Five Parts Sand To One Of Lime

Timeline: Late May 2013. The start of our letting season was almost upon us, we turned over the gardens once more and sowed grass seed in glorious sunshine, which turned into a week or scorched heat in the high 30s to low 40s. I finally bought a 40 metre hose and gave it a good soaking and true to form, it rained all through the night. Typical! However, we had a truly wonderful time when our great friends Alistair and June stayed with us a while en-route to their lovely town house in Provence and enjoyed several vineyard tastings as well as a special evening enjoying the organically produced wines of Chateau de Passavant. The evening was hosted in the magnificent grounds of the chateau, by owner and vigneron Francois, who speaks perfect English and is an entertaining host and passionate about his production methods.

We were removing the scaffolding from our small gîte, the Maison d’Amis, just an hour before our friends arrived, after two weeks of preparing and applying new lime rendering. The recipe of one part lime to five of local sand gives the typical colour seen on houses here and also lets the structure breath and move in a natural way that should be good for another 60 years or so. As the end of May reached us, our good friends wandered south and the bride and I returned to the UK to keep a couple of appointments although I was back a couple of days later with just 6 days before the arrival of our guests.

The cottage was just about there, but the courtyard still needed numerous doors and shutters to various outbuildings, some serious moving of builder’s rubbish, gravel spreading and a couple of pages of small but important jobs carrying out. Very long days were worked and our good friend Sarah, wife of our electrician came over on the Thursday and Friday afternoons and cleaned the gîte and utility room to the highest standard and it looked simply beautiful. She also told me that the bed sheets needed ironing and after showing me how to iron (something I hadn’t attempted for well over 30 years), I ironed the new cotton sheets and pillow cases. Wow, me domesticated, or what?!!! The made bed did look as good as any I’ve seen in an hotel though.

Saturday morning left me with just a smallish list of jobs to do, which I set about in strict priority. After fixing our new sign to the gates, I realised with surprise, that we’d now reached a waypoint here; the stage where we were ready to share our space with others and welcome guests into our home. I desperately wished the bride was with me, as she deserved to share this pivotal moment, so I phoned her, screwdriver still in hand and told her how proud I was that our long held vision had finally become reality.

Our guests were driving up from the south coast and were not expected until late, but I was aiming to be substantially complete by 16h00. Just as well mind you, since they arrived at 16h15 as I was still pottering about in dirty jeans and tee shirt. Oops!

Now complete with satellite TV and a new door upstairs

The little cottage had received numerous finishing touches and was looking and smelling rather splendid (thanks to good ol’ Yankee Candle Co and their ‘cut roses’). Fortunately our clients share those thoughts as they provided that final essence to finally put the living breath back into the little cottage. 

 

I had the camera ready to take interior shots, but due to early guest arrival, they’ll have to wait until the weekend!

A well timed bonus was the arrival of the new oak door and frame to the loft suite at the top of the cottage. Our skilled artisan carpenter created a handcrafted piece of art that represents what the tired 200 year old door would have originally looked like and also provides a secure and completely weathtight entry to Le Grenier. We still have the old door and will find a suitable resting place for it to live on as part of the heritage of Le Clos de la Rose.

We have a planning meeting next week as we work up to start on the interior of the barn. Concrete kitchen floor and temporary staircase first, but many decisions to take of where we put things first and I’m getting excited with the prospect of working on our own home at last.

I better go and do some work, so catch you next time. Be good and have fun.

A bientôt,

LC

The Return Of The Honoured Guest

The bride et moi are very much looking forward with great anticipation to the return of our ‘honoured guest’ (see 17th May 2012 blog post, our most viewed) and his beautiful and talented wife in a couple of weeks time for a few days of frivolity. I’m therefore working particularly hard to get the place looking as good as it can. Having just completed the barn roof a week ahead of schedule, we’re due to start the external rendering to the gites next week and I pray that all goes well and the scaffolding will be down by the time Alistair and June arrive! I’m also looking forward to finally being able to take some really attractive photographs for the website, as the courtyard will then be looking at its best since we started this adventure.

The weather continues to head from spring to summer with some splendid hot days over the last two weeks, often in the early 30s and it's only just May! My favourite sister and brother in law were here for the start of the good weather and Maggie gave me the shortest hair I’ve sported for over two years and Roger did so many electrical jobs, I lost count! I’m liking the new hair style mind you and it’s much cooler in this heat!

The front garden, bordering the street has now being planted with a mixture of carefully selected plants, including Paleine grass, from which we think our street name may well be derived. The bride carried out research on the street name and found out about the grass which turned out to be sufficiently interesting to the village historical society, that she was directly quoted regarding her discovery, in the president’s blog.

Molina Caerulea Moorhexe

We are now, unsurprisingly, on good terms with several local wine domains and have discovered that we can sell direct to our clients and have been offered supplies from one of our favourites (they all are really). We also want to provide accompanied vineyard and dégustation visits for those guests who speak little French, or may be daunted by the prospect of turning up at a vineyard expecting to be entertained . . . something we enjoy doing on a regular basis! I also intend to make good use of our Traction (as soon as it's French registered) in this capacity, to add a little nostalgic flavour to a vineyard visit.

All aboard for the wine tour, beep, beep !

Staying on the wine front, we are fortunate to be able to have a rare private dégustation, organised by some close friends, at the nearby Chateau de Passavant, where owner and wine maker Francois, who speaks perfect English, will be able to talk at length about organic wine, the terroir and also the local history behind ‘Fulk Nerra’, the Black Falcon. It sounds both intriguing and interesting and I’ve been looking for an opportunity to meet Francois for a long time now. We may have to buy a few bottles, such a hardship!

May has seen a rise in the number of gîte enquiries and we've just taken a booking for early June, so I now have even more incentive to make our little slice of village life and tranquillity truly memorable for our visitors.

Tonight's dinner

More soon, including the newly rendered gites and lush grass in the orchard and gardens and the move into the depths of the barn  . . . watch this space . . .

A bientôt,

LC

Another Year Older

Timeline: April 2013. April is always a happy time, as the bride and moi celebrate another fabulous year together and this year, we're 36 years old. Not bad considering we married in our early 20s, teehe.

After a happy week in the UK, I returned to prepare for my sister and brother in law and the bride's return, just a few days later, the car loaded with yet more gite paraphernalia and curry sauces. Roger and I also had birthdays during the week, so we set about working during the day and socialising after the sun started to dip. The sun however was working overtime and daily temperature soared into the 30s, a fact recorded photographically on sis's Facebook page.

The barn roof was completed this week and we had a BBQ to mark the occasion with nine of us around the big outdoor table and six smaller people playing hide and seek around the grounds, but they were all found when the ice cream was brought out.

Roger fitted two new outside lights for the occasion and I got a new lawn mower in the pre-summer sales in readiness for our swiftly approaching new lawns. I'm under strict instructions from our head gardener, not to use it without her express permission and in the meantime, I'm figuring out how to make it go faster.

Emma and Andre, two new stable mates at La Clos de la Rose

We also took a drive up to Normandy one day to collect our old Citroen, following a thorough going over by a friend of ours, who is also a specialist on these cars. It was good not to be the oldest of our group any more, as Andre Citroen has a few years on me. The three hour return trip was a joy, as I hadn't driven the Traction since July 2011 and had almost forgotten how delightful this 63 year slice of history was to live with. It was the bride who insisted we buy it 15 years ago when she first saw it one cold December afternoon near Oxford, despite the owner not being able to start the engine, not even on the second visit, but he was an excellent purchase and has brought us more new friends and happy times in France than we could have ever imagined all those years ago.

One of many excellent front doors in La Rochelle

At the end of the week we took ourselves off to the coast and to visit beautiful La Rochelle, a first for me and the bride, but an old haunt of Roger's who knew his way around and we soon parked up and were walking through fine architectural streetscapes down to the old port and the many fish restaurants. After lunch, I concerned myself with the naval heritage and marvelled at the state of preservation of the port and defences to keep out  mainly the English. We will return!

The old port

That's all for now, but I'll be posting an update very soon, so don't be a stranger.

A bientôt,

LC

Just Like the Seaside . . . Plenty of Sun and Sand ;~)

Timeline: 20 mars: Since starting the barn roof last week, the weather decided to have a game with us and see just how much rain and hail it could get through the roof while it was uncovered. We decided that we could win this game by making sure everything was sheeted up every night, which proved such a good ploy that the weather lost interest in playing and it’s been mild and sunny ever since. The roof necessitated scaffolding out the entire front façade, so ever keen to save a euro or three, I decided to ask my friend Eric, if he could utilise the scaffold and sand blast and re-point the stonework.

Kev and I popped out to Bricoman very first thing for more timber and on our return, the blasting process was well underway, with a willing volunteer from the maçons crew, suited up and leaning into the task of putting the whole site through a sandstorm!

The result of just three hours sand blasting is amazing. Two hundred years of dirt has disappeared, making the stonework looking newly built and the maçons immediately set to work with traditional lime mortar in the rather longer and skilful process of re-pointing.

At the other end of the courtyard, another highly skilled artisan is restoring the stone support wall to the external staircase of our beautiful pre-revolutionary cottage. The tools he uses are exactly the same as his predecessors who originally build the house and the heavily weathered soft tuffeau has been scrapped back to a uniform flat surface, salvaged stones from alteration works incorporated as necessary, including the blocking up of a redundant opening. The only concession to modernity in the process is the use of a chain saw for cutting the larger blocks to shape.

Up on the roof, Kev has fitted the zinc gutters and will be ready to start putting the new slates in place tomorrow morning. He’ll have a roofer’s mate to start carrying several thousand slates up onto the scaffold, to keep Kev going non-stop with laying and no, my feet are stating firmly on the ground for that particular task!

With many hands on site, progress is rapid, so more soon.

A bientôt,

LC

All clean, battened and ready for pointing and slates

Well on the way

Four Seasons in One Day !

Timeline: 14 mars: February last year was really cold, just a look back in this blog will show you what I mean. It’s been reassuring to know that last year’s extremely cold winter was not the norm and late February 2013 saw me sunbathing on the terrace in just a pair of shorts. It was 15 deg in the shade but a barmy 25 deg in direct sunshine and we had temperatures in the mid-teens for a whole week, followed by rain, hail and general cold and dampness, then snow, although only very little and now it’s fortunately warming up again. The weather forecast however, varies depending which website you look at, but the consensus indicates a steady rise now and I’ve today declared official springtime in the village. Just as well, as we started taking the roof off the barn this week and I don’t want it full of snow or people sliding down a slippery slope.

Work is proceeding on several fronts, with the Maison d’Amis  really looking lovely inside now with its new paint scheme and just some wall panelling and skirting boards to finish. Besides the work to the barn roof and chimney, as soon as the ground is a little softer, we’ll start preparing he gardens for sowing grass seed and put in some roses and a few other plants and look to create some peaceful rest areas.

After looking at several letting websites, we registered with Owners Direct a couple of weeks ago and have received a steady stream of enquiries and have just taken our first new booking of the year. Our maçon and friend, Eric, called in yesterday to look at some more work for us and told me about his own gites being fully booked from May until September, mainly from repeat clients. I like the sound of repeat clients, as it makes the marketing tariff so much lower!

I hope to bring our old Citroen here next month, it having received a full medical and some minor procedures from a specialist recently and I’ll then have the challenge of the notorious French system of red tape to negotiate in getting Andre (all our cars have always had names) registered here. It will be grand to see him wearing a French 49 registration again after 20 plus years under the DVLA.

I’ve just noticed that more than a trace of the maison d’amis colour scheme is still decorating my hands, so I’d better give them a scrub a’dub when I go and get my overalls out of the wash, ready for tomorrows exciting exploits.

Enjoys yourselves everyone, a bientôt,

LC

Oh, how could I forget that great big truck which was reversed skilfully into the courtyard yesterday to discharge some goodies:

Just a couple of photos of Le Grenier, our large upstairs suite above the Maison d'Amis, nearing completion.More photos to follow.

 

Much sanding of beams !

Paint coming soon

 

New Year Winter Blues

Our latest guests departed on the 2^nd day of the year and sadly took the bride with them back to the UK. Since then, this past month has given various troubles to cope with including snow, man flu, truculent work force and a failure of electrical power. Obviously the man flu was the hardest to cope with !

I’ll be much happier when we’re all here together as a family unit for good (me, the bride and our cats), but in the meantime our house in the UK continues to be de-cluttered and the bride pays frequent visits to check up on the building works.

Our little gîte, the Maison d’Amis, proved to be a warm and cosy nest for its first use guest and although we had insufficient time to fully decorate it, Sally felt comfortable enough to risk coming back again with her daughter in May. In order to ensure it measures up to our own expectations, I’m currently staying here myself and am working my way through a list of additions and refinements to make staying here even more of a joy.

I’ve also been working in the Grenier above and besides sanding and oiling the exposed roof timbers, I’ve been exercising my new found woodworking skills, as I finish off some unfinished joinery work started by our departed help. I’m confidently planning to install some timber wall panelling, a built in wardrobe, shelving and cabinets, so watch this space.

Last week’s gusts of wind reminded me to do something about the roof on our open hangar. This structure is destined to be covered guest parking and the corrugated iron roof will be quite in keeping with the enhanced rustic charm we are striving to achieve. Kevin our roofer called in the other day to look at the hangar and besides attending to this, reckons he can start the barn roof, weather permitting by mid February. That’s one of the major tasks on the barn and brings our moving in date forward at least in our minds. 

Still needs paint !

Loving the new hob !

I’m getting used to the new Maison d’Ami's kitchen and fortunately, that ‘new cooker smell’ when you fire up the oven for the first few times has gratefully gone and I’m also now a firm believer in the benefits of ceramic hobs, as they heat up almost as fast as gas and are so easy to clean and even provide an occasional extra work surface!

As I’ve finished my cup of ‘builders’, I have little excuse not to get back to work, so it's a cheery ttfn from moi as we are looking forward to the new life of spring and the warmer weather.

A bientôt,

LC

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