Music, music, music.

It's taken a long time to come but this week we've at long last experienced some of the weather we moved to the South of France for. It's really been glorious and made working on the barn more bearable when you're not having to wade through centimetres of mud. Work has progressed at a good pace despite us having a trip to Limogues on Thursday. Philip who'd helped me out with the Lightweight was heading back to the UK to pick a car up. He'd bought a 2002 Range Rover which had been converted to LPG and he was hoping to get it back without breaking the bank. Like everywhere, the cost of fuel here has spiralled but 'GPL' is still considerably cheaper than either diesel or petrol. With the 4.0 litre engine only doing a maximum of 20 MPG Philip will be hoping it stays that way. On Friday it was back to work and with no other tradesmen due we took the opportunity to lay the screed in two bedrooms & the hall. It was great to see some of the hundreds of pipes disappear under a covering of sand & cement & taking us another step towards yet another new home.

It's been a busy week socialising with J & J our next door neighbours here from the UK with our supplies of Branston pickle & Gilly arriving back on Thursday. Saturday night we headed off to VDR to enjoy the various musical events which being held throughout the town. There was something for everyone with jazz, blues, dance, reggae & African music and watching the thousands of people wander around the town on a beautiful summers evening eating at an outdoor café made me think this is the life. Sunday we had our normal morning coffee in the bar in Najac & then headed up to Gilly's to show J & J her house. What a lovely relaxing weekend & it was just a pity that I'd be back mixing concrete on Monday morning at 6:45 am.

In front of the barn is a large tree that needs a little pruning & we'd arranged for a local artisan to call & give us a devis. After carefully surveying the tree he announced that it wouldn't be a problem and as he wouldn't want to damage it he would only be able to work on it during the winter when it had dropped it's leaves. Consequently an appointment was made for him to visit in January! Bets now being taken for whether he turns up at the allotted time.

Hacking out again!

I thought I'd finished with hacking out but I'd forgotten that I still had the front of the barn to do and with the south face now pointed there was no time to waste so it was a pleasant fathers day spent building the scaffold & wielding the hacking out pick. With that job out of the way and with the weather forecast to be wet we'll be able to concentrate on fitting the insulation & erecting the 'Siporex' walls which we're using to form an internal shell. The weather has been atrocious this last week with heavy rain & thunderstorms. On Wednesday Barbara had the misfortune to be caught delivering the coffees when the heavens opened & the ground floor of the barn began to flood. She was press ganged into picking up a bucket & heading out into the torrential rain to bale out a trench that was now allowing water to flow into the barn. She also came up with the bright idea of using the chimney cleaning rods to clear a drain that was blocked with the mortar that had been brushed off during the pointing. She stood at the end of the drain & gave the rods a hefty push and released a torrent of water which she managed to dodge. Not that it would have mattered because by this time she was soaked to the skin & thinking what the bloody hell am I doing in France. There's never a camera available when you want one.

The window fitters were out again this week and we got chatting to the boss. His wife is an English teacher in VDR & they visit the UK at least twice a year. He said he's not very confident with the language but could still remember the first English phrase he was taught at school, “my tailor is rich”. A most useful line that he often uses on his visits to Primark. We asked him what he thought of British food & he said he'd noticed a dramatic improvement during his many visits to the UK but like most French people didn't understand our liking of three delicacies. Peas, they're always very big, mint sauce with lamb & jelly, as in jelly & ice cream, with its bright unnatural colours. They don't know what they're missing & it reminded me I must put an order in for some Branston pickle & apple sauce.

On Saturday we had a phone call from the Notaire to say that all the papers for the sale of the house were now in place & that the 15th July would be the date when the sale completes & we have to move out. Looks like we're going to be very busy over the next four weeks, just hope I get time to keep posting the blogs.

Viva la difference

The early starts have continued all week & by the time Saturday came around I was really looking forward to a bit of a lie in. Things have moved on at a dizzy speed and we have all the downstairs walls in place and can now see what the finished layout will be. The majority of our measurements have been correct with one major exception, our en-suite. When I'd marked out the location of the wall I'd not allowed enough space for the insulation & consequently there wouldn't be room for the bath we'd chosen. After much deliberation we eventually decided not to remove the wall but to go and have a look for an alternative bath. This came as a relief to Thierry who couldn't understand why we would waste half a day for a bath tub. On Thursday I had to spend a day working with Thierry near VDR & when the job was finished we were ready to depart out came the Ricard bottle. The people were so pleased with the workmanship that we had to join them for an aperitif before we left. There are no measures used here & I'm glad I didn't have to drive or operate machinery in the next few hours.

The parts I'd ordered last week for the Lightweight arrived from the UK within 2 days & Philip called in after lunch on Friday & was good enough to fit them for me while I laboured on with Thierry. As soon as it was up & running the trailer was attached & I was off to the builders merchants for a load of sand & gravel so we could get on with building some steps up the side of the barn. There's never a quiet moment when Thierrys about. We'd also been in touch with the Regourds & as usual true to their word they turned up on Thursday to start on the first fix of the plumbing & electrics and on Tuesday the windows arrived. It's all go again in Lagarrigue.

On Saturday we'd had an invitation to attend the home of a neighbour who had recently been elected to the local town council. It's a tradition that when you are first elected you erect a pole, painted red, white & blue, in your garden. The neighbour was a farmer & he'd obviously found the tallest chestnut tree he could & watching it being put in place would have caused many a UK health & safety officer to have nightmares. There were no hard hats or high vis' jackets just a tractor, 3 ropes, 2 old wooden ladders & approximately 200 men, women & children. After a couple of hair raising slips of the pole there was a loud cheer as it was brought to the vertical & the assembled crowd joined in singing the French national anthem over a glass or two of the local wine & a serving of cake. Viva la difference!

Back to it.

After that relaxing weekend back in the UK it was back to work on Thursday morning and as Thierry likes to start early & have a siesta in the afternoon we'd got the scaffold up by 7:30 & was mixing the first batch of concrete well before 8:00. I could just imagine what Barbara's reaction to having her beauty sleep disturbed but I shouldn't have worried as she managed to sleep through all the banging & crashing. With all the materials we'd ordered the supplier had split the delivery in two & at just after 9:00 the first load arrived. The driver was a dab hand with the Hiab and the 500 concrete blocks were lowered in to place and we were ready to make a start on building the first of the dividing walls. It's really speeding things along having Thierry's help & by 12:00 when it was time for lunch the first course of blocks were in place. I had hoped that working with Thierry would have brought my French on leaps & bounds but it's his language skills that have progressed. He's now started measuring things in English & is insisting that I correct him when his grammar isn't perfect. The thorny issue of shovels & spades raised it's head again this week & after a heated debate it was agreed that the British shovel was far superior to the French design & that as a nation we should be proud that we had made something better than the French. After all our food was still inferior & would never match that of the world leaders in haut cuisine. I did point out that the UK now boasted many world class chefs & numerous Michelin star restaurants and that we'd have to do is organise a trip to the UK for Thierry & his wife and show them the delights of the Brewers Fayre. On Friday we continued to make good progress & by close of play we'd managed to lay over 140 blocks, good going considering the number of corners & doorways we'd had to accommodate & we could now get a real perspective of how the bedrooms & en-suites are going to look.

It's been a busy week for Babs as well doing the tourism bit with her mum & aunt. There's been a couple of trips to VDR, lovely meal at one of the local hotels on Saturday night & on Sunday we made our first trip of the year to the market in St Antonin-Noble-Val. It wasn't as busy as it's been in the past so we were able to have a leisurely wander around the many stalls & have a nice relaxing coffee in the market square. I've mentioned before that there's a big UK population in and around St Antonin & it's where the estate agent we used to sell the house is based & looking in his office window & seeing how many of the properties he has for sale have been reduced in price clearly shows the impact the British housing crisis is having here.

Philip called in to give the Lightweight the once over on Wednesday & quickly diagnosed that the clutch was OK it was the lack of clutch fluid that had caused the problem. After a quick search of the internet the relevant parts were located & ordered and Philip offered to come back when the parts arrived & give me a hand fitting them. Fingers crossed we'll be up and back on the road by this time next week.