Wild Boar, 'Le Segalar' & Albi

After just over 4 weeks the roof is finished and looks fantastic. Monday & Tuesday were spent putting the gutters up, fitting zinc flashing to the lucarnes, pointing the chimney & packing all their equipment away. At last we have our new roof & we can finally get on with building the bedrooms & bathrooms and look forward to living in more than one big room. On occasions it seams like years rather than just 12 months since we moved out of the house in Holcombe Brook we really are ready to get back to some sense of normal living & we'll be working hard to get things finished very quickly now.

Having said that we've been doing a little entertaining this week with Matthew with us until Wednesday and Jane & Derek, Barbara's sister & her husband, with us from Thursday. On Tuesday we decided to take Matthew to see the beauty that is Cordes, mentioned here several times. It wasn't quite as cold as the last time we were there with Sue & Jack but at least then we were able to pop into a couple of shops in search of a little warmth. This time Cordes was shut! We walked up to the main part of the village hoping that at least one of the shops would be open and that we'd be able to spend some time 'browsing' for things we had no intention of buying but it wasn't to be. We thought we'd hit the jackpot when we spied one of the dozens of cafés actually open and popped in for a coffee. It turned out that the café owner was the only one winning anything today - €3.00 for a coffee! Having spent such an excessive amount on coffees it was time to search out a reasonably priced lunch. Gilly had told us about a restaurant in Mihars and as it was on the way back from Cordes it seemed the ideal venue for a spot of lunch & what a great place it turned out to be. I had a slice of pizza to start followed by 2 eggs & ham then chicken & chips, cheese & a dessert. This was all washed down with a choice of wine & all for €11.00. The decoration & external appearance might not have been the best but we had such a good meal we returned on Friday with Jane & Derek. Matthew timed his visit well & earned his keep helping us to tidy up & make several trips to the tip. His reward was to take the Lightweight for a spin. Barbara took him back to Rodez on Wednesday while I worked on the loft space.

Thursday brought some more visitors. Jane & Derek arrived a day earlier than planned having made excellent progress on the French motorways. No 6 mile tailbacks on roads here, especially the ones you have to pay to use. As I mentioned earlier, on Friday we headed for the 'Le Segalar' and enjoyed yet another excellent VFM lunch. How do French tradesman manage to return to work in the afternoon having had a five course lunch with wine? Saturday it was off to Albi, home of the Toulouse-Lautrec museum and a really great market. We had a good wander around and picked up some really fresh mussels for supper & what turned out to be some very tasty agneau. For Sunday dinner & in-between mowing the lawn Derek prepared us an excellent Lancashire hotpot; he's definitely going to get a return visit invite. Sunday & it was another trip to the market at St Antonin-Noble-Val. Derek treated himself to a very expensive pullover (it was very cold) and we all enjoyed browsing the stalls looking for fresh vegetables for the hotpot. On the way back to Lagarrigue we had an narrow escape as a heard of wild boar crossed the road in front of us. They'd obviously heard about the wild boar & walnut saucisse we'd picked up at the market last week and didn't plan being on the menu any time soon.

St Antonin-Noble-Val, Blackpool & The Lake District

Despite what I said back in early September about the splitting of our water & electricity supply we've had a response from the water company. I said back then that the state owned water & electric companies don't like anything slightly unusual but I've since found out that the water company is now privately owned & action things far speedier & charge a lot more than they used to. We called into see M. Coletti, the local architect, with the documents we'd received & he was good enough to help us complete the numerous forms all in duplicate. Back in a previous life I had sold a product called 'Idem' and it was only today when M. Coletti was completing the forms for us that I found out that it meant 'same as' or 'ditto' in French. I suppose all my old colleagues already knew this & I was the only un-educated one out there. M. Coletti also mentioned that he was still waiting for a response from EDF to an application he'd made for a new electricity supply back in June! It was a glorious day and as we needed to call into Najac to pick up the obligatory baguette for lunch we couldn't resist popping in for a coffee. Since the end of the holiday season the centre of the village has been very quiet but today we were struggling to get parked. The local farmers were in town & had brought their apple harvest for crushing into juice. A press had been set up connected to a bottling machine and juice was being produced & bottled in the village square. The fresh juice was delicious and judging by how much people were buying they were stocking up for the next 12 months. Being very adventurous we bought 2 bottles.

We're nearly there with the roof & it should be finished by Monday 22nd, 4 weeks to the day since M. Huguenot finally turned up. For the last few days one of his men has been tidying up and, apart from the mess the Manitou has made to the drive & the road, things are looking much better. He's very chatty & on several occasions it's been difficult to get on with things. He speaks English, Spanish, French and his native African language & says English is his favourite one as it's so easy to learn. We had planned to use a local discount DIY store to buy the windows for the 4 lucarnes but now that the openings are finished the sizes don't quite correspond to the stock sizes available. M. Huguenot said the carpenter he used would be able to manufacture windows to fit & arranged for him to call in a measure up. He called round on Friday afternoon and said that he could make the windows in about 15 days & would drop a devis in over the weekend. He wanted to know where in the UK we were from as he'd visited Blackpool & Fleetwood on an exchange visit when he was at school & that they'd had a day trip to The Lake District and it was very beautiful.

We've spent most of the week fitting the insulation & batons in the roof space to attach the plasterboards to and it was also time to use the metalwork again that we'd formed the downstairs WC out of. We had very few crossed words considering the difficulties we had locating the joists under the insulation and it really is time I invested in a cordless drill that doesn't need to be put on charge after every three screws. By Friday we only had a couple more levels of batons to fit & with Matthew visiting us next week there's a distinct chance that he will be press-ganged into giving a little help getting some plasterboards up the stairs & in place.

Saturday it was off to Rodez to collect Matthew from the airport in time to return to Najac for the Rugby World Cup Final. Surprisingly there were not quite so many people in the bar this week but despite the result a good night was had. The last time we visited the market at St Antonin-Noble-Val it was when Rebecca was with us in August & it was that busy you'd couldn't move. This Sunday it was so much quieter and it was very relaxing being able to wander un-hurried around the stalls and select some really tasty wild boar & walnut saucisse. Took the Lightweight on a little off-road adventure on Sunday and snapped this shot from the bottom of the field. Next week we'll see what it looks like without the Manitou & hopefully the same beautiful blue sky.

Allez Angleterre

England 14 France 9 – What a great result & what a fantastic night we had at the local bar watching Jonny & the boys achieve a hard and unbelievable win and really glad I invested €20.00 in that England rugby teeshirt. There were about 10 English supporters & the atmosphere was fantastic with both country's supporters standing and singing their respective national anthems very loudly (the French national anthem is a real sing along 'tune' isn't it?). At half time the home supporters were very bullish and there was quite a bit of banter going on. Second half things obviously get better for us & there was quite a bit of 'merde' flying at good old Jonny. At the end we were given a big cheer by the locals and asked if we were now going to buy all our French comrades a drink? Wish I'd had a tenner on England to get to the finals, someone said they were offering 25-1 at the beginning of the tournament. Oh and we had a celebrity supporter, Boris Johnson popped in to the bar to support the team. He was in the area filming a documentary on Catharism for the BBC which will be broadcast in May next year. It's not a bad job is it? Wandering round France being paid by the BBC having just finished 10 weeks holiday. Wonder what his constituents back in Henley would think? Work on the roof continues a pace with only a couple of wet days last week and a promise that they'll be finished by next Friday. On the night it rained, and it really bounced down we were woken by the drip drip of water on the tarpaulin we'd placed on the upstairs floor. It was a quick dash round with buckets & pans to stem the flood. The good news was that it was the part of the roof that had not had the new lauzes fitted that was leaking. The rest was perfectly dry. Once again I had to ask them to move the planks from above the satellite dish and was greeted with a smile & Gallic shrug & why are you bothered? Can't wait to see them tomorrow!

We'd popped over to Thierry Roussel's on Friday to collect some scaffolding so that I could secure the insulation to the top of the rafters and when we got back there was a bit of a commotion going on back at the house. One of the roofers had caught a couleuvre and was trying to kill it with a gutter support while the other one was running round terrified of it. He eventually managed to skewer it & was disappointed he hadn't managed to remove it's head, the only sure way to kill it instantly. As you know I'm no fan of the creatures so when they said they'd finished for the day & that I should leave it a couple of hours for the snake to die before I attempted to move it I was not impressed. It was difficult to concentrate on fitting the insulation and by 5:00 I plucked up the courage & donned some gloves, picked up the fire tongues & headed for the cellar where I hoped the snake had gone to meet his maker. It was still alive and getting pretty angry! Although I'm no great animal lover I'm not happy seeing any creature in distress and decided that drastic action was called for if the snake wasn't to suffer any longer. So it was out with the long handled spade & after a few well aimed blows to it's head it stopped moving once & for all. Let's hope that put it out of it's misery had earned me a few brownie points in the snake world & they stay well away from me in future.

Took the Lightweight out for it's first mission on Saturday and collected some timber from VDR. It performed well & the trailer was still firmly attached when we got home. It's not the fastest vehicle on the road but we get lots of looks and waves off fellow Land Rover owners. It's also strange driving a vehicle with a steering wheel on the left and carrying French registration plates, there's no longer that extra bit of leeway given by the locals to UK registered cars.

The London, 'Shibboleth' & curry

Work continues a pace on the roof with the first lauzes being put in place a week ago Monday just as Barbara headed off to Toulouse for her flight back to the UK. They look really good & I'm sure we'll both be looking forward to seeing how much progress has been made by the time we return next Monday. Talking to the roofer he says that within 10 years there will be no more lauzes to lay as the only way of getting hold of them these days is by locating old derelict properties & demolishing them which is a real shame as it will mean a long standing trade will be lost. With still no sign of scaffolding & plenty of use of the Manitou our lovely new drive has taken a real hammering. Thank goodness the rain has stayed away and we're not looking at a return to the mud bath we had earlier in the year.

I had hoped to get the trailer up & running last week but the UK dealer sent the wrong part so I was unable to take it on it's inaugural trip to the tip. I'd offered to take next doors rubbish as well & wish I had. They'd called in to the tip after a long days painting & said to the man who tells you where to put your rubbish that they were ready for a relaxing beer. 'Come with me' he says and takes them to his office where he gets three chilled beers from his fridge! What service?

I headed back to the UK on Wednesday to meet up with Barbara & visit Rebecca & Matthew for a few days R & R in that lovely, quiet, secluded, village called London. We had a great weekend visiting Borough Market, the door used in the Bridget Jones films, Chiswick, Tate Modern where we were a couple of days early to see the 'crack' (click this link to see 'Shibboleth') but people spotted Richard Curtis, Kevin McNally & Neil Dudgeon, & enjoyed a lovely long awaited curry. We left Rebecca's just before 9:00 on Monday and caught the Piccadilly line into London. What a complete contrast that journey was to the last few kilometres heading towards Lagarrigue.