They were only servicing the brakes, but when the lads took Betty out for a test drive, water started pouring out of the engine compartment; the water pump had gone. So she’s sat in the garage now, looking very sorry for herself, waiting for the postman to deliver some replacement parts.

I can cope with most phone calls in French now, but not when the caller is Joel, the builder, who speaks SO quickly that I struggle even face to face. I’d emailed him a question (and sent him a text to tell him to check his emails, as he doesn’t very often), but rather than email a reply, he phoned this morning and as neither Nick nor Kieran will answer the phone, it was down to me. After 5 minutes, most of which seemed to be me asking Joel to slow down because I hadn’t understood, he decided it would be easier to come round. The answer to the question about how soon the floor level beams would be removed, to allow the underfloor heating people in, was “Non, non, non, non, non!” Easy to understand, that. We’d got it all the wrong way round; you don’t put the floor down first; that’s the last bit! First we order the windows and doors, contact the electrician, while waiting for them we can put up the ceilings, then fit the windows and doors, insulate and plasterboard the walls, build any remaining internal walls and then, and only then, can we think about floors. That way you don’t get the cold coming in in the winter because the edges of the floors are against insulated walls.

So Nick went to the builders’ merchants this afternoon and ordered 300 square metres of plasterboard as well as heaps of rails, montants and various other stuff, which will arrive on Monday. Tomorrow morning we’re going to Mont de Marsan to order windows and doors, which should arrive about 10 days later.

A friend who lives in the village supplies and fits kitchens, so he and his wife came round for aperitifs tonight and to discuss plans for the kitchen. He’s got lots of ideas for the design and is quite happy to supply it for Nick to fit. Things seem to be moving on apace and after another couple of worrying weeks when, once again, we heard nothing from the photovoltaique company, they finally got in touch; Bosch, who made the panels, have stopped doing so, so they’d had to find another manufacturer; the first supplier quoted them an eighteen week wait, but they have now found someone else and should start work by May 6th – we’re crossing fingers and toes!