Tanks, Dangerous Scooters and Castles

Timeline: just before Christmas: The arrival of the bride into Nantes airport four days before Christmas was a joyous occasion, as work at Le Clos de la Rose had been going well and since I had not had a day off for two months, I was secretly looking forward to a rest. The trouble was that my mind and body was now wired to working long days and since we had a party of wild animals coming, oops, sorry, a group of wild party animals arriving to celebrate the New Year, I was reluctant to let my mind or my body slow down quite yet.

The Maison du Vigneron had been completed for months now, so needed just a thorough clean, a splash of Christmas decorations and a few odd jobs to make ready, while the Maison d’Amis was not quite finished, still requiring cleaning, furnishing and painting and I hadn’t completely decided on the colour pallete.

There was however an issue. Not a problem, all such entities having long been eradicated in favour of the easier to contemplate challenge and we’ve faced plenty of those. No, not even a challenge this time, but an issue and one relating to not having walls anywhere near straight or perpendicular. You’d have thought the many challenges facing builders two hundred years ago, would not have included building straight and vertical, but well, there you have it. As we needed a reasonable wall surface for the new kitchen, this necessitated the liberal application of rather thick plaster in places and that meant long drying times, even more so due to the fact we were using lime plaster, in keeping with our sympathetic restoration ethic. Yes, it takes an age to dry out, so there’ll be no painting this year.

Fortunately, lime plaster has a wonderful texture and when dry, a clean white colour. While drying however, it has a patchy, smelly, grey colour, so the heating was whacked up, rugs, curtains, pictures and some Christmas decs added and we then had a tidy, cosy retreat.

Needs paint!

Really comfy IKEA sofa

The colour pallete incidentally, unless the bride informs me otherwise, is very pale yellow walls, white skirtings and ceilings and pale green beams. The beams have been pale green for some 50 years or more, so why upset them now?

We were both hard at work right up to and including Christmas Eve, when we downed tools and took Christmas Day off. For a small village of 1300 people, we are blessed with a 12th century collegiate (teaching) church the size of a cathedral and we wanted to spend a part of Christmas within it, surrounded by its living beauty, spiritual tranquillity and to experience the power and solemnity of a living village rejoicing at the heart of its community.

The couple of hundred or so people who turned out were dwarfed by the scale of the interior, but we realised with surprise that we recognised many of them and we all sung our hearts out and felt even more privileged than usual to be able to live in such a special place as we walked home afterwards.

The morning of the 28^th saw us eager for our guests to arrive . . . so we could stop working and take a break and so it was with shovel in hand, moving a last bit of spoil left over from a recently filled in drain trench, that I heard two cars stop outside the gates. Hmm, what will they think? Will they like it? I’ll just copy and paste part of our guest and lovely new friend, Julie’s review:

''We arrived after a leisurely drive of just under 3 hours from St Malo and swept through the gate posts of lovely honey coloured stone into the courtyard and several days of bliss…. ''

It was indeed bliss and my mind or body never thought of resisting the need to party. My liver did cough a few times, demanding quantities of mineral water to make his work a little easier, but we all had a ball and I even got my hair cut, courtesy of my visiting hairdresser, my sister, who had brought the assorted revellers along.

The days were remarkably mild and sunny and Martin and Julie were keen to visit the tank museum in Saumur, while the others wanted to enrich themselves with more traditional French culture. I rode shotgun to the tanks and being someone who likes museums of all things mechanical, I was mightily impressed with the largest collection of tanks and associated artefacts from around the world, as were both Julie and Martin. My favourite was a combination of Vespa motor scooter and cannon, the latter being longer than the former. Absolutely bonkers! The famous instructions, ‘light blue touch paper and run away’ sprung to mind.

Several hours passed quickly and so engrossed were we in the exhibits, that we forgot about one of mankind’s basic needs, food, so after a quick walk around the beautiful chateau and a visit to one of the medieval timber framed houses in the centre of Saumur now converted into a creperie, we stocked up on some more wine before returning home for more merriment.

The New Year celebrations were fabulous, with seven of us gathered around the farmhouse kitchen table for a very slow meal, fast paced discussion and board games with some dubious moves, which we all got away with.

I must give a big thank you to Maggie for cutting my hair and making me look and feel human again, to Roger for despite coming down with serious man flu, still managing to fit all the new spotlights to our nearly completed Atelier suite, to Martin for breathing life into my old and trusty notepad pc and also putting some real security into our wi-fi set-up, to Julie for liking tanks so much and for such a lovely guest review, to Sally for a brilliant rendition of 'Hey Big Spender' and reminding me how much friends not seen for far too many years remain important to you and to the bride for being the love of my life. 

I’ll let Julie finish off this post, but not before saying that they have booked to return later this year and also for the retro Grand Prix in 2014. How cool is that ;~) 

''Bill and Letsie promise on their web site to ‘offer you respite from your busy lives in a pleasant environment, overlooking vineyards as far as the eye can see.’ Mission accomplished for us! Our visit left us relaxed and charmed by the whole experience and we will return!  Julie & Martin''

Leaving the village bar, a sad, yet regular event

A bientôt,

LC 

The Eagle Has Landed

Timeline: 6 December: Hello Houston, the Eagle has landed, touchdown, we are all systems go on that website! Another red letter day today with our website finally live. Take a look to see what we, well the bride mostly, has been up to lately at www.leclosdelarose.com

                                                                            

We already have two bookings for the end of May next year and work progresses on several fronts, both building and marketing, as well as securing more guest equipment and planning for a new venture on the classic car front.

The kitchen in the Maison d’Amis is almost finished, while the upstairs Grenier is beginning to look as splendid as I always knew it could.

My baby sis' and bro’ in law arrive with a tribe of party animals for the New Year, so we have been four to five strong on site lately getting the second gîte ready.

I still have two excavations open, for the new Maison d’Amis drains and a large hole outside the main gates for the poste du relevage, which will be filled in next week, so long as I can keep my hands above freezing point!

I better go and do more work, while it’s still a warmish 4 deg, so catch you soon.

A bientôt,

LC 

 

Well Tooled Up!

Timeline: October/November: We had a lively few days with our god daughter’s party, including her university friend, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend and despite a little precipitation, we got out and about to see a few sights in the three days before they departed to Italy and the USA. With two geologists, caves were very much on the menu and we managed two wonderful collections of these at Brézé and Doué, did some wine and cheese tastings, enjoyed the delights of the bustling Saumur Saturday market and hopefully left them with a flavour of the area, which I assure you is even better when not raining! On a personal note, we particularly enjoyed having Laura, Emily and their friends to stay and we wish we could see more of them and their family, whom we have known right back to our teenage years. Come back again guys, you are most welcome.

Although I was acting tour driver and guide, the bride and I managed to slip away and order our kitchen for the maison d’amis, just in time to get a sizable discount and are expecting delivery by the middle of November, when most of the work on the little house will be completed.

Having had to dash to the UK to attend to some matters, the ground floor of the maison d’amis had been transformed by clean fresh plasterwork thanks to Kevin’s first class skills, while plumbing and electrical works have also leapt forward and this little time capsule is coming back to life again with a smile on its face thanks to a skills of our hard working team.

We’ve now trying to get to grips with the magnificent, yet lack lustre oak beams. I’m also giving some thought on colour and texture of the walls and ceilings. A sympathetic look and feel for the age of the building is desirable and further research is necessary before we get closer to what this little cottage deserves. The floors however are remarkably easy, as they are the lovely and ancient tomette clay tiles to both floors, which need only cleaning and light restoration. We had to do a little jiggery pokery upstairs to get a structural metal tie rod to sit more or less flush with the floor tiles and the look of exposed metal now adds to the feel of the living heritage of this large bedroom suite. This is one of my favourite places on the whole site, as it’s already a wonderful space in which to contemplate the rest of the word from, having some fine stone features, magnificent timberwork, a high cathedral ceiling and the space filled with natural light.

Having obtained a sand blaster when in the UK, I needed an air compressor to power it and after some research into one of my seemingly favourite topics, namely ‘tools’, a shiny new twin cylinder 11 bar compressor with a 150 litre tank now sits in the workshop, together with a small, yet carefully selected collection of air tools, so useful for the cars as well as the building work.

Attempts of removing well bonded 100 year old rock hard lead paint from equally dense oak beams, even with such manly air-power tools, proved tedious as well as greedily consuming large quantities of grit, so the sand blaster will be reserved for the many other unpainted antique timer beams, while the ground floor timberwork will be rubbed down and painted white, together with the plaster ceiling. This will still be in keeping with the original treatment of the house decor and will give the ground floor a cleaner and lighter look than the previous two-tone green.

I had to relent slightly with the floor finish to the ground floor bathroom and selected some new grey and white ceramics for this slightly smaller room to maintain a comfortably cosy and cosseted feeling of intimacy.

Other than have modern doors everywhere, Paul has made all of the cupboard and wardrobe doors in the effort to preserve the hand crafted feel of the building. These will be sanded and waxed and then hung with appropriate hand finished ironwork furniture to complete the look. He’s also working on a new iron studded external door for the upstairs suite.

Autumn is well and truly with us now and we are still having plenty of sunny days, which is good for the external work. My brother in law is arriving in a few days to install the upgraded electrical site distribution network and I have some trenches to dig for these. Unfortunately, the mini digger company cannot deliver the machine for the foreseeable future, so it’s hand digging again for a couple of days, which is just as well now there are already numerous underground drains, water and electrical cables to avoid down there!

Next time: Preparations for Christmas, finishing off the maison d’amis and oh no . . . more digging in the dirt as the poste de relevage arrives!

A bientôt,

LC

Maison d'Amis

Timeline: September:  Now we have the main gîte pretty much completed, its time to get stuck into the little house, our lovely 18^th century listed cottage. We want to bring it back to life as our second gîte, providing a cosy retreat full of charm and original features. It is blessed with lovely tommette clay floor tiles to both floors, an old fireplace and chimney which although covered with multitudinous layers of green paint, hopefully will yield some stone underneath and then there are lots of beamed ceilings, stone niches, fossils and a fabulous exposed timber roof construction. Although a small building, like many structures this old, it has seen changes over the years and as we gradually strip back generations of paint and plaster, some old secrets are revealed. 
 

Maison d'amis, a centuries old time capsule

We discover a low level window opening with a curved head and adjacent door opening in the rear wall, both filled in with stonework at least a hundred years ago, as we have photographs this old showing the external staircase which blocks these openings. The roof line has been increased in height, with the line of the old roof and pockets for roof timbers clearly visible. Another external door is discovered at the front of the house, more recently blocked when the massive stone gate pillars where built. My suspicions are that the rear door and window are probably original to the house, possibly dating back several hundred years when the house was in its original form. The gate pillars were possibly only erected in the 19^th century when the property became more important as a part of a larger wine producing enterprise. More research will hopefully reveal further clues and one of our neighbours family used to own much of the properties in our road as part of their vineyard, so we have some local knowledge to hand.

My now good friend and stone mason Monsieur Deschamps has already created new window openings and we had new windows fitted in July and after many attempts of finding a roofer, the old roof covering was removed in September and as I write this on the 9^th October, the ridge tiles are just being finished and we have a new watertight roof.

  

In the last few weeks, Paul and I have moved a door opening, formed another, repaired various parts of he structure, constructed the timber stud partitioning to the ground and first floors and with great satisfaction, uncovered a stone fireplace beneath all that green paint! Paul has also put all the first fix waste and hot and cold water services, while Sparky Paul has done most of the first fix electrics. There are seemingly more electrical cables than on the space shuttle, but they’re all been hidden more or less away and the rest will soon be covered up by new plaster and plasterboard.

The bathroom (yes, a bath!) to the first floor

We also have had a new purpose made steel balustrade fabricated and expertly fitted by our local metalwork man and Thomas is a remarkable and happy individual to have on your team.

So that brings up pretty much up to date, although we are just about to accept a quotation for construction of a new chimney to the barn and the bride et moi are very much looking forward to the arrival of our god daughter Laura, her sister Emily and Em’s boyfriend Pete and Laura’s friend Olivia tomorrow. We haven’t seen Laura since her last trip to the UK two years ago and Emily since Laura’s High School graduation on Maine in 2006, so we have some catching up to do. Our local restaurant, which is normally closed on Wednesdays, is even opening specially for us to have a grand reunion dinner tomorrow night. How cool is that!

Next time: Masion d’amis, continued . . .

A bientôt,

LC

At Last, We Have Guests!

Timeline: Friday 20th July: (Slightly out of order, but I was so keen to share the joy of the road racing with everyone!) Good news, the gorgeous bride arrives next week in time to help prepare our first gîte for our very first real guests who arrive in a week. Bad news, our very first real guests are arriving in just one week and the place still looks like a building site! I suppose that’s because it is a building site and if we can pull this one off, it’ll be a very neat trick!

The gîte is just about complete upstairs and it looks pretty good with last week seeing the completion of the second bedroom, including a built in wardrobe, window cill and skirting boards, leaving just curtains and rugs to do. The ground floor and staircase however need completely decorating, new lighting installed, the kitchen refreshed, a media unit building, separation of the utility room and reception from gîte space and new pictures everywhere. The work is easy enough, at least with Paul’s carpentry skills and if we had two weeks, but then there is also the transformation of the building site outside into a tranquil and lovely courtyard space where people will want to spend quality time together and remind themselves what a wonderful holiday they are having.

We have a tabulated programme of work, itemised with daily tasks and we have already used up most of our ‘float time’ over the past two weeks of the three week schedule. Fortunately, a local builder gave us three days and built a beautiful paved terrace and cleared so much building detritus away, but I still need a ‘big statement’ to be evident one drives through the gates. So I order 24 tonnes of gravel, after discussing the probability of a juggernaut being able to get into the place to drop its load. 

The first of two gravel delivery trucks

Pool and terrace in a sea of gravel

The transformation was amazing with the addition of gravel a small pool on the terrace, a big BBQ, planting, garden furniture and the sound of a tasteful fountain tinkling in the background. We were pretty close to the feel we want our guests to find when stepping out of their car. It will be even better when more planting is completed and established with playful sights, sounds and smells to delight and entertain the senses. 

The 'secret' bathroom

All that sanding the floor paid off!

With the bride here to swell the workforce and with our good friend Sarah, who has quickly become one of the bride’s favourite people in the whole world, the girls soon had acquired all the items left on the shopping list to completed the equipping of the gîte and was looking even better than we hoped. Sarah went above and beyond the call of duty, giving up two precious days to help out and enabling me to stick at the build side of things with Paul in readying the place for our guests. Thanks Sarah, we owe you.

True to their word, Andy, Sue and daughter Hannah arrived spot on schedule at 19h00, as we were carrying out important last minute preparations, like opening the bottle of bubbles in welcome.

Despite an over long day of travel, they all managed to walk up to town for the night racing and a most excellent day was spent with them on the Sunday, when the village was filled with thousands of race enthusiasts.  

The next two weeks seemed to pass in a flash for us and hopefully not so quickly for our guests, who enjoyed a mixture of wine tastings at local vineyards, castles visits, troglodyte cave expeditions, a day at the local bioparc (a wonderful zoo for endangered species with an active breeding programme) and plenty of chillaxing time around the pool and barbeque.

Having Hannah here was a wonderful tonic and this bright and engaging almost six year old was as happy to entertain as be entertained. She even got Paul dancing and provided remarkably useful feedback for us on the child friendly front. She enjoyed playing with the hastily provided swing-ball set, as have many others, including the adults.

Our first guests proved to be excellent company and we have all become firm friends and were sad to have to wave goodbye, although they hope to be back again next year. Paul however, is providing a local wine delivery service for them at Christmas en route to his own festivities.

Yes, Christmas is just round the corner and we have five guests staying for a week of frivolity!

A bientôt,

LC

Yipes, the village has been invaded . . . GP Retro 2012 !

Timeline: Saturday 28th July: This is the weekend I have been waiting for since I first came to the village. The weekend, when the mayor closes the roads, lines them with a harvest of hay bales and then the sight, sound and smell of dozens of vintage racing machines take to the streets and also take over the minds and imaginations of every boy (and a great many girls), young and old for a glorious fun filled and action packed weekend of pure enjoyment.

This weekend was doubly important for us, as our very first gîte clients were also arriving on the opening evening of the GP and as you would expect, there was still much to do in order to meet the challenge of everything being ready in time and then being able to relax and enjoy the weekend. However, more of that soon, let’s concentrate on the racing!

I thought this event might be rather fun, possible pretty good and perhaps even a bit special, as not many places still have the guts to close  part of their village to everyday traffic and hold competitive vintage motor racing. I was determined to enjoy the event as if I’d just arrived for the first time and stumbled upon it, knowing nothing about the GP Retro and therefore devoid of preconceptions. I’d therefore resisted all temptation to research, a pretty tall order for a confirmed motor race and old car nut like myself, but I managed it and I felt good as Paul and I climbed into the TR3 and drove though the village on Saturday afternoon and found our way to the circuit’s hairpin bend, parked up and wandered into the campsite to look at some cars.

Not a second after walking through the campsite gates, a tall Frenchman began waving at me and calling my name. Interesting, who could this be and I began to smile as the window delivery chief came over, face beaming and heartily shook my hand and I kissed his wife, he then shook Paul’s hand, called him ‘papa’ and we all laughed even louder. A good omen to the start of the weekend! 

There were a few ‘show’ cars scattered around the tents, mainly classic road cars plus a few vintage tourers. The really cool stuff would be in the paddock and we would need to come back to see those, as we had just ‘popped out’ for a short nose and the bride would be waiting back at base. Fortunately there was to be night racing starting at 22h00 and we returned to greet our guests and prepare for dinner.

Andy, Sue and sweet little Hannah arrived bang on the dot of 19h00 as Andy predicted and had been travelling all day since leaving home at 05h00. They really needed to sleep, but we shared a little supper with them, managed to keep Hannah out of the pool and then they actually walked up towards the mairie(town hall), which was the head of operations for the whole enterprise of GP Retro. This is where I had my first wake up call of how popular the event had become. Le Puy has a population of just 1300, yet there were thousands of happy smiling faces lining the circuit up to the mairie and the pre-war four wheel racers were out giving their gorgeous cars some serious exercise. Darkness was with us and the atmosphere was akin to the night racing at the 24 hours of Le Mans, which Paul and I know so well. While the mairie gave most of its rooms over to race organisation and support, including a huge temporary restaurant for the drivers and their teams, the extensive grounds were also wholly given over to the event, with two bars, tourist office, race merchandise and numerous hot food outlets. The star of the show was however the paddock, which was a fully accessible car museum and service area and everywhere was a hotbed of activity and would remain so throughout the next day.

Bugatti resplendent in moon light!

Leaving the paddock for the starting line

 

There was a couple dozen three wheelers from the 1920s and 30s in the main paved area, Morgans being well represented, while even more motor bikes, some with sidecars were scattered around the perimeter and access roads and then among the trees were the wonderful great racers from the stables of Riley, MG, Bugatti, Bentley, Amilcar, Aston Martin, Fiat and others.

Racing stopped at midnight, the bars stayed open until 02h30 and the partying went on through the night, although I was safely tucked up, tired, happy and with great anticipation for the next day.

I did the boulangerie run next morning (60 second walk) for fresh bread and croissants and there were cars everywhere as people had started arriving early. I spotted a friend’s TR6 from Nice whom I told of the race meeting some months before. A great shame we never met up, even though he parked almost outside our door and we even had a bed ready for him for a day or two!

Our guests had recovered sufficiently to take in the spectacle and if Saturday night had been busy, the Sunday saw thousands more in the village. The sun was out and a fantastic party atmosphere was in the air. We stopped by one of the bars for a refreshment and were served by a village roofer we knew and soon I recognised many other locals and I think most of the population had been mobilised for this weekend.

The paddock was even more impressive in daylight and an ultra rare Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic coupe road car was parked in a prominent corner. There was even more activity than the previous night, as more serious racing started and the motos went out. Riders were all attired in period gear and a particularly interesting enthusiastic competitor on a Norton, was sporting magnificently long moustaches which flowed behind him as he raced to victory.

Next up were the 3-wheelers and I took up position on the outside of the hairpin bend, the most dangerous place possible for spectators to be and utterly outlawed for spectators in every motor sport venue I’ve been to throughout Europe over the last 20 years, but we were okay, as we had a hay bale to stand behind. The course car, an old Land Rover led the cars around for a flying start and as it peeled off into the paddock, the race began and the cars continued to amble around and I started to laugh, but downgraded my mirth to a smile, as it seemed disrespectful. Perhaps it was the fact that any 3-wheeled is inherently unstable (Reliant Robins roll over easy peasy at 25mph), or that your average pre-war Morgan is worth shed loads of folding money, but all of a sudden, one chap swung his rear end out at the hairpin and put his foot down and two or three others decided to have a go and we had a race. This was more like it and precious the cars may have been, but it was fantastic seeing them being driven with such a sense of excitement and competitiveness. One of the cars dropped a chain on the racing line and the marshals took forever to move it off the track, but eventually did so and the race was over too soon and the survivors enjoyed a well deserved victory lap in front of an appreciative cheering crowd. I chatted to an English woman spectator who had taken the broken chain from the marshals, told me it wasn’t ‘one of ours’ and went in search of its owner, oblivious of her filthy oily hands to reunite them with their drive chain. It was pleasing to see such enthusiasm and willingness to help others.

Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic coupe

Meanwhile back near the paddock, our guests and my wife were chatting to a couple from Hampshire, her dad and their 9 year old daughter and discovering mutual NHS acquaintances and before I knew it, they had been invited to a bbq at chez nous in a couple of days time. Apparently, they holiday in nearby gites most years and their daughter and that of our client’s had hit it off well.

Well, the rose was only €1 a glass!

 

The big boys were soon firing up their cars for the 4-wheelers and I spotted a likely pair of blue machines gathering attention in the form of a Bugatti and a 1951 Le Mans competing Fiat 1500, both being driven by young ladies and as it turned out, driven very well. Paul complemented the Bugatti driver after learning she spoke English and thanked her for brightening his day by being a beautiful woman in a beautiful car and then asked her to make the day perfect by marrying him. Her answer was apparently lost in the roar of her exhaust! Anyway, his potential betrothed and her Fiat friend romped home at the front of the pack and overtook a few tail-enders on the way to the chequered flag. Apparently one of the girls was said to be a member of the Italian aristocracy, so well chosen Paul.

1.5 litre Fiat . . .

. . . with history!

 

After all the classes had raced, they all went out again and we ended the day in a packed local restaurant before returning again tired and very happy to Le Clos de la Rose.

Considering the closed street circuit is just a kilometre and a half in a tiny little village deep amongst the vineyards, one might wonder why and how it can draw such an array of magnificent and rare machinery and drivers, together with a crowd of 10 000, but it is just because the village has the willingness to support something so fabulous and joyous that it has become such a popular, if not universally well known event (thank goodness). It manages to retain the enthusiastic charm of a 1950s British race meeting and the atmosphere will be familiar to anyone who has attended the Goodwood Revival race meetings and I am determined to be one of those locals next year, helping to keep this event so special.

A bientôt,

LC 

 

http://youtu.be/CvGUbfTtRsM  Night racing, 3-wheelers

http://youtu.be/erGVb_IQ9LQ Whole event recap

Well, we all have to eat