Lost en France

 Well, we were due to arrive back in Uzerche around noon today. But, 48-hours before we were due to set off, the FCO have again advised against all but essential travel. Whilst we would be OK with 14-days self-quarantine (at both ends of the journey if necessary, the FCO advice invalidates our travel insurance - and we're not yet ready to risk travelling without medical cover. Hopefully this won't last too long, though with winter around the corner, that may be a forlorn hope.  We're going to have to travel out at some point in the next few months, come what may, to prepare the house for winter. 

  Au revoir, Uzerche. Up at midnight as planned an on our way within half-an-hour. We made good time - though the peripherique around Paris is still busy at five in the morning. We arrived early at Eurotunnel in Calais and got an earlier than planned crossing. 12-hours after we had set off we arrived at St Albans to spend a pleasant afternoon with our daughter and her family and then home around 5pm - the M1 was a nightmare; makes you appreciate the French autoroutes.

  Our last day ☹ . ‘Work from home’ for me during the day and tidying/cleaning of the house for Sally. Working from 'Home' After work we headed to Supe-U for a few last items we wanted to take back to the UK and then packing of the car. Following that, a light dinner and a relaxed evening. I intend hitting the sack at some time between 8 and 9 tonight, in the hope of getting some shut-eye before the midnight departure.

  It’s now Thursday (I'm writing up Wednesday). And I’m struggling to remember what I did yesterday, Basically lots of cleaning and tidying IIRC, getting as much done as possible to ensure a relaxing Thursday night prior to the midnight departure. During the day it was ‘work from home’ for me and finishing the study windows for Sally. They look SO much better – oh, and I rehung them in the evening. Before After

We had a pleasant evening last night chatting to Pirette, our neighbour, entirely in French (she speaks no English); we had a proper little conversation. The day had been really hot (off the scale of our 40 degree C thermometer) and we moved bedrooms to the cooler ground floor. This is partly in readiness for Thursday night when we will depart at midnight. Thursday is forecast to be a scorcher and I want to try and get a few hours sleep before the 10-hour drive. The heat was off the scale - literally! As to jobs, it was another ‘work from home day’ for me.  Sally painted both sides (two coats on one side) of the study windows (I had re-puttied the glazing last night); they are looking much better. She also did some general cleaning, as well as some needlework on a duvet cover. Before After After my day in the office I finally applied the last coat to the veranda balustrade posts... Before After (I did the post, but Sally did the rest) Before After ... rehung the internal garage door

  Sally gave the walk-in wardrobe its first coat of paint and finished the alcove of Serena’s French doors. She also top-coated both sides of the internal garage door and, most impressively, sanded down (and removed the tatty putty from) the study windows. For my part, after a ‘day in the office’ I removed the study windows for Sally to work on, gave the balustrade posts their first coat of paint, top coated the wood around the ceiling light in the loo and refreshed the putty on the study windows.  The windows were a pain to remove. The had hinges that you should be able to simply lift and separate. That worked reasonably well for the first but the second wasn’t shifting and, having raised to a few millimetres, it wasn’t going back either. In the end we cleared the decades of paint from the hinge screws and unscrewed the hinges from the frame. Even with the window free of the frame, a good whack was needed with a hammer to separate the two halves of the hinge – it is a wonder the win

  Last day of ‘holiday’ or me. We still have another four days here, but I’ll be working from home. As a result I wanted to progress/complete current ‘work in progress’ rather than start new jobs. So: ·          Internal garage door painted – one more coat needed ·          Last bit of filling rubbed down on veranda balustrade post and under coated filled area ·          Decorative covers fitted behind shower controls to hide the sealant around the pipework coming out of the wall. ·          Template made, and wood cut, for the final ‘fixed’ panel that will go over the trough on the garage roof. Glad I took Sally’s advice and made a card template as it resulted in a really nice fit. ·          Made a nice hardwood chopping board from a remnant from the new kitchen worktop – will help protect the worktop. ·          Did some minor repairs and filling of the door that leads to the walk-in wardrobe in our bedroom. Meanwhile Sally was sanding down some plaster I’d applied to

  A good day. Straight after breakfast headed to the market to take the pushbike to the mechanic – alas he’d not brought the tools he needed so will need to take it to him when we come back in August, or perhaps I’ll take the rear wheel home and have it looked at in the UK. After that, more filling of the supports for the veranda’s balustrade – starting to look solid now - and undercoated the non-filled areas. Also fitted the moulding to the damaged internal garage door, and some filling. That is starting to look more solid too. Then finished painting the ‘lids’ for the trough on the garage roof and fitted them too. Looking good. Sally did more painting in Serena’s room, finished stripping old paper from the study walls (a job started last trip), and started painting the study skirting boards. A lot achieved and, though not the hardest day’s work, we both felt shattered at the end of it.

  Did a quick Google of sites ‘What to see near Uzerche’ last night amd found this site: https://www.france-voyage.com/tourism/uzerche-commune-4118.htm A few interesting ideas there and we elected, this time, to visit the slate mines at ‘Les Plan de Travassac’ and the nearby medieval village of Donzenac. We had also planned to go to Brive and, on the return, to Leroy Merlin at Malemort. And we did exactly that, except we decided against the visit to Brive. We arrived at Travassac just in time to join the 11:00 tour. We hadn’t appreciated it was guided tours only and that they ran to a schedule. Luckily the schedule was frequent (every half-hour with the obligatory break over lunch) and, luckier still, we arrived perfectly in time for the 11:00 tour. We were provided with an A4 English language guide sheet which was useful, as the tour was entirely in French. An hour and a half’s tour for €8.50 per adult seemed good value. Even though we couldn’t follow the narration, the guide sh

  A couple of days of small jobs. The threatened rain didn’t arrive, I’ve rarely seen such a dramatic change in weather forecast in less than 12 hours. Didn’t make any real difference though as our jobs were largely indoors anyway. Over the couple of days I took down the internal garage door that I had almost demolished and started repairing and painting it. I also continued to layer on the filler on the balustrade post (can’t do too much at once or it won’t set) and helped Sally with the wardrobes. The damage has been chopped out and a piece of MDF substituted, to start the repair. Oh, and the new kitchen worktop was finished, The tatty old The rather nice new, with a good image of the new pan rack too. Sally worked on the wardrobe’s and the area around Serena’s French door. The former has taken a lot of time but the job was completed today (Thursday) and I think the before and after photo’s   show the transformation she has achieved. The first image below is the room as it was wh

  A very pleasant walk through the old town at around 21:30 on Sunday night saw us buzzed by bats in various locations – I loved it. Sally’s focus over the couple of days has been removing coving in Serna’s room and sanding around the French doors here, that was Monday. Tuesday she was wallpapering inside the wardrobes in our bedroom and wallpapering the inserts of the doors. Wallpapering inside the wardrobes - new bottom, old top. The inserts were bare chipboard before Sally got to work. Monday and Tuesday saw me ‘working from home again’. Each evening, did a number of small jobs, laying Astroturf on the garage roof, filling some cracks over the French doors in Serena’s bedroom and removing a couple of polystyrene tiles to see the condition of the ceiling – looks OK. Helped Sally papering the wardrobe doors, laying dust sheets on the floor in the cellar to detect woodworm activity, that sort of thing. Astroturf hides the ugly roof felt Tomorrow there is rain (and possibly thunder) f

  I’ve ended the day truly bushwhacked. The first half was very pleasant. A ride up to Intermache to get some provisions and some linseed oil for the new work surface. 2-3 km, all up hill – but the e-bikes made easy work of it.  When we got back Sally got to work finishing painting the balustrade (because she had to reach through the panels to paint the far side, she got as much paint on herself as the woodwork),  You're supposed to pain the balustrade, not yourself and then waxing the wardrobe frame and doors, whilst I started on the garage roof, laying the felt and cutting the new roll to size. Then out with the bitumen. The tar was pleasantly easy to lay and then, when about half-way through it I realised there was a thicker sediment in the bottom half of the tin – clearly I was supposed to have stirred it. I saw no instructions to that effect on the tin! So, now, the second half of the roof was going to be a lot harder due to the thickness of the tar and, worse, there is a go

  We’re now over half-way through our stay. Another post-9am rise and the off to get croissant and bread. We went to the bakery together and stopped off, on the way back, at the small Saturday market that is held around the corner from us. Bought some fruit and veg and then home for breakfast.  After breakfast I took my pushbike to the market. Since last year, a cycle mechanic has set up shop there, which is very handy as the nearest bricks and mortar bike shop is around 30 km away in Tulle. My bike, though new, has developed a noise somewhere in the drive-chain. Having taken the bike for a test-rede, the mechanic returned and told me he was "septic". after a few moments of bemusement I realised he meant sceptical; I'm sure we have inadvertently said more amusing things as we try to speak French. His initial diagnosis is that it is due to play in the cassette (the series of cogs on the wheel) or within the motor-hub. He did not have the tools available to check properly,

  We’d promised ourselves today off – a shame we didn’t pick a better day for the weather. We headed to Treignac Lake for starters, dumping a couple of sacks of topsoil en-route. The beach at the lake was deserted but there was a group out kayaking on the lake, three folk practicing their archery and a group of infants enjoying games. Next we headed to Brive,   stopping in Treignac to buy some gorgeous looking cakes and handmade chocolates from the local, award winning choclatier. Over €30 for a couple of cakes and a very small box of chocolates. In Brive we parked up near the church in the centre. Unfortunately, we were not sure whether the parking was free or whether we needed to pay at a meter; I think it was the former. We went for a brief walk but concern over a possible ticket saw us returning to the car before too long and heading to Leroy Merlin at Malemort. There we picked up various items including some more roof felt and a grinding wheel. I had been burning through so ma

Went for a nice stroll last night, after writing up yesterday’s blog entry. Only through town, but the reverse direction to the norm – which gave us a whole new perspective on the town’s layout and architecture.   The original main road through the town. A tradition in the old town is to attach a branch of chestnut to the door to keep disease at bay. I’m sure its neither an illusion nor a coincidence that more properties appear to be sporting them this year. Anyhow, on to Thursday. Even more of a lie-in today. Sally was up first, unusual, but I wasn’t up until just gone 0900. After breakfast, the treat we’d promised ourselves – a trip to the tip. The old shower and numerous old cardboard packing boxes filled the car. Got most of our rubbish in, but we’ll need another trip, towards the end of the visit, to totally empty the garage of rubbish. Talking of this visit, we’re planning the next already. Natasha, Tom and Serena want to visit in early September. I’ll book that week as lea

Well, thought I might be reporting some late-night Bastille Day celebrations and fireworks, but no. Nothing ☹ Today we had rain in the morning – as forecast. Managed to get 8 bags of soil out of the trough before it started. I reckon there’s less than another 8 to go – a job for tomorrow. These are being dumped on the floor of the cellar – looks like we have bodies down there 😦. The rest of the day, for me, was spent finally getting back to rewiring the top floor.   Drilling through solid oak beans 12” thick takes a lot of doing, but reasonable progress and some cable laid. Could be finished on that floor, laying the power lines, tomorrow. Sally started the day making me handkerchiefs from old bedding. My hayfever has been pretty bad, I only had the hanky I’d brought with me (thought we had some here, but apparently not), and none for sale at the local supermarket, so Sally got creative – damn good job she did too 😊 . After that, she took down the six wardrobe doors and prepped