Visitors and our kitchen and living space come together

My sister and brother in law arrived with their beautiful girls for a few days before we had a chance to finish the living area.

We still had a concrete floor but popped a rug down and put together the corner settee we got from Ikea. I am thrilled with it as there is storage and it also turns into a double bed so we can have extra guests even if we have our B&B rooms let out.

The Whites

As you can see it was quite successful. We had a Raclette outside the first night - which was great fun. Cooking our own saussison, cold meats and veg with raclette cheese on top under the Raclette grill. A great social way to eat.

The cushions in various bright colours I have now decided against - going for something a bit more subtle. I'll be able to use the bright colours outside when we go back to outdoor living.

We had a wonderful few days with our guests and had great fun at various playgrounds. We also had amazing weather. We had a little visit to Nanteuil en Vallee - a beautiful little village with an arboretum and pretty garden. Here is a picture of the ancient wash-house.

Our few days culminated in a picnic by our lake at the Plan d'Eau on their last day followed by Halloween pumpkin making and a Halloween party at L'Etoile D'Or.

Fun at Plan d'Eau, Villefagnan

Tilly helping carve her pumpkin

The finished pumpkin - my talented sister designed the face

Witch on her broomstick

Ready to party...

Couldn't stop laughing at this

Painting

Tiling

Ceiling and beams

After many weeks work our kitchen and living space has come together. Whilst not totally finished it is lovely and cosy and I am looking forward to easting with friends and snuggling up to watch films over the winter months.
The floor as you know was levelled and concreted in July and a wall was knocked down transforming what was a stable into a nice large space.
This has now been plasterboarded, plastered, painted, tiled with a splashback and cupboards have been made by Phil. Doors are still required but there is space for plates, glasses, mugs and dried goods.An exposed area on the wall you can see has been made to house our TV.
The ceiling has been painted along with the beams and the search for tiles continued. We have been looking for months and even failed to find something we liked at a good price in the UK. So last week we got in the van and went to Brico Depot at Angouleme determined to come back with something. and what a bargain. We found these tiles at only €4.50 a square metre. Of course the adhesive and grout cost nearly as much as the tiles but we are so pleased with the effect.

The tiling was done in one day with grouting the next. Boy did our knees hurt.

Let the tiling commence

Ready for grouting

And now we can bring in the furniture

We have now moved furniture in and this is the (almost) finished room.

Our cosy space

A bientot!

x

Rouillac Market

A market is held in Rouillac on the 27th of every month so we went in October for the first time.
Nothing prepared us for the size of it.
we parked up, as the French do - anywhere - and it wasn't difficult to find somewhere even though the place was heaving.
As we walked towards the market I overheard a man behind me saying he was going to buy 33 chickens and 19 turkeys. I stifled a snigger.
On arriving at the first part of the market I was soon to eat my snigger, if such a thing is possible.
There were chickens everywhere. Not only hens and cockerels but turkeys, geese, ducks, parrots, canaries, love birds, cats, dogs and even a couple of pigs. There may have been even more earlier as we didn't arrive until around 11.00 ish.
I'm not sure how I feel about the selling of live animals. Made me feel a little strange to be honest.
Below are a selection of photos - the market sold just about everything. Lawn mowers, clothes, materials, things you need and things you probaly will never need. The only stalls missing were a butcher and fishmonger. Maybe something that is agreed so as to not impede business to local shops maybe?

Chrysanthemums abound everywhere - just prior to All Saint's Day
a lovely sight

Chooks

Birds

Ducks

Geese

Black and White turkeys

Dogs for Sale

Assortment of caps

Eels - they also cooked an eel dish in a huge paella pan

Wonderful selection of saucissons

Pumpkins

An eatery

Sitting in the sunshine taking a breather

On the way back to Villefagnan we passed a sign that said Pineau de Charentes so we came off the road and drove into a small hamlet and through a gate into a courtyard where a three legged black labrador came across the lawn to greet us. He was followed by a lovely lady who opened a door and took us inside to sample some Pineau that they make there.

Another couple arrived who live fairly locally to us and we spent a wonderful hour chatting and tasting Pineau des Charentes before buying a selection to take away.

We were also shown the back room where there were huge casks of Cognac that were maturing for 30 years before being bottled.

For anyone interested I absolutely recommend a visit. (they shut on Sundays)

Guy BONNAUD les Cailletières 16170 Gourville Téléphone: 05 45 21 73 30

http://www.cognac-bonnaud.com/

What a great day out. We shall certainly visit the market again. Maybe November - there may be a Christmas theme.

Until the next time.

Much love x

 

Table mats and coasters...

Just a quick update.

After searching for some red table mats and coasters we decided to make our own

Cost 8.90 Euros for 6 table mats and 16 coasters

Am sure we will use that many coasters at some point. By the way they are red, not pink.

Much love xx

Orange land line in France - voice mail

Just a quick word about Orange land lines in France

Orange is the brand name for French Telecom. To contact Orange on an English speaking helpline from within France you can call 0969 36 39 00
If you want to call them from outside France then call 0033 969 36 39 00

I wanted to know how to:

1. Pick up messages that had been left

I discovered that messages were being left after a default French speaking message but had no idea how to pick them up. When logging into my account online I could see email messages. These are very clever as there are mp3 files attached and messages can be picked up this way but it was only after calling Orange English speaking help line that I found you can access messages by calling 888.
To listen press 1
It plays messages in order that they were received. listen all the way through
Then you can press 1 to hear again
Press 2 to save
Press 3 to delete
Press 4 to go to next message
Press * to go to main menu
Press # to call the person who called


2. How to personalise my outgoing message.

This is also done by calling 888 and going through various options.
2 then 1

This article may be of use to you

http://assistance.orange.fr/utiliser-la-messagerie-vocale-888-2101.php

Hope this helps

x

October - at home and abroad

September was such a lovely month. Great weather (after the cool August) and friends visiting.
Whilst my back was bad Phil carried on with lots of little jobs that were so important but didn't make much of a visual impact.
In October we had a flying visit back to the UK to get Phil's defibrillator checked and to pick up a few things. Also the van had it's first MOT which reulted in some new brake pads being fitted but we are so pleased with her and expected there to be a lot more work than that.
Thanks to Paul who took care of all of it for us.

The van came back for the first time not packed to the sides and top.
We did a night crossing coming back on a Sunday/ It was rainy on the way to Portsmouth and got dark so conditions weren't superb and the traffic was abysmal. Probably a bad time to be on the roads.

We got back to Villefagnan at 2pm on the Monday afternoon. As we opened the gates the sun was shining on the stone walls and courtyard and the warmth was just like the house was welcoming us back.

Since then we have done lots!
The kitchen is plastered now and I have done lots of painting of windows.
Rugs have been cleaned in honour of our next guests. 

The back door has been recovered on the inside which was a real state and I have varnished.

Back door

Here are some pics of the plastering.The ceiling has plasterboard on but is yet to be plastered. After that we can go shopping for floor tiles. I can't wait.

Looking good Phil

The space with exposed wall is for our TV

Bedroom 2 is virtually finished. 
All that remains is the skirting boards to be painted and the wooden floor given a bit of TLC. We have brought back the new Ottoman bed and made it up along with a new firm mattress for our guests. we now have the bed that was in this room and the old bed is being stored for now. The mattress was easy to get out but the base would NOT go down the stairs so we asked our friend Rob to come and help us get it through the bedroom window. Last night was a chilly night and we brought a circular table into the kitchen which worked really well. Rob came round to get the bed base out through the window. Phil and Rob guided it out of the window on straps and I stood in the street to stop cars and to guide it safely to the ground. It made the trip successfully which means Phil doesn't have to cut it up to get it out of the house and we now have a bed base for use in one of the gites.

To say thanks to Rob we went to Chez David to have a couple of aperos and then back to our 'becoming cosy' kitchen for chilli.

Our first proper meal indoors

Phil at our kitchen table after meal

Bedroom 2 which will be our first letting room now looks like this.
Curtains and holdbacks up and a few finishing touches. A sneak preview for all my blog followers.

View to window at front of house

The bed

View of window overlooking courtyard

Shower room en suite

We really feel we are making progress now and we are so happy to be back here in Villefagnan with our new friends. In 9 short months we have come a long way and met some lovely people. My French is improving, as is Phil's. We have friends both French and English and are very happy to be here.

Very much looking forward to welcoming my lovely sister and brother in law and their beautiful girls here next week. 

A bientot

xx

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

The last 4 weeks I have been sadly lacking in my contribution to the renovations and have done very little over this period. I hurt my back - doing no more than sitting down to Skype Richard, my son.
In praise of the French medical system this is the service I received.
I rag a friend to ask if she could refer me to a physiotherapist. She called one of two doctors in the village and asked for a referral form me. The doctor said she would prefer to see me. 25 minutes later I was in front of the doctor. She was efficient and prescribed anti-infallamatories and painkillers which I got immediately from the chemist opposite She also prescribed 10 sessions with a physio also in the village, next door to teh Post Office. we went straight there after the chemist but think we may have hit lunch hour. Therefore we went back after lunch and the physion gave me my first appointment for less than an hour later. I cannot fault the efficiency of the system. without harping on as I know how borin it is listening to tales of bad health, unfortunately the drugs disagreed with me and I stopped taking them and the physio's methods weren't having the desired effect. From past experience with the same back problem I have huge success with Bowen therapy, a very gentle treatment and have now found a lovely therapist in Saintes. Enough of that anyway... 

Phil however has been hard at it during this time.


The windows in the courtyard are looking better and just need a final coat. Amazing how white paint freshens everything up. The stonework around the windows and doors has had concrete removed (don't ask me why someone chose to put nasty grey concrete in as filler) and has been refilled with a chaux and sand mixture.

Some stud partition wall in the kitchen has been built and plastered and the double doors have been fited between the hallway and the kitchen. I did manage to varnish these - well most of them. Phil had to do the lower bits as I couldn't bend that low. He has also created shelves to house necessary stuff and at some point we will have cupboard doors. That'll be a little way off as the decision on what we'd like may take some time.

The first guest room that we call Bedroom 2 is nearly finished. Just a few bits to tart up. Phil finished painting ceiling, walls and beam and I managed to do a little painting around a window.
This was just in time for the first set of visitors.

We had a lovely couple of days with Martin and Sandra and spent last Monday visiting Oradour sur Glane.
This was the scene of the most atrocious brutality on June 10th 1944. To cut a long story short the German army rounded up the residents of this village and shot the men, mostly in the legs so they couldn't escape, at various locations around the village. They were then shot dead and burned beyond recognition. Meanwhile the women and children were rounded up and locked in the church where they were murdered. In all 642 lost their lives within a few hours with only a few who got away. The bodies were mutilated and burnt beyond recognition and stuffed in wells and sewers. Only 10 per cent  were recognisable in order to bury in a named grave. This wasn't the only incident of this sort but others are much better known. The village has been left as it was and a new village built next door. There are cars from this day left in the streets and a pram in the church. The exhibition was very well done and some of the film footage extremely harrowing. A very sobering day for us.

Our next visitors came for a cup f coffee on their way back to the UK. Lovely to see Pete and Barbara who have been working really hard in their beautiful house near Cognac. As soon as they had left we had a quick lunch before driving to Limoges to meet my girlfriends.
It was so great to see Mand and Trees get off the plane and to bring them both back here. It is Mandy's second visit but all was new for Trees. We had a very busy few days or rather they did. Mandy has been gardening and Trees was desperate to knock a wall down, so we saved the wall in what will be Gite number 1 for her. Her face was a picture (so pleased I can provide you with something to demolish) and here is the result of her efforts.

Thanks girls for all your help. We had such fun and the days flew by - you will be missed. 

Much love xx

Festival of Wind, a Wedding and Bric a Brac in Villefagnan

Villefagnan has been very lively during August.
On Sunday 10th there was a Fete de Vent at our windmill (Moulin de Pierre Blanches - windmill of white stone) on the outskirts of town. There were tractors and combine harvesters, so Phil felt right at home. There were machines from days gone by working in the fields. We missed the ploughing competition but saw some very handsome Shire horses.There were stalls full of local produce and we even had a tour of the windmill. We joined in with the 5 course repas which was wonderful and we sat next to the lady mayor and her husband. Charentais melon with red Pineau de Charentes to start, followed by some sort of meat crudites. Main course was a pig roast cooked by our new friend, the life and soul of the village, Jean Paul. Cheese followed with lovely bread and than a dessert of either apple or cherry tart. We had both and shared.
Such a lovely day and the rain held off before we made our way home.
A selection of photos and a video below.

Bread made from flour from the windmill being baked in outdoor oven

The repas

Interesting guests at repas

Views around the windmill

The following weekend there was a big wedding. The door to the church was dressed and there were lots of people speaking English, French and Italian. (An English girl with a french mother married an Italian) I understand the wedding lasted several days and that there were 250 guests. There was a great feeling in Villefagnan this weekend.

The door to the church - wedding day

Yesterday the 18th Annual Bric a Brac at Villefganan took place. in recent years it has been at the windmill but this year has been brought back into the streets of the village. Not a small affair either. They closed the road off just outside our house and also at the other end of the village. Stall holders were setting up by 6.30am and there were a couple of hundred in all the streets and the square and around by the church. People came from far and wide and I'm so pleased that it was held in the village as local businesses benefited. Helen at L'Etoile D'Or said they were going to open at 9am anyway but because there were so many people they opened their doors at 7am. They were fully booked for the special lunch they put on as well. Brilliant!
There were all sorts of weird and wonderful things for sale including a milking machine, local win, dried sausages, and lots of treasures that were seeking new homes. I bought a lovely Hibiscus Marais (huge flowers) from a lovely couple who are based at Champagne Mouton. Great quality and value so will definitely be visiting them in the future.

Add caption

What a great event. Some friends had stalls so I hope they were successful. Maybe next year we can clear some of our treasures.