If success were measured in terms of money spent, we’d be onto a winner for the last week!

We spent last Thursday in Pau, going round the big DIY shops, trying to choose a bath, a shower cubicle, tiles, etc, for the new bathroom. Today we went to Aire sur l’Adour, again to the DIY shop, but this time we came home with a rotavator. Kieran couldn’t wait to assemble and play with the new toy; so we spent the afternoon in the garden, digging over the ground where the veg plot will be. We all had a go, though I think the machine won when it was my turn.

A lady from the roads department turned up during the afternoon; something to do with the planning to change the hangar into a garage (a bit late; we’ve already got the permission); as luck would have it, she’s one of the walking group I went out with on Sunday; I felt almost as if I belong here! Within minutes of her leaving, the neighbours came across to find out what was going on, soon to be followed by a friend of theirs who happened to drive past and saw us all in the garden. It was quite a party, the only problem being that, between our neighbours’ strong Portuguese accent and their friend’s strong Italian accent, Nick and I really struggled to understand much of what was said. We no longer felt like we belonged!

After a leisurely weekend; Saturday was glorious, so we got on with some gardening, then Nick cycled and I walked in the rain on Sunday (Kieran slept, as usual): it was back to work today.

The lads mixed loads of concrete and laid the floor in what will, one day, be the entrance hall to our house, once we’ve got walls on either side of it and a decent door to the outside.

This afternoon they put up the fencing for the chicken run; no photos yet as it was dark when I got home. We still need a gate as the existing one has rusted-through hinges, so doesn’t work very well, and a hen house, both of which are being designed tonight. I’ll post photos when they’re built.

In the meantime, our neighbour came round today, with eggs from her hens; she was very interested to see the progress we’re making and offered to kill our chickens for us! I, for one, hadn’t thought beyond the eggs stage! I don’t think I’m a natural for “the good life”, but I’ll learn:-)

I was lying awake at 4o’clock this morning and tried to send myself back to sleep by writing a limerick.  It didn’t work, but here’s the result;

There once was un anglais called Nick,
Who was caught driving slightly too quick,
He had the malchance
That the gendarmes of France
Issued him his first ever speed tick(et)

If anyone fancies writing one about some aspect of our life here, we’d love to see it and will put any we receive on the blog. There must be lots of people reading this who could do a lot better than me. So PLEASE have a go, it’s great fun!

He was doing 98kph in a 90kph area, so very little above the speed limit; we’ll all have to be very careful from now on!

The computer is still on the landing 🙁 Once I’d finished decorating the third and last bedroom, the computer and associated tat, junk and official stuff was all supposed to move into the spare bedroom, where I could start to sort it out. However, the guys have now decided that insulating the outside wall in the last bedroom was so quick and easy to do, and is proving so effective, that they’re going to do the same in the other two bedrooms now. Yes, this will mean redecorating again!

Over the last few days, Nick and Kieran have dug out the old, damp floor from what will be the hall of our house; today they started to lay the new concrete. I don’t know where the mountain of rubble that we’ve now produced is going to go!

In the meantime, as a bit of not-so-light relief, they’ve been digging out the base of the pressoir screw. The screw, about 12cm in diameter, stood about 3metres tall and extended nearly a metre under the ground, so it’s taken a lot of removing, mostly by hand, as trying to pull it over using the digger had no effect, except to snap the chain like a piece of thread. But today it gave up the ghost and was felled. I think they’re going to dig a trench in the grange and bury it as there’s no way we can take it to the tip!

I made a batch of scones today, to provide sustenance and calories after such a hard day’s work. Kieran had the notion to make them into “smones”, ie to fill them with Nutella and toasted marshmallows – yummy!

Nick and I took advantage of the milder weather this afternoon and went out on the bikes for a couple of hours with the club, leaving Kieran with instructions to dig up the floor under what will be the entrance hall. Poor cinders, I hear you cry, but he loves playing with big, beefy power tools and the marteau-piqueur definitely comes into that category. He made some progress on the hall floor, then started on the concrete block around what’s left of the pressoir.

We were hoping to finish the bedroom that I’ve decorated, and move the furniture back in today, so I cleaned the floor in readiness. There was a patch of floor that used to be under the fireplace, which was distinctly paler that the rest, so I found some coloured floor wax and treated the pale patch. It then looked so much better than the rest of the floor, though, that I got quite carried away and ended up waxing the entire floor. So here we are, 5 hours later, with the landing still full of computer, hanging rail, boxes of books and paper, and one bedroom still full of 2 bedrooms’ worth of furniture; BUT the floor in the other bedroom looks great, and probably will do till the first person goes in with plaster-dusty shoes. Still, I’ve got the photos to remind me how rich and shiny it looked and a creaky back to remind me how hard work it was!

Over the last couple of days, we’ve painted a ceiling, plastered a ceiling and built a ceiling; yes, in that order!

I’ve decorated the next bedroom (including ceiling), so we’re ready to put the furniture back in tomorrow, which means the computer will be moved off the landing (yipee! I don’t like it here). Kieran and Nick have plastered the ceiling in what will be the upstairs bathroom and have fitted the rest of the joists and flooring above Nick’s workshop and above what will be a hallway and my workshop, although they’re all part of the same space at the moment. It should cut down the draughts in the workshop and make it slightly less arctic.

Before we went on holiday, the architect came round to draw the plans for the work we want to do; he submitted them the day we left and we expected to have permission 2 months later. However, we arrived home to find a long letter from the planning people in Auch, detailing all manner of things missing from the paperwork, so I phoned the architect, who came round immediately and went through the letter. Apparently it’s a very recent change, to do with google earth photos, and they want all sorts of details that were previously unnecessary, such as whether we’re painting or varnishing windows and shutters, and what colour, where services come into the house, the location and size of trees, hedges etc!!!! So the poor bloke has redrawn all the plans and brought them round today; the 2 months starts again when they’re submitted; yet another delay!

On a positive note, though, the weather has warmed up and it was above freezing today so the last of the snow has thawed; we were told that it’s 40 years since this area last had weather as cold, or for as long, as this. I hope we get a good spring.

When we bought this house, we found, propped up against the outside wall, a large metal fire back, broken in two, with the name Isabelle Mahue and the year 1935 cast on it. We had no idea who she was or what she had to do with this house and nor did the neighbours.

Today we went for a walk, passing a large house whose garden is always beautifully kept; the elderly owner was in the garden and asked if we were looking for the sarcophagus (at which point I really wondered how good my grasp of the French language was) and when we looked blank, invited us into the garden. He took us to a small, ancient, Roman church tucked away behind the house, in the porch of which were, to my amazed relief, two sarcophagi. Apparently many centuries ago, the church belonged to a local bishop; he and another priest, who was killed on the road outside the house during the wars of religion, were buried in these sarcophagi, which were placed on the roadside, but when the road was widened several years ago, they were moved into the chuch porch.

This elderly gent, who had been sent away to a religious school at the age of 14, with the intention of making a priest of him, then took us for a look around the church, with its hand-tooled leather altar front and frescoed walls. He apologised for the lack of light (there’s no electricity), but showed us where the key is kept so that we can let ourselves in, early in the afternoon, on a bright, sunny day, if he’s not around. The whole place was superb and I’d have loved to take photos, but it just didn’t seem an appropriate thing to do, so if you’d like to see it for yourselves, you’ll just have to pay us a visit.

The man asked where we live; ” Oh, the Mahue house!” was his reaction. Apparently, he knew Isabelle Mahue, who was very short and very fat; born in 1883, she lived in the house which is now ours until her death in1970 and is buried in a little cemetery beside the Roman church, along with several bishops and other locals.

We learnt lots more about our neighbour, such as his job as an interrogator of torture victims during the Algerian war (we disagree on whether he was the torturer – our French isn’t that good yet) and how his father filled in half the moat that runs round his house, and have been invited to go back on a warmer day so he can show us photos. A fascinating man.

The kitchen was a whole 8ºC this morning; noticeably warmer than the rest of the house, which started off at 5º but dropped to 4º as the day wore on. The forecast is for -10º tonight, but then beginning to warm up a bit next week. I hope so; I feel like the Michelin man in my 5 sweaters, 2 pairs of trousers and (inspired gift from Kieran) my electrically heated socks!!! They’re brilliant!

Nick and Kieran started work on what will be the second bathroom today; the ceiling is now plasterboarded, but not plastered as we went out for a bike ride this afternoon. The brilliant sunshine belied the temperature; we had to keep moving to keep warm.

I prepared the yellow bedroom for painting this morning, but when I got the paint out, discovered that it was frozen in the tin. An hour on top of the stove in the kitchen and it was OK to use, but what a good excuse to have a heater on where I was working!

The “ice sculpture” photos are of what Nick tipped off the top of the water butt 3 days ago; it’s very beautiful, but I wish it would melt now.

Today was my first English class after our hols and I’ve found it really hard to get my head around preparing the lesson this week. But after several hours of head scratching and internet searching, I finally came up with a lesson plan I was happy with. We were doing the future tense, so, having covered the weather, past, present and future, I introduced the topic of the upcoming French presidential elections. The French all have strong political opinions, so I thought this was something that would interest them; it certainly did…… however, they were so animated by the subject that they completely neglected the whole point of the class, ie, to speak English! In spite of my repeated reminders, the majority of the class was conducted in French!!!!! (note to self – learn to be more assertive)

But who could be cross with such lovely people; Nick was using the car today, so I cycled into Nogaro for class, to the horror of my students, who wouldn’t contemplate going out on a bike in such cold weather. Maithée, my hardest-working student and fellow cyclist then insisted on giving me her silk gloves for under my thick gloves, so that my hands stayed warm on the return trip, assuring me that they were her spare pair. Thank you, Maithée.

When I got home, I discovered that the grey bedroom, which we’ve been using as a store-room, study and general dumping ground is now empty, in preparation for its conversion to a second bathroom. The computer is on the landing, which feels very strange; a subtle hint, perhaps, that I need to get on with decorating the yellow bedroom. Perhaps I can sneak a radiator in there before I start; I know I’m a wimp, but I’d rather be sitting by the fire than working in about 3-5ºC, which is as warm as most of the house gets at the moment.

Roll on spring!

It’s bitterly cold now; -8ºC for the last few nights and only about 4ºC max in the daytime. The days have been beautiful, though; clear blue skies and sunshine, so it could be a lot worse. It just means the motivation to leave the kitchen fireside is remarkably difficult to find as the kitchen is the only heated room and the rest of the house is at about 3ºc.

Last night the supply to the water heater froze up, but that’s now thawed and lagged. It’s really no warmer in the grange that it is outside; it’s where I store veg and this morning the leeks were frozen!

However, Nick and Kieran have braved the cold over the last couple of days, putting up more ceiling beams in the back of the grange and plastering one wall and the ceiling in the next bedroom. As soon as the plaster’s dry, I’ll have no excuses left and will have to start decorating in there. I hope it warms up a bit by then!

The heater in the bathroom died a few days ago; nice timing! It’s currently in bits on the kitchen table; I hope they can fix it.

That’s it for now; if you’re reading this in a warm, centrally heated house, spare a warm thought for us!

After several nights of sub-zero temperatures and days of around zero, we woke yesterday to snow! Not what we were expecting down here, but life’s full of surprises, isn’t it? By this afternoon most of it had disappeared, due to a beautiful, sunny afternoon; so I’m glad we got out and took photos yesterday.

We haven’t got back into work on the house yet, after our hols; largely because, apart from the kitchen, the house is unheated. It was only 3ºC when we came home, but achieved a whole 8ºC today – it felt positively tropical! So the temptation is to stay put in the kitchen, “looking after” the fire. Tomorrow is meant to be our return to work day, so hats, gloves and electrically heated socks at the ready – we’ll see!

The locals tell us the cold won’t last long and that February 15th is the end of winter here; I hope they’re right!