An aperitif

After 3 more days hard graft digging out & barrowing away the barn's old concrete floor we're now ready to fill it once again with yet more concrete! We'd dug it out to a level approximately 30 cms below what will be the finished floor level and now had to wait until Thierry was available to give me a hand to lay the new floor. Hopefully we won't have to wait to long because if we have another thunderstorm like we had on Thursday we're going to need a pump to get rid of all the water. We saw a few storms & heavy downpours last year but none were as dramatic as this one. The area in front of the house was like a river & I was relieved to have finished the drains that take the rainwater away from the house. As we weren't ready for a swimming pool in the cellar. Just prior to the storm there had been a distinct rise in the ambient temperature & we were hoping that it was the start of a long hot summer with the only downside being the re-emergence of the serpents from their winters hibernation. The joys of being a ophidiophobic & living in South West!

On Wednesday Philip & his wife had called in with a pile of old Land Rover magazines & it coincided with a visit from Guilbert's son-in-law who called in to ask if we would be happy for him to put the vache back in the field? Of course we'd be happy, we thought he was doing us a favour. Last year he'd asked us to visit his farm and we took the opportunity to ask Philips' wife to translate for us. We apologised for not calling in and said we weren't sure whether it was the correct etiquette to just drop by. He said he would speak to his wife and ask her to telephone and arrange a rendezvous. She rang that night and we were invited round for an aperitif on Sunday evening at 6:30. They had a beautifully restored farmhouse that had been in the family for many years and as we walked round their home it turned out that we'd both used a number of the same artisans all of whom had gone to school with Dominque. We were made very welcome & left with a bottle of the local wine & a tranche de veau produced from the vache that had been on our field last year and were told that the meat should only be cooked for a very short time & at a very high temperature. I'll let you know next week how good it was.

Things are still progressing slowly on the house selling front & we've had another enquiry from the advert we placed on the 'Green Acres' website. The couple who visited the week before last and who were going to make an offer have now exchanged contracts on their house in the UK and have arranged to come back for a second viewing on 22nd April. We're keeping our fingers and everything else crossed. G & J have continued to work on their house this week and it's been strange hearing other English voices drifting across from their house. They set off for home on Monday and plan to return in early June when they hope the building work they're having done will be completed. I've offered to take photographs of the progress and email them with all the action. Let's hope I've got something to send them. It's off to Rodez airport again on Monday, to collect Matthew this time.