Aurillac & Steres

Two big deliveries this week. Another 33 bags of the dreaded Perlibeton and 9 steres of wood. Yes a delivery of winter fuel just as the weather has started to pick up. We've had some beautiful bright mornings with a mist hanging in L'Averyon Gorge which by lunchtime has disappeared & it's been a very comfortable 27ºC. Wood for heating is measured and sold in steres and equates to approximately one cubic metre and costs €50.00. We'd ordered it from Thierry in Najac and when he turned up on Thursday we were a bit concerned as to where we were going to put what appeared to be most of Kielder forest. After stacking the 9 steres, or 1 corde, I certainly hope they'll be sufficient to see us through the long hard winter here in south west France. I'm sure Barbara does as well, grabbing one little mouse in the middle of a few twigs and hearing it squeak was more than enough of a close encounter to the local wildlife for her.

When Thierry was here delivering the wood we took the opportunity to show him the papers we'd found in the barn. He struggled to read the old form of French but managed to decipher that one of the documents was an agreement between two people to lease some land & buildings for the sum of 2 francs & 2 vache. The notaire who witnessed the agreement was paid a fee of 2 centimes. Could do with finding him! I also spoke to Thierry about the Lightweight and he said that he'd called at the garage last week & been told the same story as I was that the wrong part had been delivered. He also suggested that it might be worth looking for an alternative vehicle and mentioned a Land Rover specialist in Aurillac so Saturday we took the day off and headed north in to the Department of Cantal. It's about 120 kms away & took us just over two hours to get there and when we arrived on the outskirts of the town it was quite a bit larger than I thought it would be. We had the name of the garage but no address so panic was now setting in, how were we going to find the garage? I suppose I should have thought about that earlier but we all do these things don't we? As luck would have it I spot an old Land Rover Defender parked up outside a café and thinking the owner may be inside and know where the garage is, we pull over and head inside. Despite there only being a couple of customers know one admits to owning the vehicle and we're about to leave when the waitress comes out with someone's order. In my best French and as usual with a lot of help from Barbara I ask if she knows where the company written on our piece of paper is. 'You are English? I speak English if that helps' she says. She doesn't know the company but heads off to get the pages jaunes. By amazing coincidence the garage is only round the corner and having given us directions we compliment her on her excellent English. 'Thank you, I lived in Salford for 6 years' she replies. Isn't it a small world?

Five minutes later we're looking at very expensive Land Rovers thinking that perhaps the old Lightweight isn't such a bad bargain we just need to get it repaired and ready for the road. Not wanting the day to be a complete waste of time we head off to the centre ville and have a look at the shops & round the market (there's always one). Unlike many British towns there is still a wide range of independent shops in French towns. In Aurillac there seemed to be lots of shops selling umbrellas and it was only when I looked on Wikipedia that I found out why; it's the umbrella capital of France which should also tell you something about the weather round here. One thing for sure there are no M & S's but there are numerous restaurants all serving lunch. We choose one where the plat du jour was pavé du boeuf (think that's spelt correctly), sautéed potatoes & stuffed tomatoes. It was delicious and with a glass of rosé wine, a sweet & coffee to finish off with you really can't complain when the bill comes to €24.00.

I mentioned the Perlibeton at the beginning of this weeks blog and along with more hacking out and scaffold building the laying of the concrete floor has continued. It's been really frustrating having to wait for deliveries and we'd certainly have had the floor finished ages ago if materials had arrived when they were promised. By Friday afternoon we've run out again, this time it's my estimating, and we speed off to VDR to see if we can collect some more Perlibeton. We can only manage to find a further 3 bags before we run out of time and by Sunday lunchtime these have been laid and I'm stuck for bobbins again. Monday it'll be a phone call to a couple of builders merchants to see if they have stock. After much deliberation & debate we gave the go ahead this week to the builder who had quoted us for putting windows in the barn. By omitting another opening we've managed to get the cost within our budget and with a large patio window hopefully we'll have enough light in the living area.

Our home produce is coming on a treat and Barbara has great plans for this years harvest. Orders for chateauneuf du Hill are now being taken. It'll be a crisp light white with hints of lemons & peach & silky smooth after taste. Had a good night last Sunday with G & S at the local creperie. As I mentioned last week it's the end of the season and this was the last night the creperie was open this year so it was quite busy & the band were performing at their best. If I could work out how I upload a recording I did you could listen to the jazz duet but as I haven't figured out how I do it you'll have to get it from La iTunes.