Lost en France

The weather wasn't great on Friday in Uzerche, but a break allowed us to walk to the station rather than taking the car there. The train journey was long (around 4.5 hours each way), with two connections - but the trains were all punctual (both going and coming back) so, despite some connection times a low a 9 minutes, the journeys went without a hitch. The station was just outside the historical centre with a 30 minute walk to the hotel (also just outside the historical centre on the opposite bank of the Garonne). The Hotel des Voyageurs was a only a 2 star, but had great reviews on Expedia; mainly due to the delightful owner who simply couldn't do enough to make your stay as good as it could be. The rooms was nice enough and reasonably spacious and the breakfast was nice and reasonably priced.  Friday night we walked to la Place Victoire, where I was to meet a friend the following morning, to see how long it took. We enjoyed ice-cream and frozen yoghurt - I was rather greedy.

Tuesday - First job of the day was booking a train and hotel - we've decided to spend the weekend in Bordeaux. We have visited the city once before, a couple of years back, but saw nothing but the Ikea store. Its a 5 hour round trip so, with time in Ikea, not really a day-trip. Hence booking the weekend away - and this time we're going by train - an 8-9 hour round trip - but, hopefully, stress free. The rest of the day was spent painting the balustrade and rubbing down the study window sill (like the balustrade, only painted last year). The issue with the window sill appears to have been the French filler we'd used - wherever I'd filled, the paint was lifting/flaking. This time I'll be using Wilko's wood filler - a filler I really like. Before I fill, however, I'm also going to apply some wood hardener - but that requires a trip to Leroy Merlin. Once those jobs were taken as far as we could, Sally returned to stripping the 'future' bathroom - she'

Today started with Isaac, the plumber, arriving on schedule (08:30) unlike his first visit and repairing the boiler. An hour later we had the main event - the arrival of Alex, the electrician who'll be rewiring the house. You may remember the original intention had been to rewire it myself (guided by Tim, our neighbour (and a UK electrician) back in England). That had proven to be over optimistic and so, about 18 months ago, we had Alex quote for the rewire and had asked him to start this Spring. Covid scuppered that schedule and it was only today that the work could commence - and this is the primary reason we're out here for these two months. Alex arrived on schedule (almost unheard of for a British tradesman - long may it continue. Today he got the GTL (hoses the RCDs etc - basically the consumer unit) fitted and the earth rods driven in. Whilst Alex got on with the electrics we refilled and bled the central heating, rubbed down (and refilled) the balustrade that was showing

 Up at 05:30 and on the road, as planned, shortly after 06:00. Nice clear run to the Eurotunnel terminal, as a result of which we were offered the 10:20 crossing (we were booked on the 11:50). Great result! Except we then queued and queued as traffic crawled through the customs and security checks. Eventually we found ourselves on the 11:20 crossing - still 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Anecdotally, the return delays are currently even worse. Isn't Brexit bliss 😒. We had booked a night at the Chateau de la Bucherie, just to the west of Paris. And French leg of the journey from the terminal was a s smooth as the journey to the terminal. I can highly recommend the chateau. The price was very reasonable, the room spacious (all be it in the roof with only a moderate sized Velux window).  The staff were delightful and friendly and the grounds (with impressive flora and fauna) were exceptional.  The kitchen garden was well stocked and we weren't surprised to see its produce feature

  Tuesday - After we both had a reasonable night’s sleep (we slept downstairs as it is much cooler than the second floor), Sally made bread (in the Air Fryer) and fudge (the latter is a gift for Simon and Katie when we go for drinks tomorrow) and did yet more stripping of the stairs. I gave the inside and outside of the over-stairs cupboard a coat of paint along with the back of the door. I applied some filler to the front and stripped and painted the latch. The afternoon was relaxed, with a stroll to the bottle-bank by the Papetierre, where the Tuesday tea-dance was in full swing. In the evening, we took a walk up to the town-square and enjoyed a display of acrobatics and juggling. Wednesday - Finished painting the over-stairs cupboard door and fitting but did little else to be honest. Felt guilty as Sally continued to apply herself to the banister and floor on the top floor. 5:30 we headed to Katie and Simon’s for drinks. Sally had made fudge to take as a gift but, sadly, it wa

  Plumber was due this morning at 08:30 to look at the boiler (originally to service it but it had sprung a leak a week or two back). He finally turned over an hour late – English tradesmen are the same the world over it would seem. Despite that, he seemed a really pleasant young man and I suspect we’ll use him for other work in the future. The god news was that the boiler didn’t end up being condemned. As I’d hoped it will be a fairly simple (and cheap) fix – though he didn’t have the part with him. Hopefully he’ll fix it before we leave for Paris at the end of the week. He did the service and commented on how good the injector looked (indicating it is fairly new and/or the oil quality is excellent) and the pollution level was. He reduced the airflow a little (the apparent cause of the occasional cut outs last year) though he said that reducing it to the level it should be, could cause other issues (including adverse effects on the pollution level). Apparently, the burner was manufa

  Friday - A relaxed day. Cycled to Intermarche (first visit this year) and Sally did a little stripping on the top flight of stairs Saturday - Sally did some excellent stripping on the banister on the upper flight of stairs. I cycled to both Super U and then Intermarche in search of a sack of BBQ charcoal small enough (20L) to get in my backpack.  Later in the morning we headed to the Vintage Car/Tractor show with its auto-jumble and bricante, staying until early afternoon. It was good to see it back after last year’s Covid break. Then a lazy afternoon and a BBQ latish in the evening. We had an invite from Simon and Katie, Anglo/Canadian neighbours a little up the road, to join them for drinks on Wednesday – so that will be nice. Seen at the bricante - a novel use for a 500lb WWII bomb. Turn it into a BBQ. Sunday - In the morning, Sally got stuck into the stairs again continuing her great stripping job, whilst I removed the door from the cupboard above the lower stairs and removed any