Progress in Gite 1
Floor
All was progressing well. Three quarters of the floor was laid. Midway through the last quarter, Bèrnard, the bettonnerie (cement mixer), imposed his French right to a 35 hour week. Having investigated matters further, we understand that the Union Générale des Travailleurs Bettonneries (The Working Cement Mixers Union) called for a “go-slow” by issuing instruction to slacken the drive belt in the moteur. Negotiations to increase production failed due to the inevitable extension of the working week and resulted in an all out strike and protest march through the streets of Gaumier – Bèrnard broke down! We have since heard that there were further marches in Paris, Toulouse and Bordeaux.
Thankfully, the floor did get finished whilst Bernard was on “go-slow”:
Oak Beams (les poutres en chêne)
It was super Saturday at Les Terrasses de Gaumier – not just the rugby grand slam but the day les poutres en chêne were installed. A couple of maçonneries came to help us. The holes in the stone walls were made and the beams slotted in. Doesn’t that sound easy. Well it was for me, I sat in the 34 degree heat, chatting to some of our French friends reading Ok and Heat magazines chatting about eurovision song contest (Jordan’s entry and more importantly, what was she wearing?) whilst in the background there appeared to be a lot of noise pollution in the form of moaning and groaning, swearing in French and English and some rather loud banging. That coupled with the intermittent sound of a chainsaw, frankly it was becoming rather hard to think straight, we were forced inside to watch one of the 3 rugby matches that were being played that day and crack open a bottle of wine.
In the meantime, during the morning, the maçonneries made the holes, we were very pleased that we had decided to get them on board as we would have just worried that the walls may fall down:
In the afternoon, Dan, 5 friends (all men obviously) and the 2 maçonneries were struggling to carry the 5 poutres en chêne, each measuring 22cm x 18cm, being 5.5 metres long and weighing approximately 400kg – pretty heavy. I couldn’t budge one using all my might – which actually is more than you think before you start laughing at my weediness! Luckily, Dan had made a trolley the day before:
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The trolley sped down the road, negotiating lumps and bumps, the poutre on the top, the 8 men hanging on for dear life, one or two falling by the wayside at various intervals until Crazy Maurice, a little out of breath, came to an abrupt halt outside gite 1. Clearly, it didn’t happen quite like that, but having reached the gite, the 8 of them struggled (hence the moaning and groaning) to lift the beams into the barn and into the holes made. All beams in place, Dan and the 2 maçonneries bolted the roof beams and the floor beams together:
Meanwhile the rest of us cracked open the beers and wine, tucked into nibbles
and an enjoyable evening was had by all, especially when Dan and the 2 maçonneries
finally joined us:
The following Monday, the maçonneries returned to fill in the holes:
Then Dan proceeded to chainsaw the old beams and remove them:
and the trolley trundled up to the wooden barn where they are now stored:
The Garden
You may recall the old love shack:
It’s gone – it took a few days but all gone now:
Ready to take a new construction – we’ll let you know what when we know!
Towards the end of the month, we got a nice chap to help me with the digging out of the terrasses as it was breaking my back and it is quite a boring job – he’s made a promising start but we hope to have further progress next month:
Fosse toutes d’eau (septic tank)
The soil testers came to check the drainage in the soil and to give us a million
pieces of paper detailing the law, guidelines and methods of installing the
fosse together with a load of v. complicated forms to fill in! – Se French
love se paper. Having filled in and submitted the paperwork, we have to wait
??? weeks/months for confirmation we can start to install the fosse –
good thing its not urgent, otherwise we may have a well manured garden!
Shopping
Easter eggs and bunnies – awesome! So much chocolate everywhere – complete and utter heaven! The eggs were enormous and so beautifully decorated. There were chocolate bunnies and hens of all shapes and sizes in every different chocolate – obviously I had to buy loads to take back to England for Easter!
Ebay – I am an addict. I don’t know what has come over me – but it is fantastic, or…..so I thought….. until the door handles I bought were not only a different colour than I thought (due to reflection of light in the camera lens) but they were also for a doll’s house! No wonder they were only 10 euros for 6! As you can imagine, Dan laughed very loudly at me so determined as ever, I tried again and successfully bought a chocolate making machine. Okay, so I don’t need it and will probably never use it but at least it was the right colour!
After that my Ebaying moved on to Grohe taps! I have realized now that it is very easy (in all the excitement of bidding and winning) to bid too much, nevermind better luck next time!!