A few days in France

A quick trip down to France for a short visit - down on the overnight ferry on Sunday night, back on the ferry Friday night.  Daughter has come with me as she fancies a few quiet days away. 

It is quite autumnal now with rain expected for most of the week.  Arriving at the house for the first time since md-July, I was surprised by the tall, daisy-like flowers that currently dominate the front garden.  Grant and a workmate were there when we arrived, so we could have a quick catch up on the most recent work being done, and what might be done by the time of Wife and my visit for two weeks at the end of October.

Late afternoon, I had a quick walk up the road to see Oscar the donkey (who I forgot to buy carrots for at the supermarket earlier) and to see how the vines were doing, as it is close to harvest time now.

Work on Petits Chats has continued at a good pace.  The partitioning walls are now up and are being plastered, the electrical work is continuing well, etc.  The hope is that two of the rooms upstairs will be ready for decorating in October.

I have brought down some samples of the wood flooring we intend to use.  They look pretty good against the stone walls (see above).  And the corridor has been put into the end bedroom (which is now smaller)

The largest of the new rooms has an alcove at the end which could be perfect for the large armoire we have (unless it is too tall).  I have another trip down in two weeks time when I am bringing furniture, so we'll see then.

The rooms do look good, with the stone and the wood beams highlighted

The view below is from just in front of the bathroom upstairs and looks back towards the "Asian" room in the far distance, showing the two main bedrooms with their new walls

 

My own work over these few days is focused on the main bedroom in Cadran, where I have removed most of the wallpaper and done some test paints.  This will be one of our main jobs in October.

Later in the week, I went to visit a Gite complex for sale near St Jean.  This consisted of a three bedroom house and three gites that had been converted out of barns.  Our proposed next purchase could be a renovation project that would ultimately be like this.  The place I saw had been finished to an exceptional standard and I was most impressed.

The next day, I went to visit a really dilapidated farmhouse and barns about 5 miles form our existing house.  This is extremely cheap and could be exactly what our second project could consist of.  But the thought needed to really think through a decision like this is very high and I don't know if it is worth thinking about now.  Still it is what I thought about as we drove home on the Friday.

So an interesting trip with lots of food for thought.  Daughter seemed to have a nice time - she did some work for her fast-approaching return to University, did lots of exercise, ate and slept well . . . So not a bad trip at all.