, and he walks away from the job, or
- Dominique re-does all the unsatisfactory work under M. Boyer's supervision, and to his standards
We spent the rest of the meeting discussing the house room-by-room - what we intended the use to be, and how we wanted the layout. We'd sent him some sketches, so we are getting closer, but I'm now not happy about the layout of the en-suite bathroom, but David says we can change that. We're planning another meeting in about a month, and hopefully by then Dominique will have got back to M. Boyer, returned our keys and chosen "Option 2"...
Please keep your fingers crossed for us!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
BloggerBot
I guess I'm behind the times (as usual) when it comes to technology. I read about BloggerBot & thought "Wow! Let's give that a go!" I didn't seem to be able to get it installed correctly, so uninstalled & came back later for another try. By the time I was trying again, I couldn't find the original form to fill in on Blogger, so did a search. This came up with various posts from people surprised/sorry that BloggerBot was dead! [No wonder I couldn't get it to work! Perhaps Blogger shouldn't still be advertising it?]
Anyway, just trying the "Blog This" button in Picasa, to see if I can get it to put a caption where I want it... I love Picasa, but the help has never worked since I installed it, and the links on the website give me a "This page cannot be displayed" message. Hmmm! I think I'll probably just be sizing photos manually, as before...
"Urban fox"
Just finishing a snack in the garden...
Anyway, just trying the "Blog This" button in Picasa, to see if I can get it to put a caption where I want it... I love Picasa, but the help has never worked since I installed it, and the links on the website give me a "This page cannot be displayed" message. Hmmm! I think I'll probably just be sizing photos manually, as before...
"Urban fox"
Just finishing a snack in the garden...
New Shutters
I forgot to say, we are due to be getting our new shutters sometime this week, so the next time we visit the house, it should look completely different!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Dominique's work...
Click photos to enlarge - I'm thinking of trying BloggerBot, but would rather get this post sorted first, so Watch This Space!
Here are just a few example of why we were becoming concerned with the quality of Dominique's work. The darker lines on the concrete of the kitchen floor had appeared the last time we visited the house in October - a sign of the damp coming through where he had not laid a damp-proof membrane under the concrete. We had asked him to lay insulation and damp-proofing under all the floors.
He also let his workmen hide the metalwork on the new windows; I believe he did not know about this before we pointed it out to him. but it's another example of work that we were not happy with. Given the quality of the windows, the surround looks even worse in comparison.
Considering he's a plumber by profession, I think I could do a better job! In fact I know I can do a better job; it's been a long time since I soldered anything, but dad wouldn't have let me make a mess like this! And this is piping that was going to be on permanent display, not something that would be hidden by a kitchen unit.
This is the piping under the vanity unit in the bathroom; given that they don't just have mice over there, but a whopping dormouse problem too, this just looks like a "cat-flap" for the furry critters!
Don't get me wrong; I think dormice are cute! But that doesn't mean I want them making themselves at home in our house!
This is the leak that was under the toilet, and if you look carefully you can see the cracks in the concrete (outlined in red). As we only stayed at the house for 3 weeks since the concrete was laid, I wasn't happy that it started to crack so soon.
An example of one of the holes in the concrete; they were there before we arrived in July, so it wasn't my weight breaking through!
M. Boyer chipped away at this to see how deep the concrete was, and the insulation: about 2 inches of each, laid on bare earth; my worst suspicions were confirmed.
Here are just a few example of why we were becoming concerned with the quality of Dominique's work. The darker lines on the concrete of the kitchen floor had appeared the last time we visited the house in October - a sign of the damp coming through where he had not laid a damp-proof membrane under the concrete. We had asked him to lay insulation and damp-proofing under all the floors.
He also let his workmen hide the metalwork on the new windows; I believe he did not know about this before we pointed it out to him. but it's another example of work that we were not happy with. Given the quality of the windows, the surround looks even worse in comparison.
Considering he's a plumber by profession, I think I could do a better job! In fact I know I can do a better job; it's been a long time since I soldered anything, but dad wouldn't have let me make a mess like this! And this is piping that was going to be on permanent display, not something that would be hidden by a kitchen unit.
This is the piping under the vanity unit in the bathroom; given that they don't just have mice over there, but a whopping dormouse problem too, this just looks like a "cat-flap" for the furry critters!Don't get me wrong; I think dormice are cute! But that doesn't mean I want them making themselves at home in our house!
This is the leak that was under the toilet, and if you look carefully you can see the cracks in the concrete (outlined in red). As we only stayed at the house for 3 weeks since the concrete was laid, I wasn't happy that it started to crack so soon.
An example of one of the holes in the concrete; they were there before we arrived in July, so it wasn't my weight breaking through!M. Boyer chipped away at this to see how deep the concrete was, and the insulation: about 2 inches of each, laid on bare earth; my worst suspicions were confirmed.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Long time, no see...
Happy New Year!
I had put the computer away in it's box before Christmas; it was in the way of where I wanted to put my little Christmas tree, and I wanted a complete break from preparing/thinking about the visit to the maître d'œuvre. After Christmas, I really didn’t want to start thinking about things again, so, it's been a long time since I updated the blog. Here goes:
We spent a long time preparing and reviewing the list of « besoins et souhaits » ("Wants & Wishes") for M. Boyer, and finally sent it off to him last weekend in preparation for our meeting last Friday. We were due to meet at the house at 2.30, but he had emailed us the week before to ask whether he could bring 2 colleagues and spend the whole day there. Of course we were happy to agree to this; the sooner we can get started, the quicker it will be finished!
Remembering how nippy it was when we measured up the house after we bought it (mid-October), we took thermal underwear (long-johns & long-sleeved tops) and thick boots and jumpers, together with our warmest coats. It was the right choice: David got a bit chilled, but I managed to stay completely warm, mainly because I had a trip back to the gîte to fetch some papers/photos – that was enough exercise to get the circulation going again. Even though it was somewhere around 10°c outside, the house was noticeably nippier. The minimum/maximum thermometer had recorded a low of -5½°c (assuming my thermometer is correct) inside the house! Not as bad as last winter (low of -8½°c), but considering it’s only been down to that level outside, still pretty chilly; and it felt as though the house had retained most of that cold!
All the neighbours are disgusted with the weather; according to different reports it's either been below freezing either once, or 2 or 3 times. And then only as low as -5°c (or -6°, depending to whom you listen). It should have been as low as -15° to -18° at this time of year. When we arrived, it was much colder in the house than outside, but it eventually warmed up significantly with the doors open for a time on Thursday, all day Friday and a couple of hours on Saturday.
The unseasonably warm weather was not enough to stop us enjoying the log-fire at the gîte – that’s one of the pleasures we are really looking forward to when our house is habitable. So much more relaxing than a radiator or gas fire!
M. Lorin has a “weather station” (I’m not sure what the proper word is) in his front room, and he said it had been up to 98° humidity! No wonder it felt so sodden everywhere; we had left a wine box at the house (in case of emergencies! :-) ), and that had sagged, the air was so moist. I’m hoping all my books are OK…
We got to the house in good time for the meeting with M. Boyer and his colleagues, but had difficulty opening the kitchen front door, and some of the windows (to open the shutters to let light in) because the wood had absorbed the damp! We found out afterwards that he was late arriving because he had finally managed to make contact with Dominique… M. Baty had told him to call early to catch him; but M. Boyer only had the telephone number on Dominique’s estimate and so woke his mother up at 7am – that will teach her to let her address be used as a business address! [Perhaps Dominique doesn’t use his own address because he’s let too many clients down in the past?] Reading between the lines, a cross telephone call from his mother was enough to get Dominique to finally get back to M. Boyer!
Part of the day’s work was to assess what work Dominique had done: what was finished; what was not finished; what needed undoing and re-doing. One of the Philippes told us that the Tribunal route could take two years, not the year we had been advised; that reinforced our decision not to chase the money through the courts – personal experience has taught me that’s one way of throwing good money after bad! M. Boyer is going to have a meeting at the house with Dominique, after his colleague has quantified the works done (and assessed how much they should have cost). So we’re keeping our fingers crossed…
We walked round the house and discussed what we intended to do everywhere, but ran out of time to discuss any of our carefully prepared « besoins et souhaits », so will be going back for a meeting when M Boyer has had chance to attach the measurements taken by Philippe 1 to the plans and Philippe 2 has looked at all the financial details, and M. Boyer has met with Dominique. A big thank you to John Knighton for sending us the plans in Autocad to forward on.
We are hopeful that by the time we next go to France (late next month?), we will have a much clearer idea of what is possible, how much it will cost, how long it will take, and whether we stand any chance of getting some money back from Dominique…
Apart from a lot of discussions about VAT (the law changed a couple of weeks before our meeting; now you don’t automatically pay 5.5% on renovations – there are hoards of criteria to wade through in the hope of avoiding paying 19.6%, but I have a nasty feeling…!), I don’t know where the morning went! Not being in London (snatched sandwich at the desk), we all went to a local restaurant for a quick lunch. Quick by French standards – but it was lovely, and they had a vegetarian choice! We could get used to that. The downside, of course being that you’d get a lot less work done. But in France they are only allowed to work 35 hours a week, so that wouldn’t be a problem!
As we were shutting up the house to go to lunch, we found we couldn’t shut the kitchen front door. Panic! So we jammed it shut, and hoped for the best… Not that it would have made too much difference; we couldn’t lock the other front door! The 3 hours that the doors had been open had been enough for the ambient moisture to warp the frames just a little bit more. I was not happy. [Not in a strop; just worried.]
After lunch David called M. Baty, but couldn’t convince his wife we had a problem. [David would have been the one with a problem! There’s no way I’d have left France with a door that wasn’t locked!] M. Boyer called later, and M. Baty was back home by then, so he explained the problem, and M. Baty rearranged our meeting from 11am Saturday at his house, to 2.30-3pm at our house. We had to go round and check the house was OK before I could settle down on the Friday night!
One particularly interesting thing to come out of our discussion was a type of fire that is basically an open fire, but has glass sides and front that you can pull down to make it safe at night. I think that could be the answer to one of our questions. Watch this space…
The next day, watching M. Baty was a revelation; I would have got out a chisel or plane, and started taking bits off either the door or frame, but he drifted the frame in a bit further using a wedge, and even managed to alter the way it was sited. Having checked both doors locked several times, he left us with the advice not to take any wood off anywhere until at least a year from now. David R had said the same thing, but I hadn’t realised that a door that could not be closed could be fixed in such an elegant way. He has promised to readjust the frames after we have got our central heating up and running.
M. Baty’s hair has got longer and curlier; he looked quite dashing! What is it about rugged men who are good with their hands?!!
Along with all the weeds in my garden (too soggy to do any weeding, so they're all still there!), the first of my bulbs are flowering - little yellow crocuses ("Golden Bells").
As we were leaving, Mme. Bouzenard showed us an old photo of our house; it was quite odd seeing that much colour in the woodwork (we knew it must have been green once!), and M. Thäele (still not sure if that’s how his name is spelt) had a lawn in front of the house. According to the reminiscences of the older people, he used to cut the grass with a scythe – and it was perfectly level and neat. That sounds amazing, but if you have ever tried to use a scythe, you’ll know it’s a lot harder than it looks! My efforts rarely achieved grass-removal, let alone a lawn finish! Another photo taken in 1964 when the Bouzenards were building their house showed « le baron » in their garden; it’s nice to put a face to the name. He sounds an amazing man, bit of a character, but very honest and trustworthy. We have heard stories about him from all the villagers we have chatted with. He wasn’t too hot on housework (but I knew that anyway!), and the girls who visited him used to surreptitiously wipe their glasses when he wasn’t looking, before having a drink with him. These days, sadly, I doubt parents would let their children visit an old man living alone, but all the people our age have fond memories of visiting him after school when they were children. He refused to be interred in the churchyard, as he didn’t want to be among the dishonest as well as the good people, so insisted that he was buried among the vines. He didn’t want anyone to attend his funeral, so asked for it to be at dawn. M. Bouzenard took his coffin up to the vineyard at daybreak, only to find the entire village had turned out to send him on his way; even the children had all got up early to attend. I would have liked to have met him; he sounds rather like my grandfather – heart of gold, adored children, but had his own distinct ideas! What he would have made of us, I dread to think, but I feel we are doing a good thing restoring his house to the beautiful place it once was.
My hair had been falling out in the summer, owing to the stress, I’m sure. Once we made the decision to get the place checked out by professionals (and employ someone to project manage, if necessary), that stopped fairly quickly. I don’t think it’s growing back yet, but at least I never got any bald patches (the advantage of having lots of hair, even if it is very fine!). The lovely thing about being out of London is washing my hair, and it actually being shiny, like it used to be!
However, seeing Mme. Bouzenard put all my trivial worries into perspective; I had admired her nail-polish (a deep maroon/purple colour that went beautifully with her jumper) – I thought perhaps she’d dressed up for a celebration – but she said it was to protect her nails. Apparently dark colours are better at stopping sunlight damaging the nails. But there is nothing she can do about her hair falling out; it’s already thinning (and has gone completely flat; all the curl has gone) and she’s only had one session of chemotherapy so far. She’s still having radiotherapy, (I think; my French is still not great) and has a course of chemo that will last six months, with a treatment every three weeks. We’re keeping our fingers crossed…
As well as taking lots of cold weather clothing, we took a shovel in case of snow, but it seems we missed it by a day! I tried to persuade David to phone in on Monday morning (hi Fish!) and say we'd been snowed in so we could stay to enjoy it, but when it comes to work he seems to be incorruptible; what a shame! The temperatures are due to drop as low as -12°, and snow was forecast for Monday or Tuesday [but as I can’t find a very local weather report, I don’t know if it did snow]. It was a blowy old journey back to Calais, but we had no idea of the storms until I spoke to Karen that night!
We escaped any damage, but the neighbours whose house backs onto ours now have a hole in their roof!
I had drained down the outside taps in London before we left (the doom-mongers were forecasting lows of -12°c here; what happened to that?!), but I was glad I had when we had the snow on Wednesday. Still wish I could have been in the Aube with snow, instead…
Phew! Enough already!
I had put the computer away in it's box before Christmas; it was in the way of where I wanted to put my little Christmas tree, and I wanted a complete break from preparing/thinking about the visit to the maître d'œuvre. After Christmas, I really didn’t want to start thinking about things again, so, it's been a long time since I updated the blog. Here goes:
We spent a long time preparing and reviewing the list of « besoins et souhaits » ("Wants & Wishes") for M. Boyer, and finally sent it off to him last weekend in preparation for our meeting last Friday. We were due to meet at the house at 2.30, but he had emailed us the week before to ask whether he could bring 2 colleagues and spend the whole day there. Of course we were happy to agree to this; the sooner we can get started, the quicker it will be finished!
Remembering how nippy it was when we measured up the house after we bought it (mid-October), we took thermal underwear (long-johns & long-sleeved tops) and thick boots and jumpers, together with our warmest coats. It was the right choice: David got a bit chilled, but I managed to stay completely warm, mainly because I had a trip back to the gîte to fetch some papers/photos – that was enough exercise to get the circulation going again. Even though it was somewhere around 10°c outside, the house was noticeably nippier. The minimum/maximum thermometer had recorded a low of -5½°c (assuming my thermometer is correct) inside the house! Not as bad as last winter (low of -8½°c), but considering it’s only been down to that level outside, still pretty chilly; and it felt as though the house had retained most of that cold!
All the neighbours are disgusted with the weather; according to different reports it's either been below freezing either once, or 2 or 3 times. And then only as low as -5°c (or -6°, depending to whom you listen). It should have been as low as -15° to -18° at this time of year. When we arrived, it was much colder in the house than outside, but it eventually warmed up significantly with the doors open for a time on Thursday, all day Friday and a couple of hours on Saturday.
The unseasonably warm weather was not enough to stop us enjoying the log-fire at the gîte – that’s one of the pleasures we are really looking forward to when our house is habitable. So much more relaxing than a radiator or gas fire!
M. Lorin has a “weather station” (I’m not sure what the proper word is) in his front room, and he said it had been up to 98° humidity! No wonder it felt so sodden everywhere; we had left a wine box at the house (in case of emergencies! :-) ), and that had sagged, the air was so moist. I’m hoping all my books are OK…
We got to the house in good time for the meeting with M. Boyer and his colleagues, but had difficulty opening the kitchen front door, and some of the windows (to open the shutters to let light in) because the wood had absorbed the damp! We found out afterwards that he was late arriving because he had finally managed to make contact with Dominique… M. Baty had told him to call early to catch him; but M. Boyer only had the telephone number on Dominique’s estimate and so woke his mother up at 7am – that will teach her to let her address be used as a business address! [Perhaps Dominique doesn’t use his own address because he’s let too many clients down in the past?] Reading between the lines, a cross telephone call from his mother was enough to get Dominique to finally get back to M. Boyer!
Part of the day’s work was to assess what work Dominique had done: what was finished; what was not finished; what needed undoing and re-doing. One of the Philippes told us that the Tribunal route could take two years, not the year we had been advised; that reinforced our decision not to chase the money through the courts – personal experience has taught me that’s one way of throwing good money after bad! M. Boyer is going to have a meeting at the house with Dominique, after his colleague has quantified the works done (and assessed how much they should have cost). So we’re keeping our fingers crossed…
We walked round the house and discussed what we intended to do everywhere, but ran out of time to discuss any of our carefully prepared « besoins et souhaits », so will be going back for a meeting when M Boyer has had chance to attach the measurements taken by Philippe 1 to the plans and Philippe 2 has looked at all the financial details, and M. Boyer has met with Dominique. A big thank you to John Knighton for sending us the plans in Autocad to forward on.
We are hopeful that by the time we next go to France (late next month?), we will have a much clearer idea of what is possible, how much it will cost, how long it will take, and whether we stand any chance of getting some money back from Dominique…
Apart from a lot of discussions about VAT (the law changed a couple of weeks before our meeting; now you don’t automatically pay 5.5% on renovations – there are hoards of criteria to wade through in the hope of avoiding paying 19.6%, but I have a nasty feeling…!), I don’t know where the morning went! Not being in London (snatched sandwich at the desk), we all went to a local restaurant for a quick lunch. Quick by French standards – but it was lovely, and they had a vegetarian choice! We could get used to that. The downside, of course being that you’d get a lot less work done. But in France they are only allowed to work 35 hours a week, so that wouldn’t be a problem!
As we were shutting up the house to go to lunch, we found we couldn’t shut the kitchen front door. Panic! So we jammed it shut, and hoped for the best… Not that it would have made too much difference; we couldn’t lock the other front door! The 3 hours that the doors had been open had been enough for the ambient moisture to warp the frames just a little bit more. I was not happy. [Not in a strop; just worried.]
After lunch David called M. Baty, but couldn’t convince his wife we had a problem. [David would have been the one with a problem! There’s no way I’d have left France with a door that wasn’t locked!] M. Boyer called later, and M. Baty was back home by then, so he explained the problem, and M. Baty rearranged our meeting from 11am Saturday at his house, to 2.30-3pm at our house. We had to go round and check the house was OK before I could settle down on the Friday night!
One particularly interesting thing to come out of our discussion was a type of fire that is basically an open fire, but has glass sides and front that you can pull down to make it safe at night. I think that could be the answer to one of our questions. Watch this space…
The next day, watching M. Baty was a revelation; I would have got out a chisel or plane, and started taking bits off either the door or frame, but he drifted the frame in a bit further using a wedge, and even managed to alter the way it was sited. Having checked both doors locked several times, he left us with the advice not to take any wood off anywhere until at least a year from now. David R had said the same thing, but I hadn’t realised that a door that could not be closed could be fixed in such an elegant way. He has promised to readjust the frames after we have got our central heating up and running.
M. Baty’s hair has got longer and curlier; he looked quite dashing! What is it about rugged men who are good with their hands?!!
Along with all the weeds in my garden (too soggy to do any weeding, so they're all still there!), the first of my bulbs are flowering - little yellow crocuses ("Golden Bells").
As we were leaving, Mme. Bouzenard showed us an old photo of our house; it was quite odd seeing that much colour in the woodwork (we knew it must have been green once!), and M. Thäele (still not sure if that’s how his name is spelt) had a lawn in front of the house. According to the reminiscences of the older people, he used to cut the grass with a scythe – and it was perfectly level and neat. That sounds amazing, but if you have ever tried to use a scythe, you’ll know it’s a lot harder than it looks! My efforts rarely achieved grass-removal, let alone a lawn finish! Another photo taken in 1964 when the Bouzenards were building their house showed « le baron » in their garden; it’s nice to put a face to the name. He sounds an amazing man, bit of a character, but very honest and trustworthy. We have heard stories about him from all the villagers we have chatted with. He wasn’t too hot on housework (but I knew that anyway!), and the girls who visited him used to surreptitiously wipe their glasses when he wasn’t looking, before having a drink with him. These days, sadly, I doubt parents would let their children visit an old man living alone, but all the people our age have fond memories of visiting him after school when they were children. He refused to be interred in the churchyard, as he didn’t want to be among the dishonest as well as the good people, so insisted that he was buried among the vines. He didn’t want anyone to attend his funeral, so asked for it to be at dawn. M. Bouzenard took his coffin up to the vineyard at daybreak, only to find the entire village had turned out to send him on his way; even the children had all got up early to attend. I would have liked to have met him; he sounds rather like my grandfather – heart of gold, adored children, but had his own distinct ideas! What he would have made of us, I dread to think, but I feel we are doing a good thing restoring his house to the beautiful place it once was.
My hair had been falling out in the summer, owing to the stress, I’m sure. Once we made the decision to get the place checked out by professionals (and employ someone to project manage, if necessary), that stopped fairly quickly. I don’t think it’s growing back yet, but at least I never got any bald patches (the advantage of having lots of hair, even if it is very fine!). The lovely thing about being out of London is washing my hair, and it actually being shiny, like it used to be!
However, seeing Mme. Bouzenard put all my trivial worries into perspective; I had admired her nail-polish (a deep maroon/purple colour that went beautifully with her jumper) – I thought perhaps she’d dressed up for a celebration – but she said it was to protect her nails. Apparently dark colours are better at stopping sunlight damaging the nails. But there is nothing she can do about her hair falling out; it’s already thinning (and has gone completely flat; all the curl has gone) and she’s only had one session of chemotherapy so far. She’s still having radiotherapy, (I think; my French is still not great) and has a course of chemo that will last six months, with a treatment every three weeks. We’re keeping our fingers crossed…
As well as taking lots of cold weather clothing, we took a shovel in case of snow, but it seems we missed it by a day! I tried to persuade David to phone in on Monday morning (hi Fish!) and say we'd been snowed in so we could stay to enjoy it, but when it comes to work he seems to be incorruptible; what a shame! The temperatures are due to drop as low as -12°, and snow was forecast for Monday or Tuesday [but as I can’t find a very local weather report, I don’t know if it did snow]. It was a blowy old journey back to Calais, but we had no idea of the storms until I spoke to Karen that night!
We escaped any damage, but the neighbours whose house backs onto ours now have a hole in their roof!
I had drained down the outside taps in London before we left (the doom-mongers were forecasting lows of -12°c here; what happened to that?!), but I was glad I had when we had the snow on Wednesday. Still wish I could have been in the Aube with snow, instead…
Phew! Enough already!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
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.
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).
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).
Monday, November 27, 2006
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
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...
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...
Saturday, November 25, 2006
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!
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!
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