Three weeks in France - part 2

Friday

Grant is back for another day.  This morning we visited Saintes to choose a door for the upstairs connection into Les Petits Chats.  And buy lots more plaster board and associated stuff.

As I have been preparing the occasional IKEA chair and sorting out other stuff, a huge pile of rubbish has begun to build up by the garage.  I have christened it "cardboard mountain" and am keen to see how high I can grow it. 

Meanwhile Grant worked on the door upstairs - a slightly fiddly job as the door has to be cut down to fit and is unusually fitted together.  But as always, Grant does a fine job.  With this now done, I can start work on the decoration of the boy's room - my principal weekend job

Late afternoon, we met in the Gitem store in St Jean where I bought a TV and a washing machine and Grant helps me organise the installation of Freeview on Satellite.  This will be done next week, hopefully in time for the deciding matches in the rugby and the first Grand Prix of the year.

So four full days have gone.  I have done about 50 hours so far, long days that start about 5:30 and end mid-evening, driven on by listening to some downloaded radio shows by Gideon Coe and Marc Riley. 

Too tired most evenings to watch any TV or bother too much with elaborate food - mainly eating chicken with new potatoes, or pasta, wasshed down with merlot from the cave.  I usually manage an episode of Star Trek before bed at about 9:00pm

Saturday

A slight change of plan and the decision to spend the day on some smaller jobs - the sort when I can get a few ticked off quickly.

First up was painting the ceiling in the kitchen to cover over the slightly greasy stains.  This is actually a tough job, requiring lots of odd neck positions.

I have noticed that the dining room has become base camp for the trip so far. 

Late afternoon I went briefly into St Jean calling in the cave for more merlot (2 litres for E4) and a quick visit into the brocante.  There I found 6 really beautiful linen covered chairs for just E120.  It will take three trips to get these home.

This is followed by a re-stock for food at Leclerc. 

Sunday

There was a "vide grenier" in St Jean this morning and despite the poor weather, I have ventured out, in part to review what I could buy at such an event if Jerome and I were doing the brocante business we are discussing.  Overall, there would definitely have been a few boxes of stuff we could have acquired.  For the house, I bought some more bedside lights and a couple of earthware pots for the shower room.  One stand had about a dozen pots for about E3 each.  If we were buying for the business, I would have bought them all.

Next week there is the first of this year's main brocantes nearby at Le Gicq.  That will perhaps be the first real test of our buying possibilities - hopefully it will be like Loulay last year when I could have easily spent E500.

Back home and I am focused initially on getting at least one room near completion.  That room is the "poppy room" which now just needs a further spotlight attached to the main beam, which will be done when the electrician visits next week.  

More prep work on the back bedroom while listening to downloaded radio shows.  There is certainly a decent amount of good music about at the moment.

Monday

So it is time for the first paint of the back bedroom today - the first coat of Farrow and Ball's oddly named "Elephant's breath".  I have also brought the furniture in for a first look at what it could bem like.  The room will actually be better when the corridor is in place through to Petit Chats and then the room will be less long and narrow.  But I was pretty happy with the first layout.

Another 12 hours day today - calls to Jerome in the UK, Wife and Daughter.  Odd to be on my own for days at a time.

Three weeks in France - Part 1

Monday

A fast trip from Caen and I was at the house by about 1:00.  First thing to look at is the state of the grenier after the splurge of work that Grant organised over the past couple of weeks.  The old floorboards and shelving units have gone, the windows are fitted, various roof supports have been replaced and the tiles checked, and the damp patch appears to be drying out well. 

The next job in this area will be to install the wiring though the joists, lay the new floorboards and remove the mortar covering the original stone walls.  This might take place late April

Bedrooms 1 and 2 in the grenier, with the damp patch drying well in the far corner

Looking towards the upstairs bathroom from what will be bedroom 3

Bedroom 3

Also included in the recent work was the removal of the downstairs bathroom to create a bigger lounge.  This bathroom will be relocated downstairs by the bedroom

Looking towards what used to be the bathroom and now the extended lounge

Grant came round for a visit late afternoon after I had finished unpacking.  I am really pleased with the work done and the project is, remarkably, about a fifth done now.

Tuesday

A surprise at 7:45 as IKEA arrive early with the delivery of three outdoor tables and 18 matching chairs. I have to put 2 tables and 10 chairs together this trip, the rest can wait.

I have decided to start on the downstairs shower room first.  The tiling is the first job, which takes about 8 hours as it is a very fiddly location.  Then a paint of at least a small patch of the walls.  By the end of the first day, I have done about one wall of painting and am pretty happy with the colour chosen.

Tomorrow should see the walls finished.  But one job that will be hard is the fitting of skirting boards.  Today's survey reveals that most of the walls are off plumb and so some tricky cutting is going to be required.

Dinner tonight after a 14 hour working day is chicken and new potatoes washed down with some merlot from the cave in St Jean

Wednesday

This morning's early morning visit is from the people who are fitting the new shutters over the french windows.  This is an insurance requirement given the long time each year that the house is not occupied.  They seemed to have them fitted by about lunchtime but then an afternoon of adjustment takes place for reasons I am not clear about.

While this is going on, I have a visit from Martin, our website designer.  He is actually writing a novel at the moment (which is why he is house sitting in France) and was off to visit a friend nearby.  We discussed our proposed painting course website in some detail, reviewing lots of other (mostly poorer) examples.

Shutters open and closed.  It requires two dry days to enable me to paint them.  The weather forecast is not good for the next week or so

For the remainder of the day, I concentrated on painting the shower room and paid a visit to the local Emmaus picking up about E10 of stuff - the sort we might try to sell back in the UK

Thursday

Today is the first of two days when Grant will be working at the house with me.  We intended to focus first on the two doorways in Les Petits Chats and then move onto the boxing in of the VMC air extraction system

But some thought has been going into the downstairs doorway and I have decided to actually block in the doorway entirely.  This will leave the access between the two halves of the house just through the upstairs, but also opens up the opportunity to have a really nice sized bathroom downstairs in LPC.  So that's what we work on first today.

The doorway before and after the new wall

Also today is a visit from the person who is to empty our septic tank.  Technically this should have been done by the vendors before completion as it is not legal in France to sell someone your own merde!  The tanker only just fits in the street to the side of the house and has to run its pipes in through the side gate.

A talk with Daughter in Thailand (just starting her yoga course) and with Wife at home.

Preparation for a long trip to France

So I am just about to leave for nearly three weeks in France.  My project file for the French house has nearly 30 pages of detailed things that need to be done.  These range from the complete decoration of two rooms - the downstairs shower room and the room we still call the boy's room - to little things like attaching the name sign to the end of the drive.

There is a major furniture order due - the outdoor furniture which will need to be assembled.  There is a visit planned with our website designer and then, in week three, a few day's visit from Jerome and Yvette.

This latter visit should occur when the house is just about finished, so feedback from them will be interesting.  We are going to see their possible barn purchase again and also do some brocante shopping, with a rough plan to develop this into a small import business.

The draft pack of the car has revealed that the car will be actually packed to the rafters.  One of the kitchen units will be taken, plus loads more towels, linen, pictures, DIY stuff, etc.

I am actually really excited about have such a time to focus fully on the project.

Reading Spinoza for the first time in a while

While looking at some philosophy lectures loaded on Youtube, I came across a prograame on Spinoza - four philosophers debating various aspects of his thought.  It has been some time since I last read much about Spinoza and so, with my forthcoming trip to France on the near horizon, I have decided to focus on him for the next few weeks.  So into the packing goes the Nadler biography, the Cambridge Companion and The Courtier and the Heretic

On my two year course in the history of philosophy at university, Spinoza was the philosopher that I studied most (followed by Kant, then Leibniz).  And the last twenty years or so have definitely seen a resurgence in interest in him.  I am very pleased by this development - it is fair to say that much of my own views come from Spinioza, especially the role of reason in overcoming psychological issues. 

Also found and packed for the trip is  Tariq Ali's film "Spinoza - apostle of reason" from years ago.  Very keen to see that too.

Viv Albertine and BBC Punk programmes

While listening to a recent Gideon Coe radio show on BBC 6, I was very struck by a new single by Viv Albertine - I want more.  Of course, in my formative music years in the late 1970s onwards, she featured heavily in my listening due to the Slits album, Cut.  What a fine record that was.

And now I have her recent record, The Vermilion Border, to listen to - downloaded from emusic.com this morning.  She always looked really great in the Slits - in fact me and many of my friends at the time really liked the idea of going out with a girl who looked like she did then.

And she is still rather lovely now - something she hints at in one of her songs on the new record - "Confessions of a MILF".  I have followed my listening to this with a listen to the deluxe, 2 cd version of Cut, who would have thought there would ever be such a thing

Definitely a MILF if you ask me

A couple of days ago I was watching a 3-part programme on punk that had been screened on BBC 4 a little while back.  There was a section about the Slits in part 3, along with a great set of clips of Public Image Ltd - I had forgotten how good they were.  But I was also struck by how many of the artists interviewed appeared in their lounges by a beautiful fire places - they are all middle class now, even Penny Rimbaud (sort of) and the guy out of the Pop Group (despite his combat jacket - which he probably wears when he goes trout fishing)

It reminds me of the other punk girl we all fancied when I was at school - Pauline Murray of Penetration. 

A week in France Part 2

Tuesday

Wife is so settled in to cleaning the kitchen that she is not keen to come out on any tourist like trips, so I went to Saintes alone this afternoon.  My main issue was to buy a "wifi enhancer" from the Orange store.  Much to my surprise, I am able to get it working first time and our house broadband now extendes through most of the house, but in particular, to the main lounge, the terrace and the area by the pool. 

We have dinner out at Le Scorlion and excellent it is too.  Langousitine ravioli, followed by rump steak and the really awesome tripple dessert that I had a few weeks ago. Sadly they are full for Valentine's Day on Thursday, else we could have gone there again.

Wednesday

Into St Jean this morning for the market and to have a bit of a wander round - the first break from work during the day so far.  We bought delicious pastries and macaroons.

Another job today - to trim up the dining area and take a few photos for the house website.  I have now finished the doors upstairs and am working on the re-paint of the stairs, replacing the rather horrible purply-brown colour they were with a rather nice grey.

Another large meal tonight after a satisfying days work - chicken, chorizo and rice - followed by four episodes of "Big Bang Theory", our current favourite show

Thursday

More jobs to plan work on for later visits.  I am returning in two weeks time for a longish stay of nearly three weeks and have all sorts of stuff to door.  The priority is the upstairs bedroom after the work is done to knock a door through the thick stone wall, plus the downstairs shower room.  But I am also keen to look at my latest plans for the new kitchen in the other part of the house - "Petit chats".

The current kitchen in Petit Chats

Finally, the office is tidier

But there is lots to do in the downstairs bathroom

Another upside today when we get our first booking for the summer season.  This is enough to cover half of our on-going costs of owning the property but conrtibutes nothing yet to the refurbishment.  Now we just need another 10 weeks of bookings and we'll be very happy.

A nive meal in for valentine's day - we have salmon and prawns for starter, cook chicken with peppers and left over rice from last night and have two delicious pastries for dessert.  And we finally finished the 8 pistachio magums which we bought earlier in the week

Friday

We are packed up and ready to leave by about 10:00 and I had hoped we could have a nice drive round the area - maybe go and see Jerome's proposed barn purchase.  But there is thick mist everywhere and we can barely see 50 metres at times.  Still the vines do look nice.

So we heading for St Jean and a quick walk round before meeting Grant and his wife at L'Annexe.  In the Ellis Park cafe, we got talking to an old lady who was leaving the area after 10 years to move back to the UK.  She was complaining about how the English ex-pats wouldn't include her in anything because she was single.

Lunch was good fun - and lots of ideas to think about from hearing of Grant and Karen's experiences.

Then off on the long drive back to Caen, kept going by Gideon Coe and Marc Riley radio shows.  And a trip into the IKEA at Caen where we bought rugs and things.

Just before we arrived in Caen, the brakes gave out on the land rover!  Most likely a fluid leak.  We inched onto the ferry and assumed that if we got off the ferry ok, we could then call the AA to tow us home.

Saturday

We had some brakes when we rolled off the ferry and as it was 6:30 in the morning, we took a chance that the roads would be quiet and we could inch home.  Braking just once in the first 80 miles of the journey home, we got back home ok.

A week in France Part 1

Friday

A slight nervousness today as we departed for a week in France.  In the past, Wife has not always had the best sea legs and tonight would be her first ever overnight sleeping crossing.  And in addition, Wife was also very excited about the trip.  This is her first visit to our house in France since we bought it and she is now very keen to make her mark on things.

So we have a nice meal on the boat, two half-bottles of wine, and a quick drink in the bar where we talk to a rather odd couple who are on a weekend cruise to St Malo sponsored by a local radio station.  I would probably preferred not to make small talk with them.  But when quiz night starts in the bar, we make our excuses and are off to the cabin for the night.  How well would it go?

Saturday

The answer is - not bad at all.  A decent night's sleep for both of us and a complete absence of any seasickness.  Indeed we are both up for a big breakfast on the boat.

This morning's journey is the familiar St Malo, Rennes, Nantes, motorway to St Jean route.  We are down at St Jean by 12:30 or so and go straight to the house.  I persuade Wife to let me take the covers off the new sofas and open the shutters before she goes in for the first time.  It was actually August when she last saw the house and the first go round it again is rather overwhelming.  By now I am pretty used to it all, but it was quite a revelation for Wife.  The work I have done is greated with much enthusiasm so that's good too.

We spend a couple of hours sorting out our stuff.  I unpacked the huge amount of stuff we had crammed into the land rover - four side tables, lamps, towels, suitcases, DIY stuff, etc and then assembled the rest of the new IKEA bed that we are going to use.

Then off to the Leclerc supermarket in St Jean for an initial stock up for the next few days and also a chance to buy some cheap red wine for me from the Cave and to have a quick look in the brocante. 

I had hoped to have a meal out at Le Scorlion tonight to celebrate our first evening together at our house but it is fully booked so it is Le Cabanon instead, and actually a very good meal indeed.  For the next couple of days we are working more or less none stop on the house, so we are now suitably charged up.

Sunday

Wife has started on the huge task of cleaning the kitchen and organising all our stuff in it.  I am initially working on the doors upstairs; a repaint and re-fitting of door handles. 

In the afternoon we are visited by Grant, our property manager.  He and I have our usual run through the pending work while Wife expresses concern about the cleaning of the outside of the house, especially the terrace.  But all seems in hand to me. 

We now have a large dining room table assembled - another IKEA purchase - and are beginning to see how the whole area will fit together.

I cook a variation on the meal that Jerome did for me a few weeks ago - frozen fruit de mer cooked with shallots, garlic and creme freshe and served with rice and a salad.  We are both really hungry after a full days work - always a nice feeling I think

Monday

An improvement in the weather over night and some blue sky.  Work continues on our various tasks but I take a few minutes to go out for a brief walk and see the donkey in its field across the road.

We are joined for lunch by two cats who sit on the kitchen window looking in as we eat.  The tabby was around when I was here last time and we think it is an un-neutered male, which would be a very bad thing to let in the house.  I hadn't minded it wandering around before, but now it is banished.

The latest trip to France - a long weekend

Thursday

Some good news first thing - the huge IKEA order that has been much delayed did actually arrive at the house in France yesterday.  Last week it was stopped by snow in Nantes - not a common excuse in France.

Jerome arrived mid morning and we went off to Oxford to get our rental van - a brand new and rather snazzy Mercedes sprinter, with only 98 miles on the clock.  It does have a £900 insurance excess so we had better be careful with it.

Back home and it takes about an hour to pack it fully.  We don't manage to get everything in it from the garage and the plan I had to go and buy some more stuff from a local secondhand hand yard was impossible.  I may have to do another van trip before Easter - or try and buy something suitable when I'm in France to finish the rooms.

Armed with a pile of CDs to last us the whole time we are away, we set off early evening.  An uneventful journey except for Jerome putting us into the queue for the Bilboa ferry at one point.  It turned out our van was bigger than I had paid for and an extra £48 is needed to cover this.

While having a couple of drinks in the bar, we watched a short video about Brittany which featured girls in traditional costume.  I should email Ellie and suggest she gets such an outfit to welcome her guests when she is running her gites.  She would look great.

Friday

After a big breakfast, Jerome takes the first half of the journey and I do the second.  The van is no slower than my usual landrover and we make St Jean by 12:30 or so.  A brief shop and then down to the house.  Jerome is suitably impressed.

At 2:30, we meet Dave, our estate agent from last year, and we go and see a derelict barn in a village about 25 kms from our house.  It is perfect for what Jerome has in mind - three big fields for yurts, a small pigeonier for them to convert first and the huge barn to work on for years.  A snip at £32k.

The rather stunning two floors

Some of the land attached

From the bottom of the attached field

Back at the house around 5:30 and time to unpack about half the van.  Then off to St Jean for dinner at Le Cabanon - one of my favourites

Saturday

Grant is round at 8:30 to meet the builders who are going to be working on the roof today.  While I discuss the current state of the project, Jerome is able to put together the first two sofas on his own.  Grant helps us to move in the wardrobes and the place is already looking better.

Then Jerome and I have a trip to Emmaeus where I find another chest of drawers and a cot, plus the usual box of bits and pieces costing no more than E3 each.  During the afternoon, we are able to set up the lounge much more how it will be.  I am very happy with this.

Laer on we visit the brocante in St Jean, where I buy some linen sheets to protect the new furniture and Jerome tries to interest his mum in helping him buy the barn.  Next door to the brocante, we buy 3 litres of red wine for E4 from the local cave.  Dinner is at Le Scorlion, where the dessert is exceptional.

Sunday

Its rains all day today without respite so we stay in and work on the house.  I have set up a couple of the rooms ready for Wife's visit in two weeks time, and have conducted more paint tests which have allowed me to finally make my choice for the treatment of the doors.  Meanwhile Jerome started on the final bedroom and we were able to remove all the wallpaper and fill all the holes ready for painting in March.

Dinner tonight was a Jerome special - a mixed fruit de mer with rice and a salad.  We also drank about 2 litres of wine and watched two episodes of The Wire from a few years ago.

Monday

Grant is round again this morning to try and work out the problem we have had with the new shower.  This turns out to be a trapped pipe and is soon sorted out. 

Jerome and I visited Saintes and bought some very cheap sun loungers from Mr Bricolage, plus some bits and bobs from a brocante.  Then it is back to the house for a last tidy up and sort out. 

On the way back to Caen, we call in the Ikea at Tour, the first time I have ever shopped in an Ikea.  I buy lots of cheap coat hangers, a couple of cushions and see a great sink unit that would be perfect for the kitchen in Les Petits Chats.  Dinner is at McDonalds in Caen.

Overall, a really excellent few days - so much done, so much to do

Our friend Ellie is buying in France!

Out of the blue, an email from our friend Ellie with lots of major news.  She and her husband have seperated, she is living in Malvern with a friend, and is buying a gite complex in Brittany, not far from where Wife and I stay.  When I email her back straight away with our equivalent news, she is extremely surprised! 

Later we have a chat on the phone and the various details emerge.  Hopefully she will have moved by April and maybe we can call in and see her on the way to our place in late May.  So we are both trying to learn French at the moment - though my recent progress has rather come to a halt - so much for new years resolutions to do 20 minutes a day.

I am just finishing the prep for my latest French trip.  IKEA are supposed to be delivering furniture any day now and I am travelling to France with Jerome and a van to move the furniture we have accumulated here.  Once this trip is done, things will have taken a huge leap forward to us being ready with everything by Easter.

I have been mainly thinking about masonry projects for the house e.g. the terrace for Les Petits Chats that I hope to build this autumn.  At the moment, I hope to do that work myself and am studying a huge book on the subject

I wonder if the bathroom will be finished by when we get down?

Django Unchained - rare for us to see a current film

An extremely rare event, we have been to see a current movie; Tarantino's Django Unchained - maybe the last new-release movie we saw was Inglorious Basterds?

I have read a number of very detailed articles on this film - especially a long interview with James Fox.  But the various charges made for and against the movie are beyond my area of expertise.  I thought virtually all the male leads were superb in it.  Indeed the only really poor performance was Tarantino's cameo.

I was also very impressed by the maid - not perhaps as brilliant as Jennifer Aniston's french maid from a movie of a few years back, but not bad  

Belated review of 2012

I guess the event that will dominate our thoughts about 2012 may well be the illness that is affecting Wife's brother.  This is at an advance stage already and though the treatment he is having has partially reversed its course, the long term view (perhaps two years out) is nothing but bad.  Of course I have a lot of experience of cancer from my family, but whatever lessons I may feel I learnt from these experiences have to be re-learnt by anyone who approaches it new.

The second most important thing is probably Daughter's decision to quit working in Management Consultancy, take a year off to travel and then return to University to do a PhD.  As I write this, she has been accepted at Cambridge, but is waiting on Oxford's decision.  And then she will need financing for the 3-4 years.

Next comes the purchase of our house in France -  a potentially transformative project pointing the way forward to our long term future perhaps.

Then there is the capture of my huge Thames barbel - I still can't believe I actually caught a barbel-chub brace weighing 21lbs that day.  I don't suppose I will ever get tired of looking at this picture.  I haven't been fishing since July when I hurt my leg (after which the rivers have been in flood for months)

Another highlight was the video channels that I set up on youtube - the fishing one has had about 2,000 views even though I caught virtually no fish.  My favourite is episode 10, "Rain", one of the most realistic fishing videos ever made in my view.  I was also "trolled" by someone who considers me one of the worst fisherman to ever put a video on youtube.

Musically, I have continued my move into the outer reaches of modern music, mainly off the back of what I read in The Wire, or download off emusic.com.  Lots of electronically enhanced cello music this year.  Best live gig was probably Acid Mothers Temple in Oxford, but then I didn't really see many shows.  The surprise was seeing Dead Can Dance again, though I wasn't as impressed by this show as I have been in the past.

I was definitely feeling my age in 2012.  The viral infection that badly affected my knee in the summer was a first indication of what old age might feel like.  Then the really bad flu that took 6 weeks to shift around Christmas. 

For 2013

I hope the refurbishment of the French property goes well and that we get a satisfactory number of bookings to make it all worthwhile (or at least cover the annual costs)

Hopefully the trading will have a good year

and the combination of the above will encourage Wife to cut down her work

That Daughter will get the place and the financing that she wants

And that Wife's brother will have an OK year?

Four more days in France

Down to France for a few days decorating.  This trip was supposed to tie in with the IKEA furniture delivery but that didn't happen.  Various excuses made - including the unusual one for France that the delivery van got stuck in snow near Niort.

My main task is the repaint of most of the downstairs away from the splodgy orange and yellow that the walls are painted now, to a single cream colour.  This takes the first two days of the trip, but is a very worthwhile change - very pleased with it in fact.

Before the repaint - just arrived and using the log fire to warm the house up

And after - a rather nice cream paint by Farrow and Ball

This will be the indoor dining area eventually

Another major task was putting together some of the bathroom units ready for installation in a couple of weeks time - better I do this than pay the plumber to do it.  This kit is the white pieces of wood on the photo above.

Then there is one of the longer term projects to consider - the creation of a beautiful terrace outside the kitchen of Petits Chats.  The whole concrete area will have to come out and then a series of nice steps built.  Finally, a terrace probably of stone trimming gravel will be built under the tree and backing onto the wall.  This could well be stunning when it is done - but at the moment, it is planned for later October this year.

And in trips to various brocantes (including three near Saintes) I was able to pick up some nice bits of furniture.

Actually the chest of drawers below is rather woodworm eaten and had to be treated and about 300 holes filed.  It was then painted in Annie Sloan old white and will be finished off on a later trip.  It will go into the blue room that I decorated on my last visit.

The cupboard below is a real fixer-upper.  It only cost E20, needs the shelves re-doing inside and some repairs to the top.  The door doesn't fit properly, and there is no door catch.  But other than that it's fine.  This might go in the kitchen of Petit Chats or the bathroom - not sure yet

Finally, a rather nice cupboard that I found at Emmaus for E15.  I have repainted the sides in duck egg blue and the top in the same cream as the walls downstairs, keeping the flower motive that was already on it.  It may go in the upstairs bathroom where I have been trying out various ideas to tone down the current modern look of the room.

Just one meal out this trip - a rather nice meal at Le Cabanon of fish soup, then veal kidneys flamed in cognac and a chocolate mousse. 

And no trips out anywhere new - too busy working on the house.

Still, it has to be said, one of the nicest weeks I have had for ages (or at least since I was down here in November)

Daughter's next travelling

After what seems like such a short time home, Daughter is off on the next leg of her travels - three months or so in the far east.

She starts with a tour round Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.  Then she has a few weeks at one of the beach resorts (this is the main bit when she is fending for herself on this trip), then finally travels to Chang Mai for a four week yoga-teacher-training course.

As always, she confidently strides away at the airport leaving her dad hoping she keeps safe and doesn't get arrested!

In the meantime, I am off to France for a few days