w/c 5 February 2007

Monday 5th and at last we've finished the plasterboards! Despite drawing a plan of the proposed stud work we ended up having to make a 'few' changes. Thank goodness for the metalwork, it makes life so much easier for us amateurs to make 'minor' changes. Anyway Babs is delighted with the results & that's the main thing. Cleared out the other cave (cellar) this afternoon ready to spray with wood preserver tomorrow. Didn't find any vintage wine hidden away just years of cobwebs & dust. Funny how Barbara volunteered to varnish the floorboards above.
Tuesday 6th and a bit of admin to be done to day. We need to register with the French health department & I need to sort out travel insurance for my week on the piste. This could be pretty involved so we're in VDR for 9:00 and head straight for the Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie or CPAM. It's only 9:05 and there's already a queue of about 6 people, it's a well know fact that the French are a nation of hypochondriacs and that their health system is groaning under the strain. Having said that from all accounts the health service out here is superb, let's hope we never have to find out first hand. Anyway there we are looking at a sign that translates as 'please insert your Carte Vitale and take a ticket'. Only problem is that it's the Carte Vitale we've come for and, obviously, we don't have a card to insert! Merde! The Carte Vitale does not entitle you to free bottled water, it is credit-card-style card that contains all your health related information, e.g. blood group, allergies, etc. and must be presented whenever you see a doctor, dentist, (not a chiropodist, well not in my case) & collect a prescription.
Never one to panic Barbara decides there's no point waiting for someone to take pity on the couple who've been waiting 6 hours and haven't bothered to take a ticket, and she's off to find help. On the first floor we find the post lady and she goes off to find out who we need to see. She returns and takes us back to the ticket machine and presses a button. Hey presto outs pops a ticket with 007 on it. Damn my covers blown. It's only 5 minutes before our number comes up and we head for salle B. We present the forms sent to us by the DSS back in the UK and after a quick glance at them the fonctionnaire has grasped what we want & starts tapping away at her computer. 'Can I see your birth & marriage certificates, passport & bank details please?' All in French of course. Yet more merde as we hadn't thought to bring these documents with us. No matter she completes the forms and suggests we call back next time we're in VDR. It's worth pointing out here that despite what is commonly said about French bureaucracy we haven't found anyone less than 100% helpful. What they think of the stupid English is, of course, another matter.
Next it's off to the insurance broker we insured the house with in the hope that the English speaking owner is about. Merde again, he's out! We have a very interesting conversation with the lady behind the desk & eventually get across that I need travel insurance for a skiing trip to Andorra. 'Ah d'accord' and she starts tapping away at her computer and prints out a policy document, asks me to sign it & presents me with a claim contact card. 'If you have any problems whilst you're away contact this number' she says with more than just a slight smile on her face.
Buoyed up by our success with these two tasks I decide that it's time I got my haircut (and started to learn more French). This will be easy as my hairstyle consists of a deux on the sides and a quatre on the top. 'Monsieur that is very short'. Turns out the coiffeur thinks I mean millimetres! I don't get the foreign legion cut and leave with a respectable sept & neuf. A good mornings work complete we head back to the house and the lovely job of spraying the cellars with anti-termite solution.
As I sit writing this the phone rings & Barbara leaps to answer it in the hope that it's one of the kids and voice she can understand easily. Not to be, its Pierre Segond the mason we've asked to do a devis for the plaster work. Ah bonjour monsieur, then follows a franglais conversation second to none when Barbara is asked to give directions to Lagarrigue. 'Sur D922 apres Notaire take the next gauche turn et then the next droit. Look for the gris Toyota. Will he be there tomorrow at 15:30?
Wednesday 7th and the answer was no he wasn't there at 15:30. He was there at 13:30 which was the time he said on the phone! It was our inept translation that meant we were the ones who did not show up on time.
We'd rescheduled the no show stove man from last week for 10:00 this morning & Barbara had stayed back at Najac so she could pick Ian up to help translate. It was a very wet & very windy morning & I'd started work concreting up one of the many holes in the cellar when Barbara & Ian turned up closely followed by the stove man. It was a good meeting and he went away with a promise to have his devis to us within the next 10 days. By the time Barbara had returned from dropping Ian off the weather had deteriorated and it was blowing a force 10 gale. Think it's time to head for Gilly's and do some work in the warm & dry. We work there until 15:00 and then head over to Lagarrigue in plenty of time to meet Pierre. At about 16:00 and with the rain now bucketing down we suddenly realise that 'treizieme trente' is 13:30 and 13:30 is 1:30 & not 3:30! 'Why didn't he ring us when we weren't there?' Barbara asks as we head for home wet & frustrated that we've missed the rendezvous. 'Try 3131 (French Telecom's 1471 service) when we get in' I say. Turns out he did ring at about 13:40 so quick as a flash Babs presses '5' to return the call. 'Bonjour M. Segond we're sorry to have missed you'. He tells us that he's just arrived back at Lagarrigue & will wait for us to return (fortunately he speaks reasonable English). We're there in record time and full of apologies. He's very understanding and sets about measuring up for the 'crépe' and says he'll email his devis to us shortly. Let's hope he doesn't include something for his wasted time.
Thursday 8th and we drop the deposit into the architect and ask him to make a start on the plans for the barn. It's then back to VDR to drop the information off we'd been asked to supply by the lady at the CPAM office. We were seen within 30 seconds & told all was now in order and our Carte Vitales would be mailed to us within the next 20 days. Fantastique and time for a coffee. Thursday is market day in VDR and it comes a close second to 'The World Famous' one in Bury. Lots of fresh fruit, veg, cheese, fish & meat. There are also the local wine sellers where you can buy 5 litre plastic casks of vin rouge. Haven't taken the plunge yet and sampled one of these fine wines but will no doubt have a go sometime soon. I've no idea how much the wine costs but it's hard to imagine it will be a lot cheaper than in the supermarkets where you can pick a bottle of red Bordeaux up for €1.05. Admittedly it's not what a former wine advisor at one of the UK's premier retail outlets is accustomed too but it'll do. We splash out at the market & purchase some mushrooms & obligatory garlic & then wait patiently while an elderly lady customer expresses her disgust that the single tomato & bulb of celariac (think that's how it's spelt) she has selected have cost her 69 cents. On the way back to the car we pop in to the marchand de journaux to pick up a merci card for Saturday night. I spot 'French News' France's English language newspaper and pick up a copy. A French newspaper I'll be able to read, a bargain at just €2.40. We've had a good morning, remember you have to get everything done before 12:00 as everything closes then for a 2 hour lunch, but it's still raining. I think we'll be back up to Gilly's this afternoon & a bit more caulking. Tried to speak to someone at France Telecom this afternoon, they have an English speaking service, but they're as easy to get in touch with as BT. 'Thank you for calling...your call is important to us...' So why don't you answer the bloody phone?! - Grumpy old man syndrome?
Friday 9th and Barbara's keen to get on with sanding the old floorboards in what will, one day, be the kitchen. The plan was for me to get on with re-building the wall in the loft. Turned out to be a bigger job than I thought and we both end up working on it for most of the day. Paul had said to take the loose stones out, put them to one side & then re-build the outsides of the wall, backfilling as we go. Trouble was there were a lot of loose stones and I had this vision of us removing the wall all the way to ground level. Wish he was here now to for a little moral support. Eventually having removed approx. 1 metre of stonework we hit something firm. 'Quick get some concrete mixed and let's start re-building this wall' Barbara said. With Babs' knocking up batches of concrete & lining up the stone we made slow but steady progress & by 4:00 the wall was looking reasonably straight and, more importantly, solid. Time for afternoon tea and we're joined by a little visitor. A field mouse pops its head round the corner of our 'bait cabin' and gets as bigger shock as we do. Perhaps the next visit to VDR may involve a trip to the cats home. Still eager to work on we make a start on filling in the screw holes & joins in the plasterboards. A good day so think we may open one of those expensive bottles of wine, let's just hope the wall's still standing in the morning even if we're not.
Saturday 10th. It's so disappointing when you open the mail box full of anticipation and it's empty so today, after 2 days without any post, it's all excitement when the 'La Poste' lady bids us bonjour and hands us our weekly TV highlights DVD from Caroll. Thanks Caroll for taking the time, we look forward to our nightly hour of TV with eager anticipation. The wall's still in place so Barbara continues building the rest of it. She's obviously found an alternative to feet as she'd make a very good bricky. It was probably watching Oz at work in the 1st episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet last night that's given her such a good eye for the bricks & mortar. Sanded down the plasterboards & applied a second coat of plaster. Early finish tonight as we're off to I & V's for tea.
Sunday 11th. Good night last night and a lovely bottle of M&S red wine. Seams strange that the bottle left France to go to sunny Bolton & ends up back there. Much brighter day so popped over to the market at St. Antonin-Noble-Val this morning. Can't believe how many English people there are wandering round the market. I now know where I can get my Heinz beans from for when Barbara's away. There's a stall selling just English food & books & it was a real struggle to resist buying some bacon & Branston pickle! Barbara spent the afternoon tidying up & I went and did a bit more caulking.