Pablo Picasso - eat ya heart out...

Update on our renovations.

Presque fini (almost finished).

We managed to sand, clean and undercoat the walls and ceiling last weekend.  This included 2 coats of satin paint on the walls using 2 different colours. Really happy with the look of the rooms as everything blends together nicely.

The advantages of painting before the flooring goes down means that you don't have to be too careful where the paint ends up.......

View out to garden from new part of house

New laundry

New living area

New bathroom before fittings

Apart from painting the ceilings and walls, Bill did all the floor grouting last weekend.

Bill grouting

As well as completing other jobs around the house that he had started. He fixed the first floor bathroom by building a box around the piping behind the toilet and plastered and tiled the top as well as painting the wall. Great job - wife very happy.

Boxed in pipes behind toilet

He also has been doing work on the dorm window in the attic. Plus installing flyscreens on some of the windows. So he's been very very busy. He want's to go back to Australia for a rest.

Masking and preparing of dorm window

Tools used to fix dorm window

Flyscreen First Floor - builders van in background

The toilet has now been installed on the ground floor - no more dashing up the stairs when arriving home.

The shower cubicle being fitted today. The basin was fitted on Friday. So looks like a bathroom now.

New ground floor bathroom

The laundry cabinet and sink fitted on Friday. Problem with the washing machine pipe - but leak now fixed (we hope).

Laundry

All the finishing touches happening today. Heater installed and all the electrical work now completed.

Living area

The downpipes connected up to the storm water pipes.

Bill removed all the windows and doors on the weekend so I could clean up around the frames - there was heaps of plaster around the hinges. Plus I needed to paint around the edges. So it made it easier with the doors and windows removed.

Just have to insulate the pipes up in the roof space.

We have also been busy getting stuck into our french. It's seems to be getting harder and harder instead of easier and easier. Conjugating the verbs for past, present and future tense is doing my head in.

Learning french - sooo hard

I am busy trying to utilise all the material I was given. Loads of it really. So I have started to make soap bags to use in underwear draws - I made another batch of soaps the other day-  and little herb bags using my home grown lavender plants. These will make for lovely gifts at Christmas time.

A pleasure activity - making soap bags and herb bags

The back yard will be our next priority. We need to get the area dug up and then we can start laying the stone. We have to get this done before the rains come as it will be too much of a mess to leave.

And of course our almost twice weekly flowers from our dear friend Madeleine. She stops in on the way to locking up the church with a lovely bunch of flowers from her garden.

Au revoir
Wendy

Wine fetes, luncheons and rock lifting

Wendy and our French friend Bernard

Last Sunday we were invited to our french friends place in Chatelus Malvaleix.

There was a wine fete in their village so we walked into town from their house.

Very hot particularly inside the marquees - up to 39 degrees.

Bill and Bernard with Stall Holder

I felt sorry for the stall holders so I bought wine, champagne, pate and saucisson after tasting lots of different ones.

Who needs a gym workout when you can just lift stones

Over the weekend we were moving all the stones that have been removed from walls and floors and graded them into rows of sizes and thickness.

Back breaking work but needed to be done.

Bill grading the larger stones

We are going to use these stones for paving the front of the house and the back yard.

Rock pile reducing

Yesterday we were invited to our English friends place for a luncheon. A wonderful day had by all.
Well done to Mel and Wendy for being able to fit us all in.

Whilst Bill has been busy with installing flyscreens, fixing the first floor bathroom behind the toilet, fixing the dorm window in the attic, plus his busy work schedule for clients back in Australia etc, I have been busy making Potpourri.

The leaves from the peonies and roses were just about to fall off so decided to try my hand at making potpourri. It's now in the barn in a dark spot for the next 2 months so it will be interesting to see the end results. Hopefully I will be able to use as gifts back to the people that gave me the flowers.

Potpourri made with salt, sugar and vodka

Bye for now
Wendy

A week of discovery

What another amazing week we have had here in France.

St Silvain

During the week I discovered the delights of our little local church which is virtually just across the road from us.

Madeleine, our neighbour

Our dear elderly french friend, Madeleine, holds the huge key that unlocks the church.

Every morning and evening it is her responsibility to open and close the church.

She walks past our place to the church and on this particular day I was out the front as she was passing by.

I asked if I could come and have a look inside.

View of inside church

Wow, what an amazing, beautiful  little church.

No graffiti, no broken down anything.

All in very good order.

And it's just left open to the public during the day.

View towards back of church

Have been meaning to visit the local biblioteque to research some history of this area - just need to find some time in our busy schedule.










The other amazing thing we discovered on a local randonée was a very long and winding wall in the middle of the forest.

We have since found out that it was built by the romans.

It just astounds us, the age of things around here.

We have nothing this old in Australia to compare to.

As we followed the wall along, we imagined the romans laying each stone.

What it must have been like back then.

Our Chicken and Champers lunch was a fantastic day which went well into the night with some guests deciding to stay over.

A mixture of French and English friends so all in all a wonderful day - sorry no photos as too busy preparing and entertaining and drinking and eating.

The guests brought some beautiful peonies, lots of jars of jam, wine and champers.

The entrecote soiree at the local hall last Saturday night was fabulous. We didn't get home until about 2am and then up early to prepare for the chicken and champers lunch. We even got to sit at the mayor's table and spoke to him and french people most of the night. They are the ones that told us that the wall was built by the romans. Again no pictures as too busy having  a great time.

Note to self - don't arrange to have a night out before holding a big luncheon for 7 guests the next day.

Wendy

May is the month for walks in France

We have now been on a number of randonées with various groups and on our own.

The weather is just perfect at this time of the year to walk up and down dales and valleys, wind through beautiful laneways and paths and eventually return to our starting destination.

The 7km walk to Glenic and beyond left from the viaduct.

Absolutely amazing place.

Discovering waterfalls

Passed waterfalls.

Views to the mountains

Church at Glenic

Laneways filled with wildflowers

The other walk was a 12km walk from Gouzon - pretty flat but again absolutely spectacular.

Starting out on our 12km walk at 9am

On our way through the most beautiful forests

Half way point - we were greeted with Coffee, cakes, Orange Juice etc

Bill and I decided to back track over some of the ground that we covered on the 12km walk on 1 May. Words cannot describe the scenery and the views being up so high. And it's all just around the corner from us.

Each walk seems to provide us with jaw dropping moments and also some "get out of my air moments".

We helped out at a picnic/walk at a place called Roches.

It has a giant statue of the Virgin Mary.

Walkers began their journey at Chatelus Malvalieux and ended it at Roches in time to enjoy all the donated food we had set up onto tables. There were about 200 people, so quite alot of food. I have never seen so many quiches on the one table.

Lining up to eat

At our local Boussac markets, there are quite a few stall holders selling flowers. It looks amazing. I have to hold myself back from just buying everything as it looks so great. I think I have used every pot in my garden now so have little room for anything else to plant.

Tonight we are off to our local hall for an Entrecote Soiree - it's great as it's only 2 doors up. Just have to ensure our steak will be well cooked - something the french don't seem to do - they like it on the raw side.

Bonne soiree......

Wendy

Randonées and other french happenings

We went on our local village walk on Monday 1 May. A 7, 12 or 15km walk or a 30km bike ride were the options.

I was the only one that did the 7km walk - the rest of the group including Bill completed the 12 km walk through beautiful forests and laneways.

The scenery was amazing and it's all within our little village and the surrounding area.

It was then followed by the obligatory 3 hour lunch with wine included.
Not sure how many more of these walks I can take if there are more lunches involved. Although we have signed up for another 12km walk tomorrow from Gouzon. I am told by a reliable source that the route is not uphill like this one was. So chances of me having a heart attack maybe less likely.
And of course there is another lunch with wine - all for 8 euros.

Last week we received a call from Austria to say that our goods from Australia had landed in Rotterdam and were being delivered by truck on Wednesday. Great news. We were very excited as we had forgotten a lot of what we had packed as we thought it would stay in storage in Australia for another few years.

So our truck arrived at 8.30am on Wed. The weather had been great up to that point and then decided to turn bad. It was snowing on the day the truck arrived and we unloaded the boxes into the barn in snow.

 Our truck driver was a young man from the Ukraine. He had driven for 2 days with only a couple of hours sleep and then had another delivery to make to the South of France after us. I made him some strong coffee with some biscuits and we tipped him 10 euros - enough to buy a sandwich and coffee on his next route.
He was telling us that there is not a lot of money in the Ukraine - he was a soldier but there was no money in it so he started driving trucks.

So we started unpacking the boxes after moving them from the barn into the kitchen in the snow.

I had to rearrange all our kitchen cupboards, linen cupboard and bedrooms to fit some of it in.
We had 3 boxes of crockery and things that we donated to the local parish that we attend every second Tuesday to help out with setting up tables and washing up. They thought it was Christmas when they opened the boxes of goodies. It felt good that we were giving something that could be used and needed.

We also had fun unpacking as each item we unpacked led to a gasp of "Oh wow, I had forgotten I had packed/ kept that." It was like Christmas for us also.

Bill prayed to the VEGEMITE KING - we are now stocked up for awhile. Thanks to Mick, our youngest son, for throwing in a few jars into the boxes for us. It should keep us going until 2018.

We only had 2 breakages. One was my big white vase ( a 30th birthday present from Bill - so I was extremely disappointed) and a crystal bowl that I loved as well which was in the same box. Fortunately Bill has been able to repair the vase as it broke in big pieces.

It took 3 months and 2 weeks to arrive by ship door to door.

Hope you are enjoying the details and photos in my posts.
If you are wanting any further information or wanting more pics/less pics please feel free to leave feedback or contact me via my email address:
mackatwo@gmail.com.

Until my next post.

Wendy