w/c 12 March 2007

Monday 12th – By the time you read this a week will have passed since my visit to the bar to watch the England France match and there were a couple of things I'd forgotten to tell you about. The wonderful buffet of fromage, jambon & pain, provided by the regulars and the selection of beers. There's Kronenburg (there always is), Stella, draught Guinness & Bombardier bitter. What a choice? I've been in bars serving Guinness before but this is the first time I've seen a draught bitter on offer. Might be worth a visit when there's someone else driving or, perhaps next Sunday, when the gendarmes aren't at work! Back to Monday & it's another bright sunny day. In the expectation of M. Regourd turning up tomorrow morning it's one final rub down of the plaster, make sure everything is out of the house and nothings going to get in his way. The post lady turns up about 12:00 with the normal Monday delivery of special offer leaflets. Typical, Aldi have 'British' spades on offer at €9.99. There's also an envelope from Matthew containing a SD card with recordings of The Chris Evans Show on. Sad I know but it's good to keep in touch with what's playing on Radio 2. After lunch it's a bit of weeding & strimming at Lagarrigue & then back at Najac to do a bit there.

Tuesday 13th – Bit optimistic I know but at the house early this morning in the expectation of M. Regourd being there ready to start. By 9:30 there's no sign of him so I guess it'll be tomorrow now. I'd missed a small piece of ceiling that needed sorting for plasterboards so on with that. When I'd left Najac this morning there was a frost on the car & it was 1ºC but by the time I reached Lagarrigue it was 10ºC and now it was 19ºC. Lovely in the sun eating your sandwiches. Not wanting to do anything in the house 'just in case' I start on a bit of hacking out but I'm not sure whether Barbara will be pleased, I get this feeling she wants to be able say 'I did all the hacking out'. Up the ladder you get a great view and you can see the road down to house. I notice a white van approaching, there are as many in France as there are in the UK, could it be M. Regourd? It is! We try to communicate but then he explains that his son Stephané, who speaks a little English, is also on his way & will be there in 10 minutes. When he arrives we go round the house & mark out precisely where the sockets, switches, lights etc. are to go. We've made a couple of alterations since giving him the original plan and he has no problem with the changes. We had also decided that we weren't going to go ahead with the central heating, run from the stove, & I ask if it's possible to install radiant heaters. It's OK but they will have to run separate feeds to each radiator we require. In France they don't use the ring main way of wiring that's used in the UK. Each room has it's own separate distribution point for lights & power and this is then routed back directly to the tableau de protection. With the electrics in the house sorted we then have to decide the best way to route the water, electric & telephone cables from the barn, where they come on to our land, to the house. As always, in these circumstances, the most direct route is not always the best. After a quick consultation with the gaffer back in the UK we decide that the trench will have to be dug round the side of the barn & then across to the house. Just as we're finished discussing the work our next door neighbour pulls up on his tractor. We make our normal attempt to communicate but this time I think I understood a little bit more than normal. I 'think' he was on his way to tend to his crop of mais for the foie gras he produces. I won't describe how he illustrated what happens to the maize in the production of the foie gras, but it was very graphic. In the conversation I picked up the word café and asked Stephané to translate. Turns out Barbara and I are invited for coffee when she returns from holiday. That'll be an interesting conversation. I leave them to it and return to Najac to start the big tidy up prior to Barbara coming home. On the way I get a text from her telling me that the architect has just rang to say he has the plans for the barn ready and as I'm passing his door I call in and pick them up. On first sight they look good and I hadn't got the heart to say that we were now considering converting it in to 2 gites. We'll take time to consider his proposals and then go back and discuss it with him.
Wednesday 14th – By the time I got to the house this morning the trench for the services had been dug and work was well under way. I had to go on to VDR so left them to it, sure they'll not miss me. Couldn't resist that spade at Aldi and I needed a few bits & pieces for my very short trip back to the UK tomorrow, more of that later. I had to check the Ryanair website last night to see what the latest regulations are regarding carry on luggage. Apparently all toiletries have to be in a clear plastic bag measuring 20 x 20 cms and must not exceed 100cls. All the clear bags I can see in the shops seem to be pretty expensive, but then I spot a bargain. A set of hair clips & brushes for €2.00 and, they're in a clear plastic bag. The contents will make a lovely welcome home present for Barbara! Just time for a quick haircut, the brush will be no good for my flowing locks, and back to Lagarrigue. It's 12:02 as I get back to the house and I'm just in time to say bon appétit, two hour lunch remember. I have quick look round to see how things are going & take 20 minutes to have my pack of sandwiches. It's then on with a bit more hacking out. The Regourds are back for 2:00 and have a couple of queries regarding the work, hope I've given them the right answers. I work on for a couple of hours then tell Stephané that I'm off & will not be back now until Monday. He says that by then his part of the job will be finished and he will return when I have fitted the remaining plasterboards. Back to Najac to start cleaning up and disposing of all those used paper plates I'd invested in!

Thursday 15th – Quick tidy up and then off to Rodez to catch the Ryanair flight back to Stansted. I've mentioned before how small the airport is at Rodez so I was able to leave the car within a stones throw of the terminal and for free. Barbara would be picking the car up when she & Caroll flew back to France on Saturday. The plane was on time and I, along with a French school party many of who I would guess had never flown before, arrived in Stansted at approx. 4:30 PM. It took nearly as long to get through passport control as it had taken to get from France which was probably as well because Paul was running slightly behind schedule. Paul was on his way to the airport in his 1970 Morris Minor van that he'd spent many hours restoring and the reason for my trip back to the UK. I was to act as co-driver in the big adventure of driving the 1,000 miles down to Najac. So it was straight in to the driving seat and on to the M11 driving on the wrong side of the road. We made good time and arrived at the Channel Tunnel in time to catch an earlier train and would have, if Paul hadn't needed a last taste of English cooking & insisted on getting burger & chips, but we made the next train, still ahead of schedule. Once in France we headed for our first overnight stop at Bethune, approx 100 kms south of Calais.

Friday 16th – After a good nights sleep we were breakfasted and back on the road for 8:00 and would hopefully hit Paris before the lunchtime rush. After a couple of coffee & fuel stops we arrive on the outskirts of Paris just as the mist lifts and the sun breaks through. Traffic is fairly light, by Paris standards, and we continue making good time until a motorbike rider pulls up next to us and points at the front of the car. We soon realise he's pointing at the front nearside tyre and telling us it's flat. It then seems as if every other driver on the road has spotted the problem and is slowing down to point it out. There's no hard shoulder on the Paris inner ring road and you are definitely not going to stop, even in the 'slow' lane, & attempt to change a wheel, so Paul has to wait until the next exit to pull off the 4 lane highway. The junction turns out to be another busy intersection and we have to cross two further busy junctions before we can spot anywhere to pull in. The tyre is completely flat so it's out with the warning triangle and jack on a busy road with buses, vans, cars & motorbikes flying past. After a few near misses the wheel's replaced and we're looking for the easiest way to get back on the motorway. Paul decides on a quick u-turn and we're on the road again. The sun continues to shine and we're back on the open road south of Paris in no time and looking for somewhere to stop for a quick baguette. Paul's obviously pleased with how the car's running and is confident we'll make it to Limouges, our planned overnight stop, by the end of today, so foot down and on we go. By 5:00 we'd reached Limouges, approx. 3.5 hours from Najac, and the decision was made to keep going. Off the motorway at Cahors and we're only 100 kms from Najac, no point stopping now, and at just after 8:30 we're sat outside the pizza restaurant in Najac. It had been a trouble free trip & Paul, quite understandably, was delighted with how the van had performed. All those hours work had been well worth it.

Saturday 17th – Babs is back today & I'm really looking forward to seeing her. After a bit of a lie in it's off to the house to see how work has progressed. The first fix electrical work looks complete and there's obviously a bit more of the plumbing yet to be done. I take the opportunity to pick Paul's brain & he points out a few things that we could have done differently and a couple of others that really need to be changed. One is the top of the stairs which neither Barbara & I were particularly happy with. We'll take Paul up on his advise and make the necessary changes early next week. With the work that's already complete there's going to be plenty for us to get on with. We call at the local garage to see if they can repair the vans tyre. Turns out the inner tube is faulty & is split in 3 separate places and is beyond repair but they'll be able to get a replacement on Monday. This is the same garage that we'd called in with the Merc the day after I'd caught the exhaust. We attempt to see if there was any alternative to the expensive repair he'd suggested last time but unfortunately the answer was still no and he couldn't do a 'temporary' repair. I pass the garage nearly every day on the way to the house and had noticed an old Land Rover in the corner. 'C'est vendre?' I ask. Turns out that he's been looking after it for a customer for the last 3 years and hasn't seen him in that period. Might be worth keeping in touch with him as I've always fancied a Lightweight Land Rover. Quick dash to the shop for something for the evening meal. At about 4:30 we get a text from Barbara & Caroll to say they've arrived in Rodez & we're off to meet them at the house. Thankfully they're both impressed with the work that both I the Regourd family have done. Good to see Barbara back and I'm sure she's looking forward to starting work again.

Sunday 18th – Easy day today with a trip to the market at St. Antonin-Noble-Val to pick up some bits of food. Tried some three year old cheese which looked & tasted remarkably like a cheddar. It's unusual to see a hard cheese in France and we couldn't resist buying a small piece which was just as well as it was €7.40! Had a cup of coffee in the market square and sat and chatted with an elderly gentleman who we 'think' treated us to our drinks. Barbara had offered to pick up a couple of croissants for him & his wife when the waitress said they'd ran out & suggested we buy some from the stall across the square. He spoke English (and Italian, Spanish, German & Greek) but I think his generosity was lost somewhere in translation. We parted with him saying that he hoped we would meet again. We'll have to make sure we get the coffees next time!