Lost en France

It is now 15 February, as I finish uploading the blog entries from the August-October visit, and I realise I have no notes from the last day. Hardly surprising as it would have been a fairly early start (just as soon as the final winter/absence preparation activities were complete) and then a long drive to Calais. The last week did provide us with these rather lovely, moody evening and morning images from the back of the house, so these are a nice way to finish this latest blogging: As I recall, the journey Calais was pretty uneventful. We stayed overnight in the town and, for only the second time since Covid hit in March, we ate out. It was something of a different experience as the images of the (usually busy) restaurant area show: We had originally intended to stop at Natasha's, in St Albans, on the drive back through the UK to the Midlands, but Covid restrictions prevented it. As I type it has now been a long 7 months since we saw her, her husband Tom and our granddaughter, Ser

  As we had Friday off, it was back to DIY today – the last full ‘free’ day I have as I’ll be working from home tomorrow and we head back to the UK on Friday. Poor old Sally was back in the ‘future’ bathroom, stripping paper that was very reluctant to be stripped.  Me? I rubbed down the filling on the study ceiling, washed it and gave it a coat of paint and then gave the kitchen ceiling its second coat. Then a bit of a break before touching up a number of metal details on the window furniture and then a second coat, once dry for the study ceiling. All in all, a good day’s work. Monday through Thursday saw Sally has been odd-jobbing/cleaning  and tidying up as we wind down to our departure on Friday morning.  Nothing of much not to relate – except the kindness of the neighbours.  First it was Pilli and David; they came around with a bag of foraged apples. I believe they were by way of an ‘apology’ for asking us to move the car on a couple times when they took deliveries and for the

  The restaurant was fully booked for tonight when we tried booking last night. Despite that disappointment, I had a FANTASTIC day today – I think Sally enjoyed it almost as much (though she appear a little reluctant to admit it). It started very early. I was awake, so I got up. Then, after visiting the bakery (I was up so early, the newsagent was still shut as I strolled by) and breakfast. Then we went chestnut hunting. We discovered a tree, this time last year, where the nuts fell around your head as you collected them. We wanted to see if we could find it again; we had a rough idea where it was so,  loaded the car with three bags of excess soil that we had in the garage (there are still ten bags to go) and set off. It was quite a drive and took us down a number of single-track roads, but it was a nice morning and the drive in the countryside was half the fun. We discovered another chestnut tree dumping its nuts in the road (in fact there were several en-route) so we stopped, dum

  Monday saw Sally finish the door frame and interior ‘window’ for the shower room and then set to stripping the top floor bedroom we’re envisaging as a future bedroom. The rest of the week she was busy stripping (three layers of) wallpaper in the ‘future’ bathroom on the top floor. Unfortunately, fairly early on Tuesday, the steam stripper gave up the ghost, so it was all down to a damp sponge and elbow grease. Walnuts are back in season and there’s a tree near the Vezare that overhangs the public footpath. We came across it last year and we’re again enjoying its bounty. On Friday we  and wrapped up the artificial lawn, wrapped it in a cheap tarpualin we bought for the purpose, and stored it under the bench we converted the rooftop trough into. Hopefully it won’t get so damp it smells. The parasol went in the tarp too – so hopefully it will be mould free next Spring. After tonight’s French lesson we need to try and book a table at the restaurant for tomorrow – as they haven’t replie

  Tuesday was a warm day today – typical as we now have the central heating running. Mind you, I suspect we’d feel a nip without it. Sally continued prepping the kitchen and got a first coat on two walls. Tomorrow’s Ikea delivery arrived a day early. Pretty sure that happened when we had another Ikea order delivered a year or two back. Not an issue – but would have been annoying if we were not in. That gave me my evening’s work (the day had been spent 'at the office'. First assembling a ‘boudoir’ chair for the bedroom. What could be easier? It basically consisted of fitting 4 legs to the seat. I messed up though. Hadn’t realised there were two different lengths of leg – and of course I had them mixed. Initially I was less than impressed with the wobble in the product – then realised my mistake. Next a 9-drawer set of drawers. If I messed up a 5-component chair, how was I going to get on with a product that had components spread across 5 boxes – all heavy and two large?! A

  Another cold morning and as I’m sitting doing desk work, I got out the electric fire. We have the best part of 3-weeks stay remaining and it isn’t getting any warmer. So, we decided to try and get the central heating working. Central heating that hadn’t been used in anger during the three years we’d been here and who knows for how long before that. I ‘knew’ the boiler was working 3 years ago as the son of the vendor showed me how to operate it. But for the past couple of year not only had it not been fired up, the system had also been drained to avoid freezing in winter, when we’re not here. First job was to refill the system. That went well enough. Next, find our ‘homespun’ guide to the house, in which I’d put basic operating instructions. These remained clear and the start-up appeared to go well – or did it? What was that red light next to a symbol that looked like a hairdryer with a cross through it? Also, whilst the boiler had been noisy, as the guide suggested it would, the no

  Monday and Tuesday saw the focus on the Study (as well as my usual 'office' work). The effect really is transformational considering it is basically achieved with some simple emulsion. We moved furniture and computer kit back, restoring the dining room table to its original purpose – it has been my temporary work area for the last few days. Before After Before After Wednesday and Thursday saw Sally back to the generally less satisfying preparation. This time it has been filling sanding and painting the boy’s room sill (as she was less than satisfied with the original results), painting over putty we had put in place during our last visit and stripping wallpaper on the landing, kitchen and bathroom (where she also cleaned down the walls and woodwork ready for painting). In the evenings I showed willing by painting some black detailing on the study window/shutters and the first floor balcony balustrade, and gave the repaired bedroom door a second coat on one side (Wednesday) a

On Saturday we got stuck in around the house due to the poor weather forecast and then – despite a couple of showers – it turned out to be a really lovely day. Clearly French forecasts are about as reliable as their UK counterparts. We did have a cracking storm around 9pm; with dramatic views over the town from the first floor balcony. Sally wanted to get started on the Study, but I needed to finish some filling, so she'll have to wait until Sunday to do that. Instead she did some house cleaning, made some curtains for the bedroom and painted window sills. Once I’d finished the filling and rubbing down in the Study, I turned my attention to the stairs, from the ground floor to the first floor. One of the walls was covered with MDF that had then had a couple of layers of wallpaper applied on top – both now rather tatty. Removing the wallpaper had proved to be nigh on impossible and so the plan had been to sandwich then with a fresh layer of MDF. Now I came to look at doing the wor

  We tried relaxing on Sunday but found it hard work and so couldn’t resist doing some of the jobs; painting windows, repairing plaster and relaying the Astro-Turf on the 'patio' (removed due to all the dust, flaking paint and paint drips from painting the window above) to allow us to get the loungers up and the BBQ out. Monday through Friday I had my day job, but Sally pushed on with more painting of window frames, door frames and shutters. In the evenings I did some painting too, mainly painting the details (e.g. hinges) on doors, windows and shutters. Before After Late Monday afternoon, we met up at the Café de France for a coffee with Marie, a member of a local Facebook Group I’d established. Very peasant lady who seemed to know just about everyone in Uzerche; including the previous owner of our house. We had some good news on Tuesday. Our UK home insurer finally got back in touch with us after 3-weeks and a lot of chasing. It appears our policy allows us to be away for

  Thursday 10 th  More work on windows in the Study and the 'boy's room'. Bot were in a bad state so it is good to get them painted before another winter. Sally gave the smaller of the garage doors a second coat – it has really transformed them. A solid day’s work from both of us. And nice to be able to see the difference we’re making. Friday 11 th and Saturday 12 th Friday was a ‘day off’ with a visit to a cheese factory, south of Brive, being the plan for the day. Really excited about this – and we’ve even gone without cheese for a couple of days as we would want to buy some wares at the factory – at least that was the thinking.  Luckily, I read the pamphlet properly on Thursday night – it seems that what we thought was a cheese factory is, in fact, simply a shop. No one drives for well over an hour to go to a cheese shop. So a quick change of plan and off to Roque St-Christophe to visit Europe’s largest Troglodyte community – apparently continuously occupied for 55,00