We’ll need, as you can see from the photo, a new door for our new house. I’ve been looking on le bon coin (an internet selling site) for months, but mostly they were too tall, too wide, too narrow or just too tatty; I was beginning to think I’d never find what we wanted. But on Saturday I found it; a double door, the right width, in good condition and only slightly too tall, so yesterday Nick and I headed off for St. Savin in the Pyrenees, a two and a half hour drive away, to have a look at it.

We arrived a couple of hours early and went for a walk up through the forest above the village, up a ridiculously steep path and had a picnic beside a fast flowing stream – if the ascent had been hard work, the descent was just plain scary!

We found the seller’s house and negotiated a price for the door. It’s as well the lady spoke no English as we argued over who would do the negotiating and what price to offer; neither of us likes bartering. Nick won, on the grounds that my French is better than his, so I made our offer and was relieved when she accepted without any argument. She invited us in for coffee before we loaded the door into the trailer; then we had to visit the Englishman who owns the hotel opposite her house (well don’t all English people know each other? It’s a small island, after all…) More coffee, a brief tour of the hotel, a quick look at his art collection, then back to load up the door. It’s solid oak and weighs a ton! We struggled into the trailer with it, strapped it down and headed home after one of the most enjoyable shopping trips I’ve ever had.