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The Rewiring Commences in Earnest - 06 July

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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...
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A Night at the Chateau. 4-5 July

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 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 fe...
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Painting the Balustrade (Again!) and a Relaxing Day. 7 - 9 Sept.

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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...
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