Barn again

This last few weeks it's been a real struggle to come up with anything original to put in the blog. Working hard on the bedrooms & en-suites has meant that we've hardly ventured across the threshold and have little to report on apart from placo & plaster. On Tuesday we did hit the high spots of La Fouillade and called in to chase M. Regourd, our electrician & plumber. We were ready for them to fit the bathroom & electrical fittings and were hoping that they'd be able to get the job finished before we set off for the UK, you'd think by now we'd have realised we were being a tad optimistic. They did turn up on Thursday but only had time to fit the electrics so although we could now take a shower with the light on we were not going to be able to have a long well earned soak in the bath. There was a promise to return early next week & to have all the first fix plumbing completed for when we return in the new year. We'd also received a call from the builder we're using to open up the windows & doors in the barn to say he'd be with us Monday morning so it looks as if the site is going to be a hive of industry in our absence. Let's hope he gets the holes in the right places & we don't return to a pile of rubble!

Saturday we took time out to stock up on the Christmas essentials we promised to take back to the UK with us, namely wine, beer & duck. The wine merchant had obviously dealt with lots of Brits taking wine back to the UK & suggested we'd find it easier to pack the car if we bought the wine in boxes rather than the normal plastic kegs. He was right & we were able to get even more wine in than we planned. Next call was the supermarket where we picked up a good supply of duck breasts, confit de canard & cheese all of which are significantly cheaper here in France. With the car fully loaded all I hope now is that the car's suspension holds out for the duration of our trip.

Well here we are in December & I can't believe we've been over here in France for nearly a year. It really doesn't seem that long ago that I left Antalis and joined the massed ranks of the unemployed and then went dishing out the wine at M & S. It's been an interesting 12 months during which time we've had many ups, downs & lots of 'what the hell are we doing'. It's certainly been a steep learning curve & we've learnt a lot (apart from the French language) but there is still so much more for us to learn. We're looking forward to seeing all our friends back in the UK and are both quite excited about the next few weeks & no doubt by the time we arrive at Rebecca & Alan's on Christmas Eve we'll have put back on all the pounds we've lost through months of hard labour. I hope to be able to update the blog between now & when we return in early January so watch out for the update emails.