Hi all

Thought I might just bring the blog up to date a little. I am hoping I will now have time to continue writing once again on the blog. Cass has settled wonderfully and is now 10lbs! A little big bigger than the 2 pound 10 ounces when she was born! She is doing fine, no problems at all and we are absolutely besotted with her. Every day she does something amazing and we love her so much!! This blog isn't about her though; she has her own blog, for family and friends to keep up to date with what she is up to.

The house is coming on nicely. I will take some photos shortly of the work that Daws did whilst Cass and I were in hospital. He transformed it really, very quickly, ready for her arrival. We still have the back unrenovated rooms to do up, which will become the lounge and study a few outbuildings to knock down which will give an outside eating area and the outside to tidy up and then the house will be finished. These are not urgent; the house is now habitable even for a tiny baby. We will wait until Cass is a little older before staring the major work on the rear of the house.

Daws is still working at the Renault garage – his tennis elbow is much better now so he is back at work full time. It still hurts a bit if he has big jobs to do (which unfortunately seem to be every day!) but much better than it was at its worst.

We have just had family over to visit; my mum and dad, sister, her husband and my niece and nephew. It was lovely to see them all and for them to spend a bit of time with Cass. She was an angel and didn't bother a bit about all the noise going on around her, just took it all in her stride. Daws's mum and dad arrive next weekend for a couple of days.

The weather is glorious right now, the sun is streaming through the windows and Cass and I are about to set off on a walk on the country lanes. It is so, so lovely to be able to step out of the front door, literally turn right and be directly in the countryside. I just can't wait until Cass is old enough to actually see and enjoy all the creatures we come across on our little walks; cows, donkeys, horses, geese, hens, chickens, butterflies, birds, foxes, deer, pigs, sheep, lambs...

A la prochaine!

Angi, Daws & Cass x

Hello again

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but we were a little knocked off balance at the beginning of December when our little girl decided to arrive – three months early! Obviously this came as a BIG shock. She is absolutely beautiful and is doing really well in a special care baby unit where, thankfully, she has thrived since day one. She is the reason we have not been updating the blog lately. I am currently staying at the hospital, an hour and half away from our house – the best one in the area for special baby care – and so I am not often free to update the blog.

We are hoping that we will be back to normal (!?) soon, once she is home with us. We have had to very quickly finish the main living area house renovation, so it is fit for her to come home to – we thought we had another three months or so! - but we didn't - so we have lots of photos to upload once we find the time to do so. That is the thing with babies, they arrive when they want to, not when they should do......

Angi, Daws & Baby Cass xx

Hi

Just a bit of an update – with Daws having been off work and me getting bigger and bigger we haven't really done much on the house front over the last few weeks.

The weather is becoming cooler but we still haven't needed to have the fire lit every evening, which is remarkable as we are now well into November. The trees have changed their colours everywhere you look, now showing beautiful autumnal colours, interspersed with the constant clusters of evergreens. The majority still have all their leaves, now a glorious golden, yellow and red colour; some just on the verge and some beginning to shed ready for the next season.

Daws's elbow is now 80% better and he has finally returned to work. He had become really bored at the end of the first week off, so when the médecin recommended another week as the elbow hadn't repaired itself sufficiently – and because he couldn't do anything at home as it needed absolute rest – he became really fed up!

He is now also back to sorting the rest of the house before baby arrives. I would love to do some painting but as we have managed to avoid me and baby having any contact at all with any chemicals of any type from the beginning so we are both loathe for me to start now, with so little time to go. It is just not worth the risk. I can however clean – which incidentally takes 10x the effort it did before I was pregnant – but at least I am trying. I am reverting back to natural cleaning methods, isn't the internet a wonderful thing? - Such as baking soda and vinegar – and they work! Who needs Cillit Bang?!

I had the 2^nd trimester scan a couple of weeks ago and she is a girl! We didn't mind either way, boy or girl – but I did always want to know, even though Daws didn't; as I am simply no good with surprises - I always secretly open presents before the supposed date. Anyway, it was incredible; we saw her yawn and moving around and all is as should be. We also came away with a fantastic photo of her face which is amazingly clear to say she was only 5 month in the womb.

Daws is upstairs as I write this, preparing the new bathroom for painting – this will only take a day or so as it is a small simple room. We will then have to move onto the main bedroom to remove the rest of the brown wallpaper (yes still some up there!) and then we will need to paint the walls and the new stud walls. The room that will be the nursery doesn't really need much as it was painted earlier in the year and she will be sleeping with us initially anyway.

We will get there in the end!

Angi x

We have had a couple of fairly busy weeks.

Daws's mum and dad visited the other weekend for a couple of nights and it was lovely to see them. They loved the area, the countryside and the multitude of woodland walks that are available. His mum and dad helped him to knock out the old sink in the corner of the kitchen and the room is looking much better now; we have still to tile the floor and tidy the decorating but that is about it really – once the sofa and TV are in the back room that is and not plonked in the middle of the kitchen that is!

We have also stripped back the VERY old paint on the front door and brought it back to the original wood finish which looks so good we are now considering doing the same for all the windows and frames. Much more work but worth it in the end. While I was walking through the village last week, I met an elderly gentleman who began to chat with me, we talked for a while and then I discovered that he had been a painter/decorator in the village in his earlier years and it was he that applied the paint on our front door that we had just removed! It is such a small place here! He was more than happy then to come and have a look at the door and to give us a few tips on which products to use to make the door look its best again.

Daws has unfortunately got tennis elbow, neither of us knew what this means, we had both heard of it but not what causes it or its symptoms. He has now got tablets, cream and an elbow support and it should ease off in a couple of weeks or so hopefully. He had asked me to make an appointment with our doctor and he NEVER sees the doctor so I just knew he must have been in pain. In fact I have never known him to seek any kind of medical treatment at all in all the time I have known him – apart from the time when he was breaking up an old engine and got several pieces of rusty metal stuck in his eye ball but that is another story.........and not a nice one at that!

Baby is doing fine as far as we know, I have another appointment on Tuesday and then we have the second term scan on the 20^th where we should be able to see the sex. Daws has taken the day off so he can come to the scan too.

We are in curry mode at the minute, not sure if it is me with cravings or just that we both really miss proper curries. I lived most of my life in Oldham where I was spoilt for choice when it comes to curries – with any variety/nationality you wanted available practically 24 hours a day! Bangladeshi was always my favourite.

Here there are no Indian restaurants at all. I have tried the pre made curries from the supermarché but they are just inedible as the French are not into spicy food. Imagine bright yellow powder sweet curry sauce made with water and that's it – yuck! I recently bought loads of spices from the UK and from Thailand and yesterday I made Thai green curry and a huge vat of base curry sauce which then was split into 10 portions and is now in the freezer. These bases will make all the different curries we love; bhuna, masala, moglai etc. and I just can't wait!! There are just a few other ingredients I am waiting delivery of and then I'll be off!

Angi x

It has been a few months now since I started to research the best ways to approach bilingualism in an infant; in the context of learning two languages at the same time, or maybe one after the other. I was hoping to try and work out which method would be the most effective. This particular question still seems to be a matter of opinion between psycholinguists so I did not find my definitive answer. I have however, decided which route we will take. I say 'I' have decided as if it were only my decision, which it isn't of course; it is 'our' decision. Daws has simply left me to do the thinking around language learning for the baby as it is I who studied languages and linguistics and it is I who will be speaking the non-mother tongue with him or her.

All this research has more than re emphasised the desire I had of speaking and living two languages around the baby when he or she arrives. It is more than a desire really as the child will be schooled and will live in France but will have most of their family ties with non French speaking Anglophones back in the UK. In order to function in these two different areas of life he or she will need to speak and write two languages or will lose something of one or both of the cultures.

If I am honest I did have a 'leaning' towards English becoming the main language for the baby for obvious reasons. It is spoken by one quarter of the world's population after all. This is because I had always been of the opinion that everyone has only one mother tongue, i.e., the language they are the strongest in and then can have fluency in other languages but maybe at a different level.

I am currently reading a fascinating book 'Raising a Bilingual Child' (Zurer Pearson) and it has opened my mind to the possibilities and the incredible capabilities and capacities of an infant's brain. It describes a method of a child becoming bilingual with an equal influence of two languages at the same time. That is, speaking and knowing them both equally, or having two mother tongues. It is all dependant on at what point the languages are introduced and the amount of focus given to the languages being experienced. This is the route we have decided to take. I will only speak French and Daws will only speak English to the baby. We will speak English between ourselves so the baby will see that I can switch between the two as he or she will too, one day. When he or she starts school and thus has much more natural French language input in their life, I will revert to mainly speaking English at home in order to keep up the immersion in the English language. That is the basic idea.

Daws has taken a week off work this week and we (well, he) have managed to empty 'la remise' of all the rubbish that had accumulated while renovating the rest of the house. I counted 15 trips to 'la déchetterie' and then gave up counting...... The room now looks so bigger without the clutter!! It is now in a fit condition to ask for some quotes for the renovation of the roof and walls so that it can then become the lounge/study area. The kitchen is practically finished now but it just doesn't feel like a kitchen as we have the sofa and the TV in there and don't have the room yet to put up the big country pine table and benches that we have bought.

The whole house is pulling together now, bit by bit. The electrics have been fitted to the shower today (we have to wait until 9pm tonight for the water heater to have done its job!!) and we have hot water upstairs and down. Strangely I am still filling the kettle up for hot water – it really does take some getting used to mod cons again.

We have now got a fabulous fully functioning flushable toilet!

It makes life so much easier – and we had forgotten how much. We also now have cold mains water downstairs and up including cold water to the shower. We still have to wait for the EDF (Electricité de France) to come and move the old 1950’s electricity panel and counter and install us a new modern one before the electrics can go in for the water heater. I paid the EDF for this work in July but they cannot come to do it until the last week in September. The guy who came to quote the job admitted it was a small job so why take so long?? I have had arguments a plenty on the phone to many EDF customer assistants, especially using the fact that I am pregnant, have no bathroom, kitchen, hot water etc but to no avail. The utilities market in France has recently been opened up to competition, as happened in the UK years ago, so once the work is done I think we will be shopping around for a cheaper quote...........

We have finally bought a proper domain name so you no longer have to remember the awful blog address, which will however continue to work if you have saved it in your favourites. We therefore have a new website address for the blog, which after an hour or so of checking different availabilities of different configurations ended up as www.francechance.com

We obviously couldn’t have the ones we had top of the list as they were already registered and this one seemed the best compromise, it rhymes so fairly easy to remember and it works in English and French, which is a nice bonus. This one can now follow us no matter where we end up and whatever we end up doing.

Anyway, I am off with a bucket of hot water and a bottle of Herbal Essences into the shower now so bye for now! xx

Update!! I have just had a phonecall from the EDF and they are now coming to move the old electricity panel next Wednesday. Seems my complaints might have had an effect after all!
The plumbed in all mod cons loo is really taking some getting used to, it is so strange to now have to go upstairs to the bathroom! Daws keeps forgetting and just going to the old outside 'hole in the floor' toilet and then coming back in laughing at himself having forgotten again! x

Nearly there now...........look at our beautiful new toilet!! Should be plumbed in and working by the weekend! Who would have thought we would be so excited about a loo?!! Not having this kind of mod con really makes you think....the first couple of months were a novelty but the novelty soon wore out.

The work has finally started! The first photo below (one with concrete floor) is the beginning of the kitchen and the other two show the progression of the shower room. I am currently cooped up in the back bedroom, worrying if the baby can hear the LOUD drilling and it is LOUD. The plombier is drilling through a 3 foot thick stone wall to create an outlet for a pipe 15cms wide. That is noisy. I think we will be ok back here. I am playing soft music to try and drown it out!

We had a lovely day out yesterday, over to the Auvergne. My cousin Kate has rented a chateau in Rhone-Alpes for the week; the Auvergne is roughly in between Limousin and Rhone Alpes so we chose a town at random and arranged to meet up. The town we finally decided on was St Pourçain sur Sioulle which was just charming and the weather was glorious.

As it happens there was a town festival on which was just fantastic as I was a little concerned about what we would actually do on meeting up as the whole of France tends to shut down on a Sunday. The festival included a medieval style play, demonstrations of ancient dancing, a procession and a lovely food market (where everyone except for me (again!) enjoyed a ‘merguez frites’ from a street stall. I was however, able to buy a ‘paté pomme de terre,’ (a kind of sliced potato pie) from one of the market stalls, which is one of my favourites. This prompted a discussion with the stall holder as he was adamant that they originate in the Auvergne; everyone in our village has however, told me the story of the paté pomme de terre and that they originate from the Limousin. I felt strangely bound to defend my home region’s claim to fame!

It was lovely to catch up with Kate and her family. She lives in London and the last time I saw her is in the 80’s when I worked briefly in Chiswick as a student. She and her hubbie Dan now have 3 lovely sons (17, 15, and 13) who I obviously knew existed but had never met before! After a lovely relaxing day strolling around this lovely busy town we arrived home at 8pm and I fell straight into bed...........I am such a lightweight these days! Out like a light!

This week will no doubt take its toll on me as I have to be up, bright and breezy for 8am daily for the plombier’s arrival. I am sure it will be worth it though, to have all the mod cons! Roll on next week!

A la prochaine!

Angi x

Again apologies for neglecting the blog but we have had so much going on and I am afraid it has taken a bit of a back seat. I am back online with it now and promise to try harder!

We have some news for you all! We are expecting! This is one reason why I have been so preoccupied. I had the 12 week scan yesterday and all is good good good. He/she waved to us and was moving about like a jumping bean! Lovely to see! The doctor I saw was charming – he reminded me of ‘Dr Elliot’ from ‘Holby City;’ very intelligent with a touch of eccentricity thrown in. Just how doctors should be!

Luckily I seem to have so far escaped all the horror story symptoms some women do suffer when pregnant. I have had no sickness at all - just fatigue and absolute fatigue at that! I have been sleeping at least 12 hours a day and a siesta in the afternoon! I have never felt tiredness like it. I am told that this gets better after the first trimester so fingers crossed. Oh and I have developed an addiction to a 'Philidelphia' type cheese, I am currently getting through a tub a day!

Now the race is one to get the house finished as obviously we need a bathroom and kitchen more than ever!

We have had 2 quotes through, one of which was extortionate from the plumber we didn’t like and one absolutely spot on what we were thinking a quote should be from the plumber we did like. Full steam ahead! He is to start a week a Monday! Hurrah!

We have ordered the kitchen units, simple solid wood; freestanding units as this house just would not suit a fitted kitchen and the bathroom fitments are simply awaiting installation in the front bedroom.

The only downside I can think of being pregnant is going to restaurants. We have always enjoyed going out for lunch/dinner every time and again and with all the lovely restaurants we have nearby it is often easier than cooking. Now I am finding while Daws continues with a ‘pavé de boeuf à point’ or a serving of ‘saucisses de Toulouse’ I am sadly stuck with whatever chicken dish is on offer.

As French restaurants are so full of cheese and cream sauces, rillettes and pâtés and partially cooked meats I have to avoid all my favourite things and I have to choose the one meat that we can guarantee will at least be cooked through! Boring!

A small price to pay though for peace of mind.

Hi everyone

Sorry for not updating the blog for such a long time but we have had a lot happening which included a trip back to the UK and we have therefore been preoccupied with personal and family affairs and the blog has taken a bit of a back seat.

Le quatorze juillet and the Tour de France passed uneventfully for us I'm afraid. We spent a quiet time at home as we watched the rest of the country celebrate the French Revolution and the high speed bike race on the television. We have simply been exhausted this last few weeks and just needed a quiet weekend to recharge our batteries.

We have had visits from two plumbers now, one we liked and one we didn’t.

The one we didn’t was the ‘Mmm....I don’t know about that, I don’t advise that you do that, I think you would be better doing this.... with a short intake of breath at each suggestion ’ kind of man.

The one we liked was simply lovely and he saw no problem in everything we were hoping to do in the bathroom. Nothing fancy, just very simple white fitments and I just have to have a floating loo! You know the kind, suspended on the wall, with all the fitments hidden behind a false wall?

This man was recommended to us by our lovely friend in the village, Claude. We had told him of the trials we were having in actually getting plumbers to phone us back, let alone actually come to the house to assess the work to be done. It would seem the plumbers in this area are run off their feet with work; they do actually call you back, but it can be 6 weeks after you left the initial message with their answering machine/wife/secretary.

August is far too close to risk us not getting anything sorted as France shuts down in August for holidays.

I told Claude I really wanted to use a French plumber but the way it was going I might have to reluctantly use an expat who has set up over here (no offence to expat plumbers....just really want to use French workmen where possible). Claude agreed and said we should if the French weren’t polite enough to even get back to us. Claude told us of a friend of his who has a business in Bordeaux and that he would ask him to come and see us.

Crikey that would be a long way to travel we thought...............it turns out it is his son who will be doing the work and he lives in Evaux les Bains, still a fair trek but at least it’s in the Creuse.

We think he will probably stay at his dad’s house in the village while he does the work.

So things are looking up.

We have built the shower unit and it is standing in the corner of the bedroom. A delightful day was spent with a flat pack shower and cubicle, and yes, as always, someone knocked at the door just at the point we really couldn’t move, both of us holding heavy pieces of glass aloft while bolting them together.

Sod’s law I guess.

A bientôt!

Angi

Hi everyone

I am so happy! At last we have the waste pipe. I simply can't believe it has taken so much time and effort to arrive at this point - almost four months. All for a pipe less than a metre in length that only took a couple of hours to install!

I now need to phone the plumber this evening as we now need him to make the connection to the interior. The guys who did the work today will then come back to fill in the hole.

Lovely, warm, cleansing, refreshing, wet, beautiful shower here we come!!

Angi x

YIPPEE!!!!!

Believe it or not……we think we have resolved the conduit situation!

I had a chat with a ‘directeur’ at the Conseil Général. He confirmed that it is the village that should do the connection even though the house stands on a departmental road. Hallelujah! It was so good to find someone who knew about drain connections!

I explained what I had already been advised by the Mairie, that the house is on a departmental road and so they couldn’t do the connection. He replied (very nicely) ‘Well, they don’t seem to have much experience in this area then do they? – I will phone them now. Would you have the number?’

Three hours later - after the mandatory 2 hour lunch break - FIVE messieurs from the village came to the house. We discussed what work was required and they said it would be no problem. They will be back before long to do the connection and will keep me ‘au courant.’

It has been awhile coming. I never thought I would ever be this thrilled about a drain installation!

Thank you M. Contrôleur des égouts!

Apart from this, my days are pretty unexciting at the minute. I am now determined to eradicate all the wallpaper in the bedroom, yes still at it - funny isn’t it you can always find other things to do when you have a task you hate to finish?

We are also clearing out all the debris from the remise (see photos above). This is the room that was once the cobbler’s workshop. I have to be truthful and admit that Daws is doing most of the work as there is a high risk of finding little creatures in there – dead or alive – and I squeal too much! Once it is empty we will use it to store all the kitchen units, washing machine, loo, sink etc until we are ready to install them in the house. The remise will in due course become the sitting room but really needs renovating from scratch.

We have had the go ahead to knock down all the old animal stores at the back of the house. Well, not actually the go ahead really, just a letter saying that I didn’t actually need to put in the 6 page (and 4 copies thereof) permission to ‘démolir’ application in the first place! I had followed the French government planning site for demolishing buildings and submitted the requisite photos, forms and plans; only to be informed that as we are not in a preservation area we didn’t need permission. It seems that we can knock the whole house down if we wish as we don’t need authorization as we are not in a protected area!! I am glad we put through the forms though as now we have a letter saying we can knock them down as the application was ‘sans suite.’

We have had a resident spider at the back door for months. We quite like him really as he is fascinating to watch. He had set up his stall just under the outside light, the ideal location to attract insects at night-time Very clever. We watched him stalk the innocent fly byes and then attack. He even killed a huge moth and just left it hanging in the breeze from the web, in order that it would draw even more victims. He is not very pleased this morning as we have swept all his webs away as we were cleaning the area. He was becoming a bit bolshie though as his webs were entirely covering the light and making their way to the rear door.

I am sure we are getting the evil eye when we walk past him now.


A bientôt!

Angi

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting quietly reading in the front room of the house. I heard what I can only describe as ‘rustling’ from inside the chimney. Nothing unusual there - we have had a lot of rain and it had probably dislodged some debris.
The first wasp appeared at about 4pm. It appeared suddenly and loudly. I thought nothing of it - again nothing unusual here. I persuaded it out of the window. A few minutes later, a second wasp appeared. A coincidence, but I still thought nothing of it and again coerced it out through the window. When the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth arrived I thought we may have a problem. I succeeded in encouraging them all to leave through the window and for me that’s good - I am not the best when it comes to our smaller, multi legged, flying friends.

Daws arrived home and I went out to the car and told him I thought we might have ‘un petit problème’ as we both looked up at the chimney. The chimney was surrounded by a huge swarm of wasps.

We share a chimney stack with our neighbour so I wanted to warn them and see if they had had any enter the house. Such a lovely couple, they ushered us in and explained that it needed to be sorted ‘tout de suite’ as the swarm would only get bigger. They quickly checked all their fireplaces and thankfully found no wasps in the house. They had had a similar problem at another house they had lived in and easily found the telephone number of an exterminator. She kindly made the call for us, while making us coffee and told us our saviour would be with us in half an hour.

Funny isn’t it? I lived in my house in the UK for eight years and never even spoke to my neighbours except for the odd ‘Hello’ in the street. Here, within the first 5 months - we have already been in most of our neighbours’ houses and they in ours. It’s just such a different way of life.

A rickety white van pulled into the village about 25 minutes later. He stopped by me and said he was looking for a ‘Madame ******.’ I love it when French people say my name it sounds sooo nice! Last week I was talking to a French receptionist in a local shop and she needed my name. I spelled it out for her and she said ‘Ah bien….that’s difficult to pronounce isn’t it?!’ At first she didn’t realise what she had said to me…..until I joked that I found it quite easy as I had had a lot of practice. (My name is neither unusual nor hard to pronounce! Just an average English surname!)

Our knight in shining armour – well a blue coated protection suit anyway – quickly surveyed the chimney, mounted a ladder and sprayed a product into the chimney cavity. ‘Voilà c’est fini!’ he said when he came back down the ladder about ten minutes later. My hero!

Still wearing his protection suit and mask so we couldn’t see his face at all, he explained that the wasps would now all perish with the product; that we were not to light the fire tonight and gave us a little advice for the future. This freaked me out. We were being spoken to by a faceless man. Not as much as the wasps had done, but a little none the less. I was also sad that we had had to kill living creatures but we really didn’t have any choice. We couldn’t risk the house filling with wasps and the danger that would bring.

Take care
Angi x

A history lesson.

I am back to the delightful task of removing the last of the brown wallpaper in the front bedroom. I have tried to ignore it over the last few weeks finding other things that were more ‘urgent’ but I can leave it no longer – it is a horrible job but it has to all come off.

The monsieur who lived here as a child called round last week. We hadn’t seen him since we moved to the village as he lives in Paris for part of the year. He really is a lovely man. His father was a cobbler here at the beginning of the 20th century and travelled to Paris for his trade. The ‘remise’ - one of the outbuildings at the rear of the house - served his father as his workshop.

It is so lovely to hear stories of what the house used to be. It is fantastic to see that there are still remnants of his cobbling trade still to be seen throughout the house. We have found various writings and calculations on walls, a pair of clogs and various shoe making implements and tools which we will try to incorporate in to the new rooms when we come to renovate.

As I started to tell him things we had been doing, about Daws’s job, our trip to the UK at the beginning of the month and so on, he stopped us and said ‘Yes I already know. You went to the UK to see your family and friends, Stuart now works in the Renault garage, and you have a chemical toilet.’ He then continued to tell us things he already knew. That’s the amazing thing living in a small community – everyone knows your what is happening!

It felt strange for him to be in the house again now that it belongs to some one else. We invited him to return anytime to see what we were doing with his old house. It was his parents who decorated the front bedroom with the afore mentioned wallpaper in the 1920’s. No wonder it is shattering into tiny pieces as I remove it! It's been there for 90 odd years. It really is a shame to get rid of it but it is just not possible to renovate. It has eroded over time helped by cooking fats and smoke floating up the staircase and from years of settled dust.

The rain continues. I am eagerly awaiting a break in the weather as I am keen to get the front door stripped and repainted. The house will take on a whole new lease of life once that is done. At the moment it looks like no one lives here, tatty and unkempt but we just haven't had the weather to start anything external. We brought some paint back from the UK at the beginning of May. The one thing in France we just can’t get used to is the liquid paint! If you buy even a highly respected brand such as Dulux it is of a liquid consistency, water thin and impossible to apply. I did try it in one of the cupboards in the lounge earlier in the year but quickly abandoned it!

As for the drain, I have now spoken to the DDE, the CS and have to phone the DAS this afternoon! No one seems to know who should do the connection and I am stuck in the middle of a huge pile of French acronyms. Each time I am given another set of letters I have to ask which department it is and what the acronym stands for, research it on the internet and then make the call! The French sure like their acronyms! I have at least one thread of hope. A lovely lady at he Conseil Générale who, after giving me another acronym, said to phone her back if I had no joy with the acronym she had given me and she would try and help me further.

On verra bien!

Angi x

Just what we needed to hear.........

Hi

We are really disappointed. All we want is a bathroom. Not much to ask is it?

As you will know if you have been reading the drain saga we have been waiting for 3 months for the drain to be connected to the mains so that we can continue with the renovation of the house. We have not been able to do much since March as there is no point decorating or doing any of the other work until the drain is in…

I first asked for the connection on the 8th March, going back and forth to the Mairie to try and hurry it along since then. The response I have always had is ‘I will remind him again’ ‘Has he not been yet?’ ‘I will see him on Monday and ask him again.’

Yesterday I phoned the Maire direct as three months is a bit too long to be still waiting. He told me he was on his way to see me and he arrived shortly after the phone call. He informed me the village cannot do the work as we are on departmental road – which is governed by the department and not the village - and that I would have to ask ‘a business’ to fit the connection!!??

I wish they had realised this three months ago!!??! A tad shell shocked, I asked him which business could then do it. He advised me to go to see the receptionist at the Mairie and she would give me some company names.

Off I trotted to the Mairie and she gave me the name of the plumber who had come 3 months ago to the house, the very one who advised me to ask at the Mairie for the connection to the mains drain before he could do any of the internal work!!

Luckily he is a very nice man. I phoned him and explained the situation. The fact that the Mairie had - three months ago - said that they could do the connection but have now told me they cannot – and I have to now ask a business – and that I had been given his name! He explained - as I expected - that he cannot simply access a mains drain system as that has to be someone authorised. I agreed with him and told him I fully understood but that I am completely stuck as I have done all I can and followed the advice the Mairie has given me.

He then very kindly said he would go to the Mairie himself and ask them how could he do it?

What a relief! At least if he goes and he knows what he is talking about when it comes to drains/plumbing etc we may get somewhere.

Fingers crossed.

To be continued………

Angi x

Back in England.......

Hello again

We had a lovely week in the UK catching up with friends and family last week.

It felt very strange as we drove off the ferry at Dover; it really felt as though the UK is no longer our home. It isn’t any longer of course but still hits you when it is the first time you return.

We started up the motorway back to Chester and within 5 minutes we found ourselves in a traffic jam! We nearly turned right round for home again! If it hadn’t have been for the fact that we were seeing friends and family we would have done.

It was a hectic but lovely week, dashing around to Cumbria, Chester, Oldham, Manchester etc.

We saw all our family in Oldham, Chester and Cumbria which was fantastic – nice to see everyone again.

I had a lovely shopping trip in Manchester with one of my closest friends Wendy and had a wonderful ‘catch up on all the goss’ lunch at La Tasca followed by ‘gateau et café’ at a French café – couldn’t resist trying it! The volume of people and traffic were a bit of a shock in Manchester – I am no longer used to having to dodge out of the way of other people when walking down a street!

Another evening I had a curry (Bangladeshi of course!) in Oldham with some girlie mates (Karen, Diane and Fay) – I must admit one thing I do miss in France is a real curry. Once again lovely to catch up on all the gossip with them all.

Daws managed to have his favourite take away with some close friends, Jon & Kaz in Chester and then a boys’ night in, also in Chester, with his other close mates Rik, Billy and Richie.

Nice to go back for a visit but we were happy to be on our way back home. We arrived at Dover to be faced with the news that the fishermen in Boulogne were on strike and were keeping the Speedferries boat captive! The boat that needed to turn around and come back to Dover to collect us! Vive la France!

The Speedferries staff didn’t seem to have much news of what was happening. We are more than familiar with French strikes and they don’t tend to last less than at least 24 hours so rather than wait for the duration we decided that we would buy a new ticket from Seafrance and travel to Calais instead. All this added on about 3 hours to the original journey time but at least we knew we would be home that evening………..

We arrived home at 4am, happy but very tired after 20 hours travelling.

STILL NO DRAIN!!!! We were really hoping that it would be done while we were away but no……..I am going AGAIN to the Mairie this afternoon. I am not yet sure what I will say. I want to complain, as I would if I were in the UK but it is not that simple in a small village! I have a couple of other requests from them so will play it by ear.

Just added a couple of photos of our little lodger – he appears to be living in the brickwork of the remise and comes out occasionally to do a bit of sunbathing when the sun is out. Quite a handsome chappie isn’t he??!! (Click on the photos and you can see him in all his glory, in more detail!)

Take care

Angi xx

Rain, rain and more rain!

Rain, rain and more rain! I have never seen so much rain in all my life – and that’s saying something coming from near Manchester!

It has been raining non stop for the last 10 days. As we are driving around we can see that fields and houses have become lakes, rivers have overflowed their banks into the surrounding area and roads and bridges have been closed. It is dealt with very quickly and efficiently; the local service vehicles have been out in force attempting to save people’s property and land where the water has hit.

We are lucky that our house is in a non flood position. We are at the crossroads of the village, two of the roads are downhill and two are up hill and thankfully any excess water is naturally led down the hills away from us.

The forecast is for another 10 days rain. I have spoken to people in the village and it is very worrying for farmers as they are at the time of the year when they want to return their cattle to the fields and are unable to do so until it becomes less wet. The rain is simply a nuisance, a slight annoyance for us – not so the people who work the land - their livelihoods depend on the seasons.


Angi x

Another crack

Hi all

We woke earlier this week to find a huge crack down the windscreen of the car……again! Daws took it back into work and the general consensus was that there must have been a fault in the replacement windscreen that was fitted. The crack is not in the driver’s line of vision thankfully. Another one has been ordered………fingers crossed this time!

We managed to hack through the rose bush and hydrangea in the garden and mow the lawn last weekend. Just as well we did as it has done nothing but rain since! We are neither of us gardeners but I think we did quite a good job! It looks much tidier now and the two big bushes look rejuvenated; I don’t think anyone had given them any TLC in years. They should start to flower as soon as the sun shows its face again.

It is so just so lovely when we do any work outside; people just appear from nowhere for a chat! It is really quite surreal. You can honestly guarantee if you step outside, front or back - armed with a paintbrush, ladder, or some other implement - someone will appear within seconds and begin to talk to you. It is lovely....such a friendly place.

Daws has had his first wage in the bank. The wages are much lower over here than in the UK but with the current exchange rate it is really not too bad. Obviously, it is all relative - rent, food; almost everything is cheaper here so you just don’t need as much money to live on. I am sure some ex pats over here would disagree with me after reading some of their entries in the online forums.
In my opinion, life is much cheaper over here; you just need to know where to shop!

We are still waiting for the drain man to appear and connect us……I love the slower pace of life here - but now this particular issue is becoming a bit trying. I have been again to the Mairie and the lovely receptionist really doesn’t know what to say to me any more. She has passed the job on and all the paper work is complete from our end. Patience needed I guess.
It is just infuriating as we really can’t do any more work in the house until the drain is in place. The plumbing, tiling, bathroom, kitchen all depend on it.

C’est la vie.

Angi & Daws xx

Been shopping again!

I just wanted to show you a few things I have bought...........I am so in my element when shopping!!!

A very old and heavy 'niche à pain' - breadbin made from solid wood. It is lovely - needs a good clean and bit of wax then should look great in the kitchen.
Bargain at 25 euros!

A gorgeous heavy solid hand crafted 'gravure' in wood, signed on the reverse - another bargain at 10 euros!

Subscibe by email

Hello

Just a note to say I have added an email subscription widget to the blog.

Mum and Dad (and anyone else interested of course) put your email in the box in the left hand column and follow the instructions. You will then get an email to tell you each time we have uploaded a new post or new photos.

A big ‘bonjour’ to Alice and the The Family Smudge – and thank you for your lovely comments.

We are following your story in your blog (link again to the left column) and wish you every happiness!!

Bye for now!

Angi & Daws x

VW in the garage!

Hello

We are still waiting for the mains drain to be connected!

‘Tout de suite’ does not always actually mean ‘immediately’ over here……
It is lovely to live at a much slower pace of life it is also infuriating especially when you want hot water installed!

Anyway, in the mean time, the two stud walls we need in the front bedroom are being erected. This will partition off a room for the bathroom. I still haven’t removed all the wallpaper from the walls (photo shows a corner 'before') so I am still plodding on with it. After which, they will all probably need resurfacing and repainting.

I am enjoying shopping for old furniture; there are some gorgeous pieces around. Modern furniture would just look wrong in this house so we are sticking to traditional which is much nicer anyway……

Daws is still doing fine at the garage. His first VW came in today! He has mainly worked on Renaults while he has been there (it is a Renault garage after all!) but he specialises in VWs so his little face lit up when it drove in the workshop! He even nipped home for some specialist tools that the garage didn’t have.

I am going to have a browse at the ‘brocante’ this afternoon, which is like antique dealer/ bric-à-brac dealer. We need a couple of old ceiling lights (there are none at the minute) so hopefully will find some nice old ones. If not will enjoy having a look round anyway! I am sure I will not return completely empty handed!

A la prochaine!

Angi xx

The saga of the tout à l'égout!

Hi again

The waste pipe is being fitted tomorrow! Hurrah!

Once that is in we can plan the bathroom. The shower unit arrived today and we will be shopping tomorrow for other fitments so it will be all ready to go.

It was excellent news in the end for the positioning of the mains drains. The plumber who came to advise us about installing 'la salle de bain' a couple of weeks ago thought they were at the back of the house and advised us to check with the Mairie. Luckily they are at the front as we thought all along. If they had been at the back, it would have cost us thousands more to lay pipes all through the garden and patio area (concrete!). Thankfully that is not the case and I can’t wait to tell the plumber we were right all along!

I have now set up a new web site for my teaching over here. It is not yet live but not actually 'hidden' which means although it is 'under construction' people will be able to find it. I would really appreciate it if any of you could find the time to test the links in the web site for me.
Please let me know if you find any errors or broken links. Thanks v much!

You can click this link to go to the 'Learn French' site.


Happy Easter everyone!

Have a good weekend off work for those of you who don't work for Social Services! Hope work not too tiring for those of you that do and probably won’t then have the weekend off!

Take Care

Ang xx

La chanteuse

Hi all

Another few weeks have flown by. The weather is becoming warmer, the trees are beginning to bloom as are the flowers. Life is good.

Daws has now settled into his job well and managing to communicate with his colleagues using ‘Franglais’ - a mix between the two languages. He has come home the occasional swear word which I suppose is at least still learning French but maybe not the vocabulary I would have chosen! They are managing to speak to each other about the cars, jobs, parts etc quite easily - a car is a car after all! It does help that Daws is so laid back, it was me who was nervous the day he started work - he wasn’t bothered at all!

We went down to Toulouse at the weekend for my friend Lindsey’s 40th birthday party which was a lovely evening. It was so nice to see some old faces I haven’t seen in a while. Christophe, her hubbie, had organised a band set up in the lounge which she knew nothing about. She is a singer herself, with a fabulous voice so sang a few songs with them which went down very well with her friends and family. I have heard her sing many times but she has been having private singing lessons and now she is just amazing!

We are now in the process of installing the bathroom - well the waste pipes at least. Once the waste pipes are installed from the main drains we can then go onto create a bathroom. Just can’t wait to have a real toilet and shower again! We are now fighting over who will use it first (but seeing as Daws is at work all day and I will be here when the work is finished, guess who that might be!)

I am very busy removing all the 1950’s wallpaper from the bedroom walls, a horrible job as the room is gigantic, but has to be done before we can start to redecorate. Once I have finished I will move onto the doors, shutters and windows which all need renovating, then the garden, then the outbuildings, then the parquet needs cleaning, then the exterior needs painting, then…………it is a never ending list of things that need to be done. Good job I love it!

Take Care

Angi & Daws xx

Wanted a new windscreen - got a job!

Hi all,

Well, would you ever!! The most bizarre thing happened yesterday.........and just when we were least expecting it!!

A couple of days ago, we noticed a huge crack in the car windscreen which appeared overnight - probably due a stone hitting it from the road. Anyway, off we went to the insurance broker to put in a claim. The lovely lady asked us which garage we would like to use - (Huh?? - you are TOLD which garage to use in the UK!). I explained that we didn’t really know the local garages at all so maybe she could recommend some to us. She recommended on in the nearest town and one 15 km away. We chose the nearest (a garage in Dun-le-Palestel) simply due to its geography and toddled along to book the replacement windscreen.

We needed to see 'le patron' - the boss - of the garage and after he had ordered the windscreen in for us I happened to mention that being in a garage brought back memories for us as we used to own one in England. He turned to us and said 'Are you a mechanic?' I answered (as Daws didn’t understand the question) 'Yes, he is, owned his own garage, specialist in this, that, the other blah, blah, blah'. He asked a few more questions and then said he needed a mechanic and did he want a job?!

We said 'Yes, but what about the fact that he doesn't speak French?' They said they would work around it if he was willing to have some intensive lessons from me and so very quickly learn the basics. Also one of the receptionists speaks English so she will translate for him where needed! He starts March 3rd!

We weren’t even looking for work, but why not? The working week is only 35 hours in France - less than half the weekly time Daws spent at his garage in Chester and there is no better way to learn the language and integrate into the culture than to be thrown in at the deep end!..........We went in for a windscreen and came out with a job!!

We have now got French plates on the car so feel like we actually fit in now, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb……quite a simple process really if you have your paperwork in order.

Anyway, off for my ‘pain et confiture’ now so ……..

Take care xx

Les parents visitent

Finally managed to write a new post! We have been so busy with things just haven’t found the time recently to update the blog.

My mum & dad came over as planned in January and thoroughly enjoyed their weekend. The weather was lovely while they were here and the scenery and countryside stunning. It looks lovely all the year round actually but it is definitely in its glory when the sun is shining.

La Souterraine where my mum & dad stayed is a pretty medieval town about 15 minutes from our house. The hotel is situated in the centre and is very picturesque. My dad was especially impressed by the fact that the Toulouse rugby team were also staying in their hotel!

Our house, although cosy, isn’t quite yet ready to accept guests – they did spend some time here though and I think they were pleasantly surprised at how habitable and cosy it is. They were expecting something of a ruin, dour, damp, cold and dirty which it is not!

We all had a stroll around the village (didn’t take long to walk round – it is not big!) and they saw how the beautiful countryside is literally on our doorstep.

We had a lovely meal at the afore-mentioned restaurant (see last post) on my birthday – the food was delicious! Although I am still not sure what meat was in the ‘salade de chasse’ (Hunter's salad) – probably best not to dwell on it!

My dad took lots of photos while here and when he works out how to email them to me I will upload some! (done now!)

It was good to have the chance to do the run to the airport which we hadn’t yet done. It is a lovely little run which took just under an hour. At Limoges airport you can literally park right outside the airport and pop in to collect people so it is very easy.

After they had gone we had to get back to work on the house.

Daws has begun to sort out the roof of the remise – by cleaning off all the moss (tonnes of it) and working out which tiles need repairing. The remise will become the third bedroom - looking out onto the barbeque outside space after some of the outside old animal pens have been demolished

Next will be installing the bathroom. Can’t wait to have a proper shower!

Take care xx

Cuisine ancienne

Hello again!

We have spent the last couple of days looking for a nice country restaurant where we can eat when my mum & dad are here at the end of the month. One recommendation came from our lovely neighbours. We found the restaurant with the following notice 'if our menu is too 'ancien' for your taste please let us know.' 'Ancien' means 'old' - therefore old fashioned home cooking........mmmmm sounds good?? Until you realise that 'old style' cooking in France usually means using a multitude of meats to which we Brits are not accustomed.........visions of rabbit en croute, thrush pate, horsemeat steak and boar à l'ail all spring to mind!! Absolutely nothing wrong with these meats, and I know I shouldn't let my soft English 'habitudes' dictate where we eat, but to be on the safe side I think we will go and look at the actual menu before we book a table. As soon as we see more 'easy on the Brit stomach' meats such as beef and chicken - we will book it!

Now, we are affiliated into the health service! We will get our 'cartes vitales' in due course. It is a totally different set up here for health care than in the UK. Here you visit the GP or specialist, you pay the bill and then you claim back 2/3rds of the amount from the state and 1/3 from your 'mutuelle' private insurance. Purchasing this insurance is the next job now that we are in the system.

Daws swept and cleaned the outside area today, and inside some cupboards where we hadn’t yet investigated. We found a wonderful calendar from 1951! Complete with picture of a fifties bather as illustration. In fairly good condition too. It had a kind of booklet behind it with maps and train time tables etc included. Fascinating.

Some of you may remember last year when bringing one of the beds downstairs we found ten old newspapers rolled up in the springs - dating from 1905 up to the 2nd world war? Again in very good condition. Wonder what we will find next? I simply love finding these old items that made up part of the lives of the people who lived here!

Planning to add some photos to the last two postings this afternoon if we can find the memory cards....

Take care

xxx

We have broadband and a fire!

Finally here!!!

First update as we had to get a phone line connected to the house first……..got the landline now got broadband!! Wehey!

We didn’t think we would be able to get broadband but we can! There has been a lot of investment in internet connectivity in France and now that we are connected we have a faster connection here in rural France than we had back in urban Oldham!

Our first two days were very cold…….the house hadn’t been lived for years in so was very chilly. We both sat with fan heaters permanently directly focussed on us and then ran up to bed to get under the duvet to sleep. On the third day we had the wood burning stove installed in the chimney place……..what bliss!

After a little panic about where we would get some wood for that evening we managed to get hold of the address of a wood seller, Monsieur M in the next town. We called at the house on the chance that we could buy some there and then and take it in the Land Rover. His wife opened the door and ushered us in. What a lovely lady!Monsieur M wasn’t in so she got in our car with us and took us to where he was working in the fields. I felt bad at bothering him while he was working but they just really didn’t mind! He came down from the field with a huge grin and then we all went to their house for a tour of their newly refurbished house and coffee! He and Daws then loaded the car up with wood and he said he would deliver us some more at the house in a few days which he did.

We were absolutely flabbergasted by their hospitality to two complete strangers!! Really lovely!!

So we have a fire and we have wood and the house is no longer cold. It really has brought the house to life. We also bought a new axe for chopping the wood and Daws is enjoying playing with his new toy, chopping wood out the back. Xmas day - although cold and a little bit of frost on the floor - had brilliant sunshine all day long. We had the traditional Xmas dinner as best we could; luckily I remembered to bring some Paxo.

We have got a fair few things sorted already as we have been dashing around like mad. It is all paperwork in France, 3 copies of everything needed to different departments in different towns! If you have your paperwork ready it is fairly simple. Luckily I am fairly organised and Daws is a good driver so we are managing to get things done. We have got car insurance sorted and we are in the process of importing the car so we will have French number plates on the Landover in a few weeks.

My mum and dad are coming over at the end of January for a couple of days which will give us the excuse to have a break from the cleaning, decorating and renovating (even though we love it!)

Today Daws filled in all the cracks in the plaster in the back bedroom in preparation for painting and I painted the inside of a gorgeous corner unit in the main room and wood stained the shelves. Tomorrow, painting the back bedroom and waxing the front of the corner cupboard and I might start renovating the old table and the dining chairs if I have time.

Will upload some photos very soon……….

We are our own bosses at last!

That’s what it was all about………

Angi & Daws x

En route!

En route!! All completed and finished!! Spent the morning emptying and cleaning the UK house. Handed over the keys and on our way to France now!

The stress of selling the house has been terrible - the system in the UK has to change. It is just so unfair on the seller - we didn't know until 24 hours before we had to vacate that all was fine, signed and exchanged. Nightmare.

Anyway all done now

Angi x

Completion date

Now got a completion date for the sale of the UK house - 14th December. A bit later than we were hoping but there you go.
Angi x

Reading the water meter

Few more photos this time from Daw's trip over last week with Rik. I stayed here to continue with the sale of the house in the UK (don't want anything to go amiss this time!!)
They found the beach while there! It is about 30 mins drive from the house. We knew there was one but we just hadn't had the time to find it! Looks freezing!! It will be lovely in the summer I am sure........
Thankfully managed to cement and tile the fireplace ready for the wood burning stove - first job we will be doing when we get there!! The chimney was swept in May so it's all ready now for the installation. Should feel more llike home when we get that in.

Just can't wait now!!

Angi & Daws xx

Are we mad?!

Hi all!
Just a quick update.....all going well with the sale of the house in the UK so far, just at the searches stage, survey done and all ok. Keep your fingers crossed!!
Hope to exchange end Nov and the be gone for mid December. Finally! We really want to be in the French house for Xmas......are we mad? No heating, no hot water, no kitchen, no bathroom?? Yep, we are mad!
Daws is over in France this week, taken more stuff over and to pay some bills (before the cold water gets cut off!)- might be some more photos to upload once he is back...........
Take Care
Angi x

The stresses of selling property in the UK

Hiya
Just a quick update as it is a while since I posted on here.
Well, we would have been living in France by now if the buyers of our house in the UK had not pulled out 10 days before completion. I won't swear here but you can imagine how we were feeling........they had lied all the way through the process, even direct to our faces. We were devastated.
It should be illegal but it's not.
Anyway, house straight back on market last week and managed to sell it again after only 7 days! First person who viewed! PHEW!
So, it has been an expensive set back but hey ho! They do say selling a house is one of the most stressful things you can do. Onwards and upwards.
Angi x

Back to basics

Hi all
Just got back from another trip over - just stayed four days - mainly to take more stuff over and de clutter the house in Oldham ready for sale. Very hot, lots of spiders, a snake in the garden and a lizard in the outside loo!! All part of the fun.......not!!
You can see our makeshift kitchen / dining area .......what more could you want?? It’s quite nice actually to get back to basics. Also couple of pics of the main bedroom and the gorgeous oak staircase and the landing up to the attic. The lovely old wardrobe was left for us by the previous owners as was the beautiful wooden bedstead.
Daws cleared the garden while we were there, it was about 4 foot high in nettles (I watched and made coffee!)
Took lots of photos of the countryside as it is soooo lovely......the photos show route between the village and the supermarket (bit different from home here to Tesco's!)

Angi

TV now installed!

Hi all

Just a few photos of Daw’s recent trip over to the house with his mate Rik.
As you can see the lounge is now painted white which is MUCH better - you can see the original colour we had on one of the pics over the staircase. The room you can see will eventually be the lounge/diner - the kitchen will be moved to 'la remise' at the back of the house which still needs to be renovated. and which we will enter through 'la cave', another room at the rear yet to be renovated..........building/planning regs permitting.........!!!
You can also see the painting was interspersed with a few games on the X box.......getting a telly over there asap was obviously a major priority!There are also a few of pics of the lovely river which is not far from the house.

Vive la France!!

Angi xx

PS. We are going over again in @ 10 days so will hopefully then have some more pics to post......