Moving on

The last 7 days have had us on the edge of our seats & every time the phone has rung during the day it's been answered with a little trepidation & a sigh of relief when it's not been the estate agent. On Friday she did ring with the great news that our buyers money had arrived & they hadn't changed their minds. Whoopee!!!!!!!!!! She was surprised that we'd been on tenterhooks all week as in over 20 years or business they'd only ever had one couple change their mind in the seven day cooling down period, something she could have told us last week!

Although we hadn't wanted to count our poulet before they'd hatched we had started the ball rolling with the visits I'd mentioned last week. M. Hugonnet the window manufacturer (we're hoping he's not related to M. Hugonnet the roofer & working off the same calendar) called on Monday afternoon & has promised the windows & doors will be ready in approximately 3 weeks. We also called into see M. Regourd and arranged for him to visit on Tuesday afternoon to measure up & prepare a devis. We'd asked them to prepare a quote for the plumbing, electrics & heating and when we mentioned that we were considering oil fired central heating Mme. Regourd told us that there had been a spate of thefts locally involving central heating oil and that we should make sure the oil tank was well secured and the local gendarmes were now investigating. M. Regourd was there as promised on Tuesday afternoon & after a little arm twisting he also agreed to return on Wednesday morning & fit the waste pipes. With that job out of the way I could get on and lay the 12 tonnes of stone I'd ordered and which was due for delivery late Wednesday morning. Just as the Regourds were packing up the lorry arrived with the stone so it was a quick lunch & out with the barrow & spade. It was hard work but with intermittent showers throughout the afternoon it kept the dust & perspiration levels under control but on Thursday it hotted up considerably & by the time I'd finished the temperature had crept up to 22ºC. I was definitely ready for a cold beer.

With a distinct improvement in the weather you can probably guess that Barbara has headed back to the UK for a few days, funny how in coincided with that delivery of stone. I'd dropped her off at Rodez on Tuesday & she'd caught the Ryanair flight to Dublin & then had to hang about for 4 hours to catch the flight to Blackpool and although it's not very good for her carbon footprint it is cheap. As always happens when Barbara's away I get phone calls from people wanting to arrange a rendezvous, unfortunately it's always tradesmen! This time it was EDF wanting to come and install the new electric supply & after a few s'il vous plaît répéter I managed to understand the time & date they were coming. At the end of the conversation the lady on the other end of the phone confirmed the details of our conversation in English & apologised for not being able to speak it better. It turned out that she'd not used it since she was at school & felt embarrassed about talking to me in case she made a mistake. She's not the one who should be embarrassed! That was the last major thing we needed ticking off and everything should now be in place for a completion date in late June. I'd have popped the cork on a bottle of Champers to celebrate but it's no fun drinking bubbly on your billy.

Saturday I'd been invited out for a meal by G & S and we headed back to the 'Le Four à Pain'. The menu had changed and we had another great choice of freshly cooked food. I had 'simply pan fried coley' and it tasted all that much better because someone else was paying. Thanks G & S it was a lovely night out & I guess we'll not be bumping in to Boris in the local bar again for a while, well at least not for the next 4 years, as I think he's going to be a little busy elsewhere.

Now a request for sponsorship. Rebecca is doing the Cancer Research UK 'Race For Life' on Sunday 11th May at Crystal Palace and you can sponsor her by clicking here. Thanks.

Sold - Subject to contract

Looks like we're going to be homeless again soon. The couple who'd viewed the house a few weeks ago returned on Tuesday and after a quick look round & a few questions answered they retired to the estate agents car. Within 5 minutes the agent returned with an offer & after a couple of further trips the deal was done and we agreed on a price! They're very keen to get things moving and by 3:00 the surveyor was booked for Wednesday at 10:00 and we had an appointment with the Notaire at 9:00 on Thursday. Phew, I've never known things move as fast in France. It now means that we will have to get things moving pretty quickly in the barn & visits to the Regourds, Thierry & the window manufacturer were now a priority. My aunt is visiting us for two weeks at the end of July, our buyers want to be in by the last week in June so let's hope she doesn't mind sleeping in the back of a Land Rover.

The surveyor turned up as scheduled on Wednesday morning and set to looking for asbestos, lead, woodworm, termites & damp with a device labelled 'Radioactive'. I'm pleased to report he didn't find any & also gave us a 'glowing' energy rating with his only concern being that the railings on the terrace could do with being filled in. In France the Notaire acts for buyer & seller so on Thursday morning we all sat in her office, along with the estate agent to help with translation, and went through the Compromis de Vente, a 19 page document, all pages of which require a signature. Our buyers now have 7 days to change their minds & pay a 10% deposit so it's fingers & everything else we can think of crossed. In the meantime we have a bit of admin to do getting all the artisans invoices together & matching them up with bank statements in the hope that we can minimise the amount of tax we'll have to pay. We felt we deserved a coffee after all that legal stuff and called in to the bar in Najac where we got talking to a couple from New Zealand. They were visiting their daughter who was a nanny in Paris and were taking the opportunity to visit what seemed like the whole of Europe. They'd already been to Greece, Turkey & Egypt & were scheduled to visit the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia & Portugal and had managed to take over 1,500 pictures.. We exchanged email address' & were told that if we ever make it to New Zealand we were to drop in & see them. We'll have to make sure it's not on the night they're having an evening in showing their friends the holiday pic's.

Let's hope it's not a bit premature but on Saturday night we decided to celebrate the weeks progress with a meal at the 'Le Four à Pain' a new restaurant that opened in Najac last week. The village has been lacking a good eatery and we had high hopes as the chef used to work at one of the local hotels & had a good reputation. We weren't disappointed and although the menu was limited in choice the cream of nettle soup with snails in a crispy herb pastry served with a garlic velouté followed by lamb diablotin with pistachio marinade served on a bed of chickpea purée & semi dried tomatoes was a tad different to the canard & aligot which has become our staple diet when eating out. Judging by the number of people dining the restaurant is proving a great success and we look forward to returning soon.

The weather has taken a dramatic turn for the better and as I reported a couple of weeks ago the wildlife is out & about. We had a tiny lizard in the house earlier in the week & this morning I managed to snap this visitor to Chez Hill. PS; Get in touch if you need some petrol, there's plenty here!

Roquefort & Millau

Bit of an easy week this week, resting in hopeful anticipation that Thierry will be available next week to help lay the new floor in the barn. As always there's a few minor jobs to be done & with the second visit of our potential buyers scheduled for this coming Tuesday it was out with the paint and strimmer and although it is still a little early for them there is now a colourful display of geraniums in Lagarrigue. Let's hope they're a bit more enthusiastic than the couple who asked for directions on Saturday afternoon. They were booked in to one of the local gites and were struggling to find it 'in such a remote location'. Barbara was immediately on the defensive and pointed out the local attractions of Najac & La Fouillade. 'Well I hope they're better than Villefranche, that was a dump'. They'd obviously only driven round the outskirts of the town and hadn't seen the medieval centre. I'm sure after Barbara had finished with them a visit would be on their list of 'Things to do when visiting the Averyon'. We bid them bon journée and wished them a happy holiday – some chance!

We collected Matthew on Monday & used the week to do a little sight seeing with him. On Wednesday we headed over to see le Viaduc de Millau that crosses The Tarn at Millau. Designed by Sir Norman Foster, something the French tend not to mention, it is the tallest vehicle carrying bridge in the world. It's an amazing spectacle and often referred to as 'the bridge in the clouds' but we certainly picked the best of days to visit, the sun was out and we could see the bridge in all it's glory. It's only approximately 10 kilometres from Millau to the village Roquefort, home of the world famous cheese which has been around since 1411 and judging by the smell there's still some of the original batch available in the shop. Despite the delights of the Disney like presentations we decided to pass on the tour, we'd done that a couple of years ago, and headed for a spot of lunch at the 'Roq n Bar' café where you are welcomed by a guitar playing ewe. Sounds strange but the food is reasonably priced and as long as you like like salads & cheese there's something for everyone on the menu. On Thursday Matthew was treated to the delights of VDR's weekly market followed by a long and leisurely French lunch. A belated birthday present but one I know he enjoyed, the meal part of the treat that is. There's been as much interest here in the Olympic Torch tour as there appears to have been back in the UK & there were several people demonstrating in the market place in VDR. We must have missed the torch's procession through the town but we were invited to a festival promoting an independent Tibet.

Things are getting a little busier and this past week there's been a significant increase in the number of UK registered cars on the roads. Let's hope they're all here looking for a beautifully restored French farmhouse to buy 'cause I know where there's one going at a very competitive price. In Najac the Sunday market is back but still has a long way to go before it reaches the dizzy heights of the world famous market in Bury, Lancashire; there's currently only three stalls none of which are selling black puddings. There's also a couple of new restaurants opened which we'll certainly be trying out in preference to The Salamander which I 'reviewed' in April last year. I'm hoping I don't bump into the owner as someone had accessed the blog via a Google search of 'Salamander in Najac' and read my comments! Watch out A. A. Gill.

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.

Fête de gout in Najac

It's been another busy week with two & a half days working with Thierry, digging out the barn floor & selling houses. Last week we'd called in to the local plant hire shop to arrange for the loan of a compressor & pneumatic drill and after a bit of negotiating on the price, which is very expensive here, we booked the equipment from Thursday to Monday. I collected the compressor & drill on Wednesday evening and it was straight on with the work as soon I was back at the house. It's the first time I'd used such a tool and at first progress was pretty slow but after a quick phone call to P for a bit of advice it looked as if I'd be finished with the drill in time to return it on Monday morning. Once the concrete was broken up it was time to load it in to the barrow & dump it out of the rear barn door. It was nearly as much fun as going to the dentist but it did mean we both got a good nights sleep. On Tuesday I'd just finished my 3 hour lunch, we do work until 7:00, when a car with GB plates pulled up at the house next door that Thierry had renovated & was trying to sell. It turned out they were from the North East & were looking for a home in France that they could live in full time once their daughter had finished school in England. They were most impressed with the property & when I mentioned the owner would be calling by in a few minutes they were keen to meet him. Thierry gave them a detailed tour of the houses and they were interested enough to arrange a further visit when they could view plans and photographs of the property before it was renovated. So fingers crossed for Thierry & yet more English in the hamlet of Lagarrigue, poor old Guilbert. On the subject of selling houses we had another visit last week but don't think we'll be getting an offer from them. They thought the gutters ran upwards! The couple who were going to make an offer are still in the picture & are still awaiting exchange of contracts on their UK property at which time they will make an offer on ours, hopefully one we can't refuse.

We had a surprise visitor over the weekend, Rebecca. She'd been able to pick up a cheap flight into Rodez & had decided to spend a very short weekend in the beautiful south of France. Fortunately on Saturday the weather was glorious & she'd be able to return to work on Monday with a very slight red tint. On Sunday there was fête de gout in Najac and Rebecca enjoyed wandering around looking at all the various food and wine stalls & it's just a shame she couldn't take any goodies back with her. Seeing all the duck & other delicacies it reminded me of the van that visits La Fouillade on Tuesday mornings and sells live chickens, rabbits & ducks. We like our food fresh but haven't yet purchased anything from him. We also had another rare treat this week, a curry. G & J who own the house next door arrived on Wednesday & prior to driving down had rang to see if we wanted them to bring anything down with them & I'd said that apart from a couple of jars of Branston a take-away curry would be nice. They'd brought all the ingredients over with them and on Friday we tucked into a lovely chicken jhal fraizi with all the trimmings. It was a great night despite two of the plastic patio chairs they're using while they renovate the house collapsing. No surprise I was in one of them!

La Marseillaise

There doesn't seem to have been quite the same level of interest in the state visit of President Sarkozy here in France as there was in the UK. It did make the newspapers but wasn't the lead story on every front page & the French are not quite as enamoured with their first couple as the British nation were last week. The publicity surrounding the romance between Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni was a departure from the French tradition of keeping presidential private lives private and he has certainly been the butt of a number of non complimentary comments. Can you imagine Gordon Brown being the centre of such a glamorous affair, I can't!

I've been continuing to work with Thierry this week & what a mixed bag of weather we've had. The English are well known for their interest in the weather well it's no wonder there are so many of us out here in France. One minute you can be basking in the sun next it'll be raining that hard that it would put Manchester to shame. Both the man we're working for and Thierry reckon that there are now so many British people in France that they've brought their own weather with them because it never used to rain in the South of France. I had hoped that my French would improve & although I've picked up a few useful words it's going to be difficult to drop the French words for chisel, barrow, lump hammer & adhesive into a meaningful conversation. Apart from the friendly banter about the weather Thursday brought several comments about the performance of those superstars of the English football team. They make you proud to be English.

After a busy week, including working Saturday morning (unfortunately not at time and a half), I was looking forward to an afternoon off and getting out of work clothes and putting on my best bib & tucker. I'd just got out of the shower when Etienne rang to say that he'd got us some more wood for the stove & could I meet him in an hours time? So it was back on with the overalls, unload the trailer & head off for another load of wood. We've been keeping an eye on G & S's house since Christmas and had noticed that they had little visitors with pointed noses & long tails. They'd made a meal of some fruit & nuts & hadn't heard that salt is bad for you as they'd demolished a full pack. We'd cleared up as much as we could but when G & S arrived here on Saturday they discovered a small treasure trove of orange peel & nut shells in the bottom of one of their wardrobes. The mice had obviously worked very hard and I think G & S were a little reluctant to move them on but on Monday I'm sure they were hot footing it to e local hardware store for traps, poison or one of the high tech electronic mouse deterers that are popular here.

On Sunday we've got in the habit of calling in at the boulangerie in Najac and having a coffee in the local bar. This week the road into the village was closed and the flags were flying around the war memorial and there was a ceremony in progress commemorating the locals who died fighting in the Algerian War of Independence. Although there was no band present there was still a stirring rendition of La Marseillaise thanks to a cassette player.

Easter snow & wellies

Easter & it's typical British bank holiday weekend weather here in the south of France. Windy, cold & snowing! Last Friday I'd been slaving away in temperatures in the 20's, this week we had to call it a day at lunchtime amidst sleet & hailstones. I'd clocked up a few more days work with Thierry and had picked up a few tips that I'm sure will be very useful. We've been well looked after with regular coffees served, as the French do, in a glass tumblers with no offer of milk but with lots of sugar. It had been quite entertaining trying to explain to the gentleman we're doing the work for that the English refer to rubber boots as Wellingtons and that they are named after The Iron Duke who is not all that popular in France. Fortunately he'd not read the Wikipedia page that goes on to explain that the French company Aigle was the pioneer in manufacturing 'wellies'. Another conversation centred around the difference between a spade & a shovel but I'll save that for another time.

With the continued dip in temperature we'd used a bit more wood on the stove than we'd hoped and if there was no dramatic change soon we were going to run out of fuel. Last weekend I'd rang Etienne who has a small wood supply business and on Monday he called to say he could let us have a stere of mixed wood. We arranged to meet that evening and had great fun picking the wood up from his yard in the pitch dark. It was definitely the right time to go as when I unloaded the trailer in the morning there was considerably more than just one stere and the majority of it was oak. Hopefully we've now got enough to see us through to the warmer weather.

We'd decided over the weekend that it would be a good idea to get another estate agent involved in the sale of the house. There's no reduction in fees for sole agency so working on the principal of the more publicity the better I rang an agent on Tuesday & asked them to co-market the property. They asked me to email across some pictures which I did straight away & as it turned out it's just as well I did as we received a phone call a couple of hours later to say they'd shown a client the photographs and they were very interested & would like to view the house on Wednesday afternoon. So on Wednesday at 2:30, with the sun blazing down, the freshly ground coffee was brewing & Barbara was baking bread. It obviously worked as the couple were most impressed and said that once they'd exchanged contracts on their home back in the UK (hopefully this week) they'd be making an offer. To say we were happy is a bit of an understatement and although it's early days it's great to think that someone actually likes what we've done to the house. Our only problem will be if all goes ahead is where are we going to live! But we'll worry about that if things proceed.

Frere Jacques & Valerie Merz

After 50 years plus as Mairie of Najac M. Bouyssière has finally thrown in the towel. In the first round of local elections held last Sunday he'd poled so few votes that he has withdrawn from the final poll being held today. It'll be interesting to see what changes the new Mairie will make.

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.

For Sale - A house in the Averyon, France

I suppose it only serves me right for gloating about the beautiful weather last week. It's been bitterly cold, wet & on Tuesday we had snow! So the biking training schedule has gone completely out of the window as I've become a bit of a fair weather biker of late. It hasn't stopped us getting on with work though. I had hoped to be able to hire a small digger this week to dig the trench for the new water & electric supply but unfortunately for me the owner was using it so I had no alternative but to get the pick & shovel out. My original plan was to dig a trench along the side of the road but after just a couple of swings of the pick it was obvious the hard core had spread a little & it would make sense to find another route, straight through Barbara's garden. The top soil came up easily & with Barbara's help, who swings a mean pick, it wasn't long before we hit clay. At that point she decided there were far better things she could be doing with her time and left me to dig the trench down to a depth of 75 centimetres. Turned out it was fairly rock & stone free so on Friday afternoon it was a quick dash to the builders merchant for a length of red plastic pipe to house the electric cable, water pipe and a trailer full of gravel, something to keep me occupied over the weekend. With the trench dug all that was left was to get into the cellar which, when you consider the walls are 65 centimetres thick, was probably going to take a little hammering but by Sunday afternoon the pipes were in place, the trench backfilled, the hole in the cellar filled with stone & the area for EDF's meter prepared, and that was with Saturday spent in Albi on a very enjoyable if a little wet day off.

On Wednesday we'd had the local estate agent out to take photographs and measurements in preparation for marketing the house. We signed the paperwork, you think estate agents fees are high in the UK, and the house was on the internet by 6:00 that night. We're also having a go at marketing the house ourselves & you can have a look by clicking HERE. Please feel free to forward the link on and there's a bottle or two of wine (not Aldi's €0.99/bottle vintage) for anyone who generates some interest for us.

Le Tour de France & M. Bouyssière

If I could see the laptop screen in the bright sunshine I'd be sat on the terrace writing this blog. We've had a glorious day & I've been able to get out on the bike again & clock up a few more kilometres which is just as well as I've been challenged to a ride over Easter. A & J who own a house in the hamlet have been over for a few days liaising with their builder & we'd asked them over for a meal on Friday night. During the evening the subject of mountain biking came up, as it does, & it turns out A is a keen MTB'r and has completed a couple of the local routes. They're back over Easter and we have arranged to check out a couple of the more technical routes, there's always safety in numbers, so I think it's time to get back in the saddle & do a little training. While on the subject of bikes it looks like we're going to get a close up view of this years Tour de France. On 12th July the route takes the race from Figeac to Toulouse via VDR so anyone interested in a room at competitive rates should get in touch now!

In last weeks blog I'd made reference to the concerns being aired in the UK over excessive drinking. Last Sunday I was invited out for a meal & had to drive to get there as unfortunately my chauffeur was still back in sunny Blackpool. I had a great night but what a struggle I had to avoid the demon drink. It was Thierry's 50th, a very popular age, and to say the alcohol flowed was an understatement. Trying to make one small glass of wine last 5 hours was not easy & despite me keep repeating that I had to drive home my hosts wouldn't take no for an answer, 'There'll be no gendarmes out at this time of night'. When I told them about being breathalysed a couple of weeks ago they were most surprised but it didn't stop them trying to top my glass up. We've been invited back to attend his 'official' birthday celebrations in July & I've already booked a taxi.

It's not just the USA who are currently going through the election process. Here in France it's time to elect the Maire, a very important person in the local community and the campaigning in Najac, although not getting the same coverage on the BBC as Hillary, Barack & John, is just as entertaining (not sure if that's the right word for the US elections). M. Bouyssière is the oldest & longest serving Maire in France & several of the locals have decided that at 88 years old it's time he called it a day. He doesn't agree and is campaigning for a further term saying that there is so much left for him to do but things are getting personal and the split in the community would make a great plot for a Sunday night TV programme. The local website is running several non too complimentary videos, here's one of them.

Hubert Bouyssiere presente...
I'm sure M. Bouyssière is running a similar campaign but I haven't managed to find it as yet. Click here and you can see some more of the very professional videos.


On Thursday it was off to Carcasonne to collect Barbara & although she's only been away a couple of weeks the washing machine & I have really missed her. Never being ones to miss an opportunity & despite Babs having left her mum's in Blackpool at 3:30 AM we had time to call into Ikea in Toulouse & collect 2 wardrobes, 2 bedside cabinets, 2 small tables & various light fittings. Needless to say the Yaris was full to bursting and with Barbara having to sit in the back during the journey there was very little conversation as she dozed all the way back home. Back in Lagarrigue I think she was happy with the progress I'd made in her absence and was looking forward t getting the wardrobes built and our clothes out of suitcases at long last. Later this week the estate agent is calling to take pictures and get the house on the market so it's going to be a busy few days 'dressing' the house.

EDF & the Price of Wine

With Barbara still back in the UK visiting her mum it's been very quiet in Lagarrigue this week but it has given me the opportunity to complete the 'to do' list we'd compiled. It's great ticking off the jobs and it's only when you come to that difficult or messy task that you've been putting off to last that the good time feeling begins to diminish. Despite my hopes for rain the weather has continued to be glorious, made it into to 20's yesterday, so it was time to finish digging the holes for the fence & concrete in the posts. Having now completed the job I'm not sure why I had put it off, things went well & it was only the high winds forecast for Saturday night that gave me any worries. I shouldn't have been concerned as the amount of concrete I'd placed in the holes would be enough to support a fence 10 metres high, think I'd got a bit carried away digging! With that out of the way & with quite a bit of gravel left I used it to cover the earth floor in one of the cellars and although I'll need a couple of trailers more gravel to complete the floor it'll be another job done. So with the bedroom heaters wired up & in place, the small bedroom painted & the banister in place I don't think Babs is going to recognise the place when she gets back on Thursday.

I have had the opportunity this week to use my very sketchy French. I'd mentioned last week that EDF & the surveyor had rang to make appointments. I'd already marked out the land so explaining where the division was to go was easy enough & the meeting went without hitch and the land was measured up & staked out in less than an hour. EDF wasn't quiet as easy. I wasn't sure what they were coming to do & although I was hoping they were going to install the new electric supply, deep down I knew I was being a little optimistic. Turns out it was to survey the land and tell me what I had to do prior to them coming to connect the house to the mains. The nearest supply is across the lane at the back of the house and for their €700.00 EDF will dig the road up & run a cable to the edge of our land & install a compteur. It's then up to me to dig a 9 metre trench to the house, knock a hole in the wall & crepe a 60 centimetre square on the cellar wall for them to mount the main trip box. Once I've completed the work I have to ring them & they'll return within a month & connect up the new supply. So given that it was last September when we first contacted EDF things are now moving apace & it's now up to me to get a mini pel hired & the trench dug. That'll be fun. The engineer from EDF was so helpful, he spoke very slowly & when he couldn't make me understand something he drew a picture. He aso suggested we change the electric tariff we're on as our current one is très cher.

I hear that there are concerns in the UK that the days of a bottle of wine costing less than a fiver might be numbered. Click here to see the BBC report. Despite French inflation being the highest in Europe at 3.2% and it being blamed on the rise in price of food & drink, it doesn't seem to have affected the cost of a bottle of wine. You can still pick up a bottle of the local plonk in the supermarket for less than €1.00. Imagine the outcry if your local Tesco had booze on sale at that price? At five times the price in the UK it still seems to be causing problems Click here to see another BBC report. Anyway that's enough comment on the binge drinking culture of the UK, must get back to my second bottle of red.

Hold that plane

What a busy week it's been. A trip to Toulouse and Bordeaux, plastering, painting, digging holes, fitting the cellar door, cooking & trying to keep the house tidy. On Tuesday Barbara was heading back to the UK to be with her mum while she has a small operation & was booked on an Easyjet flight from Toulouse to Gatwick & then on to Manchester with BA. That was the plan & had we got to Toulouse airport on time I'm sure it would have all worked out perfectly. But thanks to hold ups at the toll booths, road works, construction work at the airport & the fact that we set off late we arrived 2 minutes late & the check-in had closed (yes I know we should have checked in online). We tried in vane to convince the check-in clerk that we were a needy case & that she should re-open the gate & let Barbara on the flight. It's not often that Barbara swears but I'm sure you can imagine how blue the air was as we walked away from the desk looking for the film crew from 'Airport'. The next Easyjet flight out of Toulouse was 9:20 PM & for an additional €50.00 we could transfer to that but Barbara would then miss the connection to Manchester. BA also fly to Gatwick and their flight would mean that the connection could be made so it was off to their customer service desk. 'Yes we have seats available on the 12:00 flight & that will be €830.00'. The air turned even bluer! Trying to think 'out of the box' we rang Rebecca & asked her to check flights from other airports that were within driving distance. There was only one, an Easyjet flight from Bordeaux to Luton at 4:30. The check-in staff must have overheard our conversation & offered to transfer Barbara's booking for the standard charge of €50.00, a saving of €60.00 on the price Rebecca had been quoted & so it was hot foot to Bordeaux, fortunately it was motorway all the way & this time we made it in plenty of time. Barbara eventually arrived in Blackpool at 11:30 PM just 3 hours late but a few pounds worse off & what should have been a mornings trip for me ended up with me driving 420 miles & taking the whole day. At least the weather was beautiful & under different circumstances it would have made a lovely day out.

Wednesday it was back to work & making a start on the long list of jobs I wanted completed by the time Barbara got back. One of the things I planned to do while she was away was to fit the windows in the barn but on Monday we'd received the devis from the company we'd been to in VDR & too say we were surprised at the price is an understatement. It included fitting & had come in ever so slightly more than we thought we'd have had to pay for just the large front door & window we needed. Although the Brico Depot window fitting had gone well the quality did not in anyway compare with the ones from VDR so it looks like I'll be removing a window rather than fitting more. I think I'm making good progress with the other jobs & have only had a couple of distractions. Wednesday I received a telephone call from the surveyors wanting to arrange a rendezvous to come & split the land up and although I managed to understand some of the conversation there were some questions I was struggling with. It's always easier face to face so off to VDR I went to hopefully get a better understanding of what was going on. I did & the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 2:00. The other phone call was from EDF, once again to arrange a rendezvous to come and install the electric supply for the barn. That conversation was easier & they're calling on Wednesday between 8:00 & 10:00. Things are moving fast.

On Monday we'd had the local estate agent round to give us a valuation for the house. We were pleased with the price he thought the house would achieve & if he manages to get it sold by the end of the summer we'll be even happier. Sunday I treated myself to a morning off & hit the road on my bike. It must be nearly 6 months since I've been out for a serious ride & it wasn't perhaps the best idea to do 38 kilometres, especially as there was a strong wind & it was very cold. There were no holes dug in the afternoon & it was even a bit of struggle to get the painting brush out.

Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour

One of the great things about working from home is being able to listen to the radio during the day. Being of a certain age we listen to quite a lot Radio 2 (truth be told we listen to nothing else) and this week Jeremy Vine had a feature about living in France. It made interesting listening and one or two of the contributors made our little adventure over here appear pretty tame. One women had a small shop in The Languedoc region that sold everything including English paint. Perhaps a side line we should consider. You can listen to the programme yourself for the next 5 days by clicking here.

The French are not big on Christmas cards but they do like to send out happy new year cards which they send out any time during January and we were delighted to receive one from Thierry who had pointed the house & invited us to his daughters baccalaureate party. I gave him a call to thank him for the card, which he had written in near perfect English. I'm glad I rang as he asked if I fancied helping him on a job & in exchange he would do some work for us. Sounds good to me & we agreed that he would ring me in early March when he's ready to start the job. I'm sure we'll find something for him to do! It's been a glorious week weather wise with the sun beaming down from dawn till dusk and even the early morning frost has disappeared by 8:00, yes we have been getting up at 7:30 just to see the sun come up. Well not really it's been an early start every day this week as we've worked hard to get the house ready for the market. Wednesday we had to head to Brico Depot, the French equivalent of B & Q. We had a long list of supplies and as most building items are considerably cheaper than the local store we use in VDR we hooked the trailer up to the Lightweight & headed for Montauban. We managed to pick up skirting boards, fencing, a door for the cellar & mastic before we were asked to leave the store as it was approaching 12 noon when they closed for their 2 hour lunch. By now you'd have thought we would have taken this into account when we planned the day but you don't really expect a place so big to close for lunch. After a very slow lunch & a leisurely stroll round the local supermarket we headed back for the rest of our supplies. Screws, jointing plaster (yes there are more joints to be covered), & a double glazed window complete with frame. The window cost just €105.00 & having now fitted it in the barn we look as if we'll be able to save a good few Euros by using Brico Depot. By Sunday night it wasn't just the window that was in place, all the skirting boards had been fitted which, when you consider how uneven the floors are, went very well. So well that Barbara was able to apply another coat of varnish & get the guest room ready for visitors.

Barbara is heading back to the UK on Tuesday for a couple of weeks to be with her mum whilst she has a small operation so when Saturday arrived it was time to head to VDR for supplies of ready meals & drink. The only problem is the French are not big on 'TV dinners' and it looks like I'll be doing a bit of home cooking if I don't want to go hungry. Oh for a Simply Food in La Fouillade. One French tradition we haven't adopted is having a glass, or bottle, of wine with our mid day meal. Today it was just as well as the Gendarmes, contrary to popular belief, were carrying out random breathalysers at 1:30 in the afternoon. This is the first time I've been stopped by the boys in blue & asked to blow into something & although I hadn't had a drink I was relieved when the Gendarme showed me my score of 0.00 and bid me bon journée.

Planning & Plastering

We were expecting one big party this weekend with the news from Paris that M. Sarkozy had married Ms Bruni at the Elysee Palace but the village bar was devoid of celebrating locals. Like most things that happen in politicians private lives here there seems to be little interest. Anyway congratulations to them both & thankfully it makes his state visit to the UK next month a little easier for Buckingham Palace to deal with.

We're now the proud owners of a fully working bath & I had thought that we'd have a picture of Barbara christening the tub but she wasn't all that keen on the idea. With the bath in place it was time for the Regourd family to finally pack up their tools & leave us to continue plastering the cracks. Of all the jobs we've done over the last 12 months it has to be one of the most laborious. With so many different levels of plasterboard the joins we have to cover are taking considerably more than a couple of coats of plaster. At least the guest bedroom & en suite are now fully emulsioned &, after a visit to Brico Dept later this week, skirting boards will be in place & it'll be time to take some photographs and get the house on the market. There are still lots of smaller jobs still to be done & I'll have plenty of time to get on with them when Barbara heads back to the UK on the 12th.

Back in October we'd organised for the water company to separate the barn & house supplies. We'd filled in all the forms, in duplicate, sent them a cheque and awaited a call from them to arrange a rendezvous. But the call we got was from the people we'd sold the house to back in Bury to say they'd received a letter from France with our cheque enclosed. They were good enough to send us the documents back & we headed to the architect to help us decipher the letter. Turns out they'd got us mixed up with someone else & that if we still wanted to continue with the work they'd have to reissue the devis. It arrived on Saturday & had gone up by €50.00! It's times like this that you wish you could speak the language & get on the phone and attempt to sort them out. We did have a bit more success when we visited the local surveyor to arrange to split the land between the barn & the house. Within 15 minutes we'd explained, in French, what we wanted done, arranged for him to visit & paid a deposit. If only everything in France was that easy.

Tuesday was my birthday & we'd planned to have an easy day. It started well with a leisurely breakfast and a bit of light sanding down and then we headed off to VDR for a spot of lunch. Half way through the meal we got a phone call from Thierry Roussel to say that he'd loaded his van up with the fire wood we'd asked him for and he'd like to deliver it at 4:00. No feet up this afternoon watching day time telly, well not until the logs have been stacked up. It was still an enjoyable day & I'm already looking forward to the next 50 years. Thursday Barbara had been invited out again, this time to attend a meeting at the local salon de thé. It had been organised by a local French lady who wanted to learn English and thought that an informal discussion group would be an ideal way for both French & English speakers to learn each others language. Barbara enjoyed the afternoon, probably because she was able to get dressed up & get away from me and the plastering for a few hours.

Toulouse & Party Time

It's been a busy week and what a great surprise there was waiting for me at the end of it. We finally finished plastering the guest bedroom & en-suite & applied the first coat of paint. It's amazing what a liberal coat of good quality paint will cover. Although we haven't got round to applying the gloss paint we have plenty in stock. When we headed back to the UK before Christmas we were laden down with wine & duck breasts. We returned with gloss paint & Branston pickle which is a fair swap when you consider how expensive both commodities are out here. Perhaps this could be a little side line & we can open a stall at St Antonin-Noble-Val selling Dulux & Crosse & Blackwell's best. Stephané Regourd was back on Tuesday to fit the shower cubicle in our en-suite & said his father & brother would call early on Wednesday to do the second fix which would then enable me to fit the final piece of plasterboard (whoopee) & tile it. All went well until it came to grouting. I weighed out the grout left over from tiling the shower enclosures & then opened the new pack that Barbara had bought the previous day & poured into the bucket. I should have checked the label first as the new pack was a lovely shade of gris! So it was off to VDR for a pack of blanc grout.

On Friday Barbara had been invited to attend a meeting of French & English women to listen to a talk on reflexology. It was an enjoyable afternoon and a great way of avoiding doing the painting. She also found out some information about the French lessons for foreigners held in VDR, a course we really must attend. Next week she's off to a gathering of French & ex-pats from Portugal, Holland, & the UK to build her French language skills.

I have a very special birthday coming up and Barbara had arranged a night away in Toulouse. We'd decided to take the train & arrived at Najac station just before 9:00 on a cold & frosty Saturday morning & 90 minutes later we were in la Ville rose. Although we'd already had breakfast Barbara insisted that we should head straight for 'Paul', a patisserie at the station & have coffee & croissants. It was then time for a visit to the toilet which was hardly surprising given the amount of coffee we'd consumed. Barbara now wanted to go & check the return train times, this despite having already asked the guard if the trains would be running as normal on a Sunday. By now I was beginning to think we were going to spend most of the weekend in the train station. It soon became clear why there had been some delaying tactics as two very familiar faces appeared in front of me. Rebecca & Matthew had conspired with their mum to give me an early birthday present & had arrived on the morning flight from Gatwick. They'd all worked very hard to keep it a secret & I was in a state of shock for a least the next couple of hours. We were all staying at the Crown Plaza Hotel in the centre of the city on the Place du Capitole & had great view of the town hall which, as is normal for French government buildings, magnificent. Barbara had booked us a Crown Club room which entitled us to complimentary drinks & nibbles and a continental breakfast. The hotel receptionist was very helpful & when we asked if we could take guests in to the Club room he said that he was sure no one would object. Toulouse is a busy bustling city & we had a great day wandering round the shops & stopping at many of the numerous cafés & bars. One of the may shops we called in was the Nespresso Boutique and despite asking for coffee in our best French the shop assistant replied in perfect English describing the coffee we'd ordered as 'sweet but with woody notes and ideal for a short espresso which is not too strong'. I know it's a good excuse but sometimes you wonder why bother learning French. We'd all decided that we would try & find a proper French restaurant for our evening meal & after clocking up a few more kilometres we landed at Le Bon Vivre and it turned out to be a great choice. There was an extensive selection of local dishes including cassoulet & of course the ubiquitous canard. The atmosphere was great, the food outstanding, the wine competitive and the waiters friendly & helpful & I would certainly recommend a visit next time you're in Toulouse.

Fortunately, as Rebecca & Matthew's flight wasn't until 9:00 in the evening, Sunday was a lovely sunny day & we were able to take a long walk along the river Garonne, call in at local market and sample plenty of coffee along the way. I did try & get everyone to try out the hire bikes which are located all over the city but, despite it being my special weekend, they declined & we continued exploring the city on foot. Our train back, which was packed with students heading back to college all of them it seemed with PSP's and all of them exceptionally polite, was just after 6:30 and we left R & M at the station having had a really great birthday weekend.

We weren't the only ones working over the Christmas & New Year period. The builder we'd organised to make the window openings in the barn arrived as promised on the day we left for the UK. Thanks to Gilly we knew he'd been working hard in our absence and the photographs she'd emailed to us showed how well things were progressing. Seeing the work he'd done in the flesh only went to endorse our delight at how the barn looked. There was a great view from the opening in what will eventually be the living room & the sunlight flooded through the double doors that will open onto our bedroom. There's a lot of work to be done on the barn but looking at those window surrounds we should some day have a really good looking property. The Regourds had also been busy and both en-suite bathrooms had shower trays, toilets & hand basins in place. It was time to get tiling & grouting. It's along time since I did any tiling but after a slow start both showers were completed by Wednesday lunchtime & we were off to the Regourd's to let them know we were back in the country & ready for them to do the next fix. Friday morning & Stephané arrived to fit the shower in what will be the guest room, it meant that on Saturday morning we'd be able to pull the 'tardis' down & finish the plaster boarding in our en-suite.

The thought of finally having our own bath spurred us into action & by 10:00 the temporary shower cubicle we'd been using since May was down and in the cellar ready for the next project. Now all that was left was to plaster the hundreds of joints in the plasterboards, some of which were anything but flat. We'd managed to do quite a bit of work in our en-suite already & after just a little patching up Barbara was able to rub the plaster down & apply the first coat of paint, while I continued to plaster the guest bedroom and en-suite.

I did find time to go to the recycling site with all the plasterboard offcuts and unlike the numerous trips I'd made to the tip in Tunbridge Wells I was greeted with a 'Good & Healthy New Year' and hand shake. I was then helped to unload the trailer and place the items in the correct skips, a complete contrast to the gentlemen in Kent who said 'put it all in there mate'. Sunday morning was glorious & we couldn't resist taking an hour off to pop in to Najac for bread, a coffee and a croissant. We were a bit taken aback when we entered the local café, there was a distinct lack of smoke. The ban on smoking in cafés, bars & restaurants had come into force on 1st January and we were surprised to see everyone abiding by the law. Despite it being pretty cold there were half a dozen people smoking outside, all of them English!

Must go, Jamie's 'Incredible roasted shoulder of lamb with smashed veg & greens' is on the table waiting for me and it's accompanied by a rare treat in France, a bottle of Rioja. Aldi's best at €3.76 per bottle. Expensive!

Back Home

After one month and a day and over 3,700 miles we're finally back home. We've had a hectic few weeks and a really enjoyable time but we are looking forward to spending a night in our own bed. Hope you've all recovered from the excess' of Christmas & New Year and are all back hard at it.

We spent Christmas at Rebecca & Alan's in Ealing and it was then up to Manchester for New Year. On the 27th December we'd arranged a night out with some friends we used to go to a pub quiz with. It was good to catch up and we visited a local restaurant that has been a legend in the north west for over 40 years. It's over 15 years since we were last at Smithills Coaching House in Bolton but little had changed. Even the prices hadn't moved all that much & Mr Pickwick's mixed grill of a pork & lamb chop, liver, sausage, rump steak, black pudding, gammon, mushrooms, peas & chips was excellent value at only £12.50! With that under our belts we didn't need to eat again until 2008 but on Sunday we did a little more visiting & had an excellent meal at R & J's with some of their friends, another great night & now all that weight we'd lost working hard was back on. Thanks to I & J where we had a great New Year's eve and for putting up with us once again. As always they made it like home from home & made us very welcome.

New Years day and it was off to sunny Blackpool to stay with Barbara's mum for a couple of nights & was informed on arrival that she had a small job for me. I'd been sending copies of the blog to Beryl in the post but she decided that it was time she got on the information super highway & bought a laptop. Off to the computer store it was to buy a computer & set it up ready for broadband which she'd already organised. So hopefully by the time this gets posted Beryl will be surfing the net! Another lovely meal at J & D's on New Years day. Wednesday it was a flying visit to the dentist in Bury and then it was time to head south again. The appointment was late in the day and it would mean that we'd end up getting to Tunbridge Wells fairly late so we took the opportunity to stop off on the way & visit Oxford. First time we'd been & although we only spent a couple of hours wandering round it's somewhere we'll definitely visit again.

Holiday over & it was time to return to the flat in Tunbridge Wells & get on with some plasterboarding & painting. What a change! So we could spend the limited time we had available working we decided to stay at the flat and although the facilities were basic our first night went reasonably well it was only on the second night when the inflatable mattress sprung a leak & had to be re-inflated every 90 minutes. What a wonderful nights sleep we had but it did enable us to finish off the work and head back to R & A's on Friday. It was my Aunt's 80th birthday and we were attending a surprise birthday at Chez Gérard in Convent Garden. It had a superb menu & we had one of the best French meals we've had since moving to France. Back to Tunbridge Wells to finish off & then it was time to head for the channel.

Typical of French motorways they were very quiet & we made good progress and we spent the night at a €30.00 hotel where you check in by putting your credit card in a machine & getting a printed slip with your door key code printed on it. It was good value and lying on the bed (there were no chairs) watching the film Magic in French made an excellent end to our road trip.

UK tour 2007

Well it's over two weeks since my last posting and we've travelled nearly 2,000 miles since leaving home on the 11th December. We had a good trip up to Calais & the circumnavigation of Paris went like a dream. The only worry was when my navigator Babs asked, as we were entering a tunnel, did I think that this was the boulevard soleil? We arrived at the ferry 2 hours early and the check in clerk was already full of Christmas spirit as she allowed us on the earlier ferry with no extra charge. Our first night back in the UK was spent at Matthew's and it was straight to the local Indian restaurant for a long awaited curry.

Wednesday we headed north to Blackpool to stay with Barbara's mum for a couple of nights and do our first bit of Christmas shopping. Barbara was well organised and had ordered the majority of this year's pressys over the internet and Father M & S had made an early delivery to Blackpool so it meant that thankfully it was only bits & pieces we needed to pick up. Next stop on our tour was Scotland where we spent a couple of nights with N & A in East Kilbride. When we arrived on the Friday night it was warmer than when we'd left Blackpool, perhaps we should keep heading north. We had a great couple of days & on Sunday afternoon we headed south again and spent the rest of Sunday & Monday with C & S in Carlisle. As usual C had been busy baking & there was as always a great selection of cakes & by the time we get back to France I think we'll be getting the diet books out. We left Carlisle on Tuesday and headed over to P & C's loaded down with a delicious looking home made Christmas cake; thanks. On Wednesday we had a trip into Newcastle during the day and called over to see B & L in the evening. Thursday it was time to return south with a car loaded down with curtains (thanks Ca) and cakes (thanks Ch) and after a quick visit to S & J's we hit the A1. All went well until we hit the rush hour traffic entering the Blackwall tunnel, it's not a journey I'd want to do everyday & made me think of those quiet French country roads. Thanks to everyone who made our UK tour so enjoyable & we look forward to seeing you all out in France in 2008.

Once back in London we started what was a bit of a busmans holiday. We'd recently completed on a small flat in Tunbridge Wells & along with Matthew set about pulling the kitchen out & fitting a new one. It's amazing how much easier it is negotiating prices in Wickes & B & Q where they speak English, although in a very strange southern accent. Saturday we had to hit the shops in Ealing for the 'last minute' presents & food shopping. What fun that was & when we asked the local green grocer for a turnip and he said he only had 'Scottish turnips' & handed us a swede I thought we were back 'up north' where everyone seems to get their turnips & swede mixed up!

Have a great Christmas & New Year and if you're heading to south west France in 2008 make sure you call in and see us.

Barn again

This last few weeks it's been a real struggle to come up with anything original to put in the blog. Working hard on the bedrooms & en-suites has meant that we've hardly ventured across the threshold and have little to report on apart from placo & plaster. On Tuesday we did hit the high spots of La Fouillade and called in to chase M. Regourd, our electrician & plumber. We were ready for them to fit the bathroom & electrical fittings and were hoping that they'd be able to get the job finished before we set off for the UK, you'd think by now we'd have realised we were being a tad optimistic. They did turn up on Thursday but only had time to fit the electrics so although we could now take a shower with the light on we were not going to be able to have a long well earned soak in the bath. There was a promise to return early next week & to have all the first fix plumbing completed for when we return in the new year. We'd also received a call from the builder we're using to open up the windows & doors in the barn to say he'd be with us Monday morning so it looks as if the site is going to be a hive of industry in our absence. Let's hope he gets the holes in the right places & we don't return to a pile of rubble!

Saturday we took time out to stock up on the Christmas essentials we promised to take back to the UK with us, namely wine, beer & duck. The wine merchant had obviously dealt with lots of Brits taking wine back to the UK & suggested we'd find it easier to pack the car if we bought the wine in boxes rather than the normal plastic kegs. He was right & we were able to get even more wine in than we planned. Next call was the supermarket where we picked up a good supply of duck breasts, confit de canard & cheese all of which are significantly cheaper here in France. With the car fully loaded all I hope now is that the car's suspension holds out for the duration of our trip.

Well here we are in December & I can't believe we've been over here in France for nearly a year. It really doesn't seem that long ago that I left Antalis and joined the massed ranks of the unemployed and then went dishing out the wine at M & S. It's been an interesting 12 months during which time we've had many ups, downs & lots of 'what the hell are we doing'. It's certainly been a steep learning curve & we've learnt a lot (apart from the French language) but there is still so much more for us to learn. We're looking forward to seeing all our friends back in the UK and are both quite excited about the next few weeks & no doubt by the time we arrive at Rebecca & Alan's on Christmas Eve we'll have put back on all the pounds we've lost through months of hard labour. I hope to be able to update the blog between now & when we return in early January so watch out for the update emails.

A bedroom at last

Another week of fitting plasterboards, plastering & at long last painting. There's still the second bedroom en-suite & small bedroom to finish boarding but with visitors expected on Sunday it was out with the tin of varnish & tubs of paint. While P & I continued boarding Barbara had worked extremely hard to meet the self imposed completion deadline of 28th & had she worked until midnight on Wednesday we'd have made the deadline. As it was we were only a day late (wish the roofer had been the same) & the first lick of paint was applied on Wednesday and early Thursday it was on with the second and the first of 2 coats of varnish to the bedroom floor. Barbara was up early on Friday morning brush in hand applying the second coat to the floor & then standing guard outside the bedroom door to make sure we didn't stray on to the wet floor. There are still one or two finishing touches required, the main one being an electricity supply, but after spending Saturday afternoon moving beds & furniture about we were at long last able to spend our first night in our very own bedroom. Whoopee! Having lived in one room for the last six months it seemed strange climbing the stairs to go to bed & having a living area without a double bed in the middle of it.

After a week of hard labour it was time for a rare treat & on Saturday night we booked a table with P & C at the local tearooms that do themed dining evenings once a month. Those of you who have read the blog since the beginning will remember we'd attended a Burns night when we first arrived here. This time it was an Italian themed meal with fruits de mer (not very Italian I thought) lasagne & tiramisu. I did ask for a bottle of Chianti but as is normal there was a wide range of wines available, as long as it was French!

Sunday morning we managed a bit of lie in. We'd only just got up when a car pulled in and 2 pompiers (firemen) got out. 'Quick turn the fire down' Barbara said 'it must be causing too much smoke and they think it's on fire'. She shouldn't have worried because they were selling a calendar & after a donation for the local fire & ambulance station. It was a great mountain biking morning, not too cold, a little damp & lots of mud about & I managed to do a few kilometres. I'd not been out long when I came round a bend & was met by a man out walking his dog & two goats. The goats & man were quite friendly but the dog would have got a lovely kick had the owner not managed to catch it & put it on a lead. Back at the house it was a quick tidy up as we were expecting visitors from the UK. Peter, an ex colleague & skiing buddy, and his wife Angie were on their way to Spain and were staying with us over night. We had been a little concerned that they'd find our 'facilities' a little basic but as it turned out we needn't have worried as they'd spent Saturday night sleeping in their van in a French motorway services! It hadn't been one of Peter's better ideas and one I think he will be reminded of on numerous occasions in the future. After a quick tour of Najac we called into to see P & C and finished off a relaxing day with a lovely meal cooked by yours truly.