One of the ladies who attends Barbara's French/English language group had invited them round for supper last Friday and had said that partners would be more than welcome. Thinking it would be a room full of chattering ladies, I'd originally declined the invitation but as the evening approached I'd picked up on the grapevine that there would be one or two other husbands putting in an appearance, so decided that it was a good excuse to get the best bib & tucker out and I'm really glad I did. We had a great night out (what a fantastic house they had; lovely pool!) & there was a really good mix of French & English all trying to learn each others language. After a long French style supper, we'd arrived at 7:30 and started to eat at around 9:00, it was time for a bi-lingual sing-a-long. Someone had taken their guitar and local jazzsinger, Valerie Merz, (click on the play button to listen to her) was in attendance we and all sang along to Frère Jacques and other well known songs that will not be available on iTunes any time soon.
It's a good job Friday evening turned out to be entertaining as during the day I'd been busy helping Thierry lay the concrete foundations of a patio and was pretty knackered and I don't think it would have done much for Anglo French relations if I'd nodded off during the evening. We'd started work at 8:00, had the obligatory 2 hour lunch & finally clocked off at just after 6:40. Philip & I worked hard mixing & barrowing the concrete and apart from comments about the béton mix being too dry and was water expensive in the UK and were we saving the eau for our Pernod the day went well & meant that I can call on Thierry's help in the future.
Back at Lagarrigue things hadn't stood still & I'd had a stroke of good luck. I needed to dig yet another trench for a drain to take the rain water away at the back of the house. After the second spade full of earth I came across a concrete channel that ran the full length of the house that was obviously a gutter. All I now had to do was lay a field drain pipe in it, cover it in gravel & dig a soak away at the end of the gulley. I just wish everything was that simple.
Back at Lagarrigue things hadn't stood still & I'd had a stroke of good luck. I needed to dig yet another trench for a drain to take the rain water away at the back of the house. After the second spade full of earth I came across a concrete channel that ran the full length of the house that was obviously a gutter. All I now had to do was lay a field drain pipe in it, cover it in gravel & dig a soak away at the end of the gulley. I just wish everything was that simple.
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