Nogaro, the town just down the road, is said to have the oldest Armagnac distillery in the region. It was a newer, more modern, distillery in the town, that had an open day today, so,  with hundreds of others, we went along. We had a tour of the huge stainless steel containers that each house many thousands of litres of grape juice, to ferment into wine, followed by a tour of the building where the barrels of the finished product are kept. There were thousands of barrels of armagnac; the oldest one I saw dated back to 1966!. Proudly displayed in another building were the copper stills, where the wine is distilled, before being put into the oak barrels that give it its colour. We saw the bottling plant and learnt the names of the twenty or so differently shaped bottles and it was here that everyone present was given a miniature bottle of armagnac to take home.

At 12.30, the MD of the company and the maire of Nogaro did the “mise en perce du tonneau” – they hammered a tap into a barrel of armagnac. As they did so, a great plume of armagnac spouted from the barrel onto the ground below, causing people to comment on the waste; so it was to everyone’s great amusement when it turned out that one of the official photographers had missed the shot;and  they had to put the bung back into the barrel, then go through the process a second time.

Once that was done, there were stands providing tastings of local wines, floc (a local aperitif – a mix of grape juice and armagnac) and, of course, armagnac. The air was heavy with alcohol, outside as well as in; I think you could probably have got quite merry just by breathing!

Later on, Nick and Kieran went climbing with the Nogaro club. They meet at the local indoor climbing wall on Wednesday evenings, but have occasional weekend outings to real rocks. They arrived home tired and hungry.

It’s been a busy few days; we finished the spare room and Kieran has now moved into it.

To start on the next bedroom, we borrowed a plasterboard lifter from Jean, our neighbour; what a brilliant piece of kit! It lifts the plasterboards effortlessly to the ceiling and saves on hours of back breaking effort. Kieran did most of the ceiling on his own, using it. Nick took out the fireplace without a great deal of effort; not the most substantial item in the house.

But the biggest job this week has been raising the beam over what will, one day, be a doorway from our house to Nick’s workshop. This involved taking down the wall below a big oak beam, propping up the wall above the beam with pit props borrowed from another neighbour (they’re a generous lot around here), removing a chunk of wall above the beam, followed by the beam itself, then replacing the beam at a sensible height to allow people to walk under it. It was a bit tense at times, waiting to see if the whole house would collapse around our ears, but luckily it didn’t and we now have the space to put a door.

This is all part of a greater plan to build Nick’s workshop; he needs one to house all the new toys he’s bought recently and, he claims, to build all sorts of stuff for the house, ( a kitchen, for example, which would be useful). Kieran’s been practising his his bricklaying skills on one of the workshop walls; I think he’s missed his way in life – the wall’s beautifully straight and level!

We’ve had a busy few days; we spent Thursday doing official stuff, so we’re on the road to being resident here (and paying French taxes) and have now got new number plates for the car. I’ve been told this blog should be more provocative and was looking forward to saying how unhelpful, officious and bloody-minded the officials we had to deal with had been, but in fact, they were nothing of the sort – the tax man even apologised for his lack of English!

Nick’s installed the wood burner in his workshop-to-be, complete with coffee making facilities and he and Kieran have been lumberjacking in a friend’s wood, so we’ve loads of wood for fires now. They’ve also removed the beams from the grange, to re-use them to replace the roof of the cabanon (potting shed) before winter sets in.

Today we had a day off and went into the Pyrenees for a walk. The sky was clear blue and it was warm enough not to need a coat. Most of France seemed to have had the same idea as us, but the National Park is a huge place; it never felt crowded, and the scenery was breathtaking; the colours in the trees, the dusting of snow on the peaks all around, the streams and waterfalls – magnificent! It was quite a hard walk though, for someone who’s done very little excercise for a while and I think my legs are going to hurt tomorrow.

Yesterday the firewood for winter arrived, all 6 cubic metres of it, on a big lorry. It’s in 1metre lengths and just needed stacking, then cutting into useable sized pieces. The stacking’s done; I think the cutting up is done as it’s needed (I suspect this must be done by the wood fairies, as it seems to appear magically in stove-sized pieces whenever I’m cold!).

Today has been glorious; blue skies, sunshine, and, more surprisingly, warm! From a mile up the road, there’s a good view of the Pyrenees, their peaks covered in snow!

We ordered some building materials yesterday, which arrived this afternoon in a lorry nearly as wide as the gates. The driver very skillfully navigated into the garden, then proceeded to unload the lorry by means of a remote control hydraulic arm. If I thought the remote control cement lorry at Adrian’s was clever, this put it right in the shade! There’s now a big, very tidy, stack of breeze blocks in the garden and the grange is full of joists, plasterboard and bags of cement.

It has been commented on that I seem to be doing very little by way of DIY. Not true! It’s just that I’m the only one taking photos, and besides, someone has to feed the workers! I’ve almost finished decorating the spare room and have discovered one of the secrets of the French superwoman who always has stocks of “home made” paté in the cupboard. She buys it raw from the supermarket or butcher, puts it in jars and sterilises it. Simple! So, like all the best superwomen, I spent this morning bottling and sterilising paté and very impressive it looks.

Unlike the average French superwoman, however, I did go out for a bike ride this afternoon as the weather was too good to miss.

The amazing Indian summer we’ve been enjoying has definitely ended. It’s been raining most of the time since Friday; the garden’s a swamp and there’s a mini lake in the grange. The temperature has dropped too, so we’re lighting fires in the evening now. Well, to be accurate, I’m lighting fires as Nick and Kieran don’t feel the cold, and I suspect there’s a conspiracy afoot to improve my total lack of ability as an arsonist. It’s surprising how easy it is when you use enough firelighters!

The old wood burner that we took out of the living room is soon going to be re-housed in what will become Nick’s workshop and to that end he and Kieran have built a plinth to stand it on. I can’t see it ever getting very warm in there, though, as it’s open to the roof, which is open enough round the edges to allow even birds as big as owls in and out without a problem.

I’ve been busy decorating the spare bedroom (for the hoards of visitors we hope to have next year), and Kieran has built a bookcase for it. We have boxes of books all over the house, so we should be able to empty at least a few boxes now.

For those who are wondering, we’ve been to our friends’ house every day since they went on holiday, to try to entice Minus into coming home with us, but he hasn’t put in an appearance once:-(

Once upon a time there was a black and white kitten, called Minus, whose kindly guardians were going on holiday to New Caledonia for two months. They offered to give the kitten to some equally kindly newcomers to the village, who had a mouse problem. The newcomers promised to look after Minus well, but he didn’t understand that, and every time anyone tried to catch him to take him to his new home, he miaowed and scratched and escaped as fast as he could (which was pretty fast!), leaving the newcomers feeling – well – catless.

Will this tale have a happy ending? You’ll have to visit us again to find out!

But no visit to neighbours in the Gers is entirely fruitless; we did come home with a large boxful of pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers; all home-grown, of course.

Nick and Kieran could wait no longer to get on with some “real” work, so this afternoon they started digging out the base for an extension to the garden shed and filling it with some of the rubble from the pig sty. We hope that we’ll get planning permission for it, though it hasn’t been granted yet. Still, it kept them amused for a few hours!

Daniel and Maria asked us round today, to collect the kitten they’re giving us, before they go on holiday. We arrived, complete with cardboard box containing an old curtain as bedding, and a roll of parcel tape to prevent escape. Minus, the black and white kitten, was missing, so Maria rattled various tins and jars containing his favourite foodstuffs, but to no avail. After a while, their other two cats appeared; Maria gave them some food and Minus arrived almost immediately. Maria picked him up and put him in the box, which Kieran and Daniel were ready to close behind him, but he was far too quick for them and shot out of it at high speed. He was left alone for a few minutes until he recovered from his fright and started eating again, then Maria put him in the box again. This time, the box was almost entirely taped shut when he managed to squeeze out through a crack and disappeared like a shot, leaving Kieran and Maria with scratches on their hands.

So we’re going round again tomorrow morning, this time with a holdall type bag with a good zip. If we ever get him here, I think he’ll be extremely efficient at reducing our mouse population; he’s a ferocious little beast. But for now, no photos, I’m afraid; I’ll try to get one tomorrow.

We spent last week back in Blighty; the traffic on the M1 was reminder enough of why we left, if a reminder were needed. We bought a French registered, left hand drive car, a Peugeot Partner, while we were in London; more of a van-with-windows, really. Rather less luxurious than the C5, but comfortable enough and it seems to go OK. I thought Nick and Kieran may come to blows over who would drive it back to Yorkshire, but Nick conceded and was finally allowed to have a go on the journey back to France.

During our stay, we met the people who are buying our house in Grey St; a lovely young couple who, I hope, will be very happy there. Their status as really nice people with impeccable taste improved even further in my opinion when they told us that one of the features that decided them to buy our house was the stained glass window in the hall, which took me 10 years to build!

Today was spent on the after-the-hols clear-up, but we did allow ourselves an outing with the cycle club this afternoon. I explained that, after 2 years off the bike, I wasn’t up to doing the whole ride, so they promised to ride at a very gentle pace till I turned back. I struggled to keep up for all of 9 miles (pathetic!) and it wasn’t till we’d left the rest of them that I learnt that the guy who took the lead today is an ex-Tour de France rider! (made me feel slightly less pathetic):-)

Yesterday we went to help our friend, Adrian, lay a new floor in his grange. The lads finished levelling the subfloor, and did other technical, boy jobs, while I got on with the important work of making lunch. We’d almost finished eating when a dark shadow blotted out the sun from the window; the cement lorry had arrived! It was all hands on deck to spread the concrete as evenly as possible between the bits of wood (shuttering, for anyone technical out there), that they’d put down. I think they all really enjoyed paddling about in the liquid concrete; Ade did say he’d never been allowed to play mud pies as a child. Made up for lost time yesterday, though! By the time we left it looked great.

This morning, we woke to a frost! It soon burnt off, but it’s soon going to be time to start lighting fires. It did, however, remind Kieran that they hadn’t cemented around the window in his bedroom when they replaced it, so there was a half inch gap down one side. Rather negates the point of double glazed windows, really! It’s now cemented up and he should be warmer tonight.

Nick call Flagstaff metal roofing contractors and with them went up on the roof today to repair the seal around the chimney, which allows rain to pour fairly steadily down the inside, onto the stove in the kitchen (no wonder it’s so badly rusted). Another little job out of the way before winter sets in.

I finished the first coat of emulsion in the orange bedroom, but had to spend most of the morning planning for today’s English class; numbers, times, days, months, etc. I don’t know if any of them will come back after half term, they found today so hard!

It rained today; not hard, but enough to keep us indoors. So Kieran started building some much needed book shelving to go in the orange bedroom, while I started to decorate the same. It won’t be orange any more, but I think the name change may take a while to get used to. Nick built some shelves to house teapots out of an old bit of wood he found lying around – very rustic!

Nick made and fitted some cross pieces to the window, to make it look like the old windows we’ve removed; the new windows look just too “new”.

We’re going to our friend, Adrian’s tomorrow, to help him lay a concrete floor in part of his grange; it was decided that wellies are probably the footwear of choice, but….where were they? They hunted high, they hunted low; eventually they turned up in the recycling!