At Last!!!!! The Roof

He's arrived!!!! It's been just short of 12 months since we gave M. Huguenot, the roofer, the go ahead & at 8:00 on Monday 24th September 2007 he finally arrived. It wasn't without some pressure that he turned up. We'd been telephoning and leaving messages & on the last three Saturdays we'd called in to his house to see if we could catch him. Last Saturday we struck lucky & caught M. Huguenot working on his van, there was no way he was going to avoid us this time. In our very best French we played the sympathy card and told him with winter approaching we really needed a new roof & that showering with snow falling was going to be no fun. It must have worked as he said he would be with us on Monday. And he was!!! The first job was to remove all the lauzes & slates. The slates would be disposed of but the lauzes have to be sorted in to different sizes by hand & one more chap sat on the floor all week using a piece of wood with nails in to size them. Next all the old timber had to be taken down & new sarkin boards fitted. There's no scaffolding used, just a Manitou, and watching the men clambering over the roof with a chain saw in one hand whilst holding on to a rope with the other puts a different spin on health & safety. They hadn't even bothered with hard hats & high viz jackets! We're having 4 chien assis or lucarnes fitted and on Friday two were in place and the roof was beginning to take shape. The only problem we'd had all week was the lack of satellite signal as some planks had been placed above the dish. With England playing on Friday night I asked if over the weekend the planks could be removed so we could watch the match. 'Of course but why bother, England are not playing very well at the moment' he replies (in French)!!!! You can imagine the mess and all the dust there's been this week but we both agree it's worth the hassle & although it would be stretching things to say it's been worth the wait we're glad M. Huguenot has finally started work.

Once again it's been a busy week on the social side with our neighbours still here, P & C here until Wednesday and S & J visiting us from the UK. They arrived on Sunday lunchtime having successfully navigated their way to our door. This was despite my directions which told them to leave the N20 at the junction signposted 'Cahors Nord'. Turns out there's no such sign and they ended up going miles out of the way, Still it was a very scenic route (sorry)! We had a good week with them visiting the market in VDR & Cordes. I've mentioned Cordes before and that it's well worth a visit. Even out of season most of the shops, galleries & restaurants remain open which is very unusual in this part of France. S & J stayed at the hotel in the middle of Najac, L'Oustal del Barry, & although the weather was mixed (on Thursday it was down to 5ºC) they were able to get this fantastic picture of the château from their bedroom. We've been here 9 months and not seen such a picturesque view. It was great to see S & J and we were sorry to bid them farewell on Saturday morning.

We've been getting things in place ready for building the bedrooms & on Tuesday we headed off to VDR to source insulation and timber for when the roof is finished. We trailed round the normal list of builders merchants to get the best price and ended back at the company we used for the Perlibeton. They're new to the area and are obviously trying hard to establish themselves and offered the best price, after some arm twisting, and free delivery. Having spent 30 years having customers screw you down on price & delivery it makes a pleasant change to have the boot on the other foot. Delivery was arranged for Friday PM & this time all the items we ordered arrived so we're now ready to start work on the bedrooms. I also had to obtain a couple of parts for the Lightweight so I could fit a normal tow bar to it. After trawling the net I found the items at a dealers in the UK & was pleasantly surprised at the cost of delivery, just £5.00 to get an item weighing over 10 kgs here. It arrived in two days, what great service.

Next week we're off back to the UK. Barbara is heading up to her mums for a couple of days & I'm following on Wednesday & meeting her in London when we'll spend a few days with Rebecca & Matthew. We're both really looking forward to the trip & I just hope M. Huguenot doesn't take advantage of our absence.