More Placo & The First Fix

After spending Monday morning plaster boarding we headed up to Limogues to collect Paul from the airport. On our way there we were once again reminded how strong and dominant the English language is. Why would a French haulage company have a tag line 'The King Of The Road'? Paul was over to start work on painting the doors & windows for their new house and hopefully between brush strokes he'd have time to give us a expert hand fitting out the chambres & en-suites. On Monday evening we'd received a phone call from the charpentier who was making the dormer windows for us to say they were ready and he would come and fit them on Wednesday afternoon. With the Regourds also due on Wednesday it seemed that at long last everything was coming together. True to their word the Regourds arrived at 8:00 and by 11:30 the first fix was complete and my plans for an easy day pottering about chopping logs for the stove was in tatters. Leaving us to it Stephané said he hoped they'd be able to return towards the end of next week and make a start on fitting the bathrooms. M. Pereira, the charpentier, arrived as promised at 2:00 & set to fitting the windows. They look great & the roof is finally weatherproof & complete.

So it was another full week of plaster boarding and finally we're within sight of sleeping in our own bedroom for the first time in over 12 months. Barbara has issued an ultimatum that come hell or high water skirting boards will be fitted & walls painted by Wednesday 28th November & I for one am not going to disagree with her! With P's help we've made really great progress and the concerns we had about how to fit plasterboards round the windows melted away once P set to with the saw and Stanley knife. While P & I were fitting the boards Barbara made real headway tapping the joints and applying the several layers of plaster necessary to finish the job.

The weather has turned really cold and every day this week we've woken to a hard frost with temperatures down to -5ºC. On Saturday P & I had a day off and headed over to Albi & although there wasn't a cloud in the sky the temperature never got above 1ºC. Although Barbara denied it I have a sneaking suspicion that she was quite happy to see the back of me for the day & enjoyed plastering the joints (perhaps that's stretching it a bit). Sunday morning we usually allow ourselves a bit of a lie in but this week we were woken bright & early by the sound of gunfire. The local hunt was at the bottom of our field in hot pursuit of some poor creature. I didn't manage to see what they were after but with the massed guns of La Fouillade after them I don't think it had much of a chance. Hunting is big in rural France but doesn't involve wearing a red coat and riding a horse, here it's fluorescent base ball caps, camouflage jackets & trousers & I'm sure everything they manage to shoot ends up on the dinner table.