Chateau Marqueysaac

Gite

So you remember that we were all ready to put the roof on but we were told that we had to put in windows and rebuild the gable wall first. So we took down part of the wall:

And then the rest fell down….oh my goodness..our macon was standing on the wall when it fell down…into the swimming pool (quite a drop!) Thankfully, the macon was ok! Well that was one way to take it down.
So the macons put in the stone for one window

and then we knocked down the rest of the wall:

Just in time for it to thunderstorm:

Slowly but surely, the second window was inserted, (Wally salutes the goodworkmanship):

And the wall is completed:

It’s funny how whenever you put something back together, there is always bits left over!

The last weekend in September, enthusiastic to get back to the roof, Dan and a friendly roofer from the neighbouring village set about doing the carpentry. First the ridge and the chevrons:

Then the perlins:

And then you’ll have to wait for October for the next bit!

In the meantime, Polly returned (click here for visitors). After a quick wizz around Chateaux Montbazillac followed by a little wine tasting, a hike up Rocamadour and a flying visit to Sarlat, Polly was keen to get stuck in. I thought it was best that she helped with one of my jobs rather than help Dan, so Polly assisted with the removal of sand and mortar from the stonework (the first part of the repointing process) – well when I say “assisted”, what I really mean is that Polly did it – I got a bit bored, so entertained Polly and Dan with my witty stories….infact Dan said that he thought it best if he sent me back to DLA and Polly should stay here as she is such a good worker – obviously he was deluded!

Polly’s blistered hands:

did not deter her from a bit of hard work – next day, she was off in the garden – cutting things down, clearing and burning the debris. She even managed to get Dan to get his chainsaw out. Obviously we are very keen for Polly to visit often – in fact, we are trying to book her in for November. I think she sets a very good example to our future visitors!

Swimming pool

Crack open the champagne, we received planning at last but the Architect de Batiment de France said we can only have a sand coloured liner and a dark green cover – I am not happy – why does he care – the people up the road have got a white liner and blue cover, what is the big deal? Well next March when we put the liner in and open the pool for the spring and summer, we may have forgotten what the planning says!

Anyway, bit of progress, Dan put all the filtration pipes in:

And as usual when Mum and Wally arrive (click here for visitors), so do the diggers – to backfill the swimming pool:

From this:

Unfortunately we had to spade a load of the soil as there was not enough room for the digger:

Stop chatting Dan, I’m doing all the hard work:

(and some people have been asking what my role is in all this…Jasper!)

ah, just in time. I was saved by some more of this month’s visitors (click here for visitors page)…Mr. and Mrs Woodeson and what a fab surprise, Bill and Anne rocked up minutes later..we were very excited to see all of them:

finally done:

Tourist Attractions

Just to share a few more of the attractions of the area with you all, I thought I’d show you some photos of Le Forêt de Singe (the monkey forest) in Rocamadour:

We also visited Castlenaud, won't tell you too much as then you have the incentive to come and visit, but here is the view and the catapult at the castle:

Finally

We’ve worked out the local currency - with Tomato world producing mountains of tomatoes and Mr. Villards giving us some of his, we couldn’t eat them all so I made soups and chutneys and gave a few pots away. In return, we were given peaches and Polly and I picked the last of the strawberries from the local farm, so I made confiture de fraises and confiture de peche – not bad for a first go! I then gave some more jam and chutney away, and a couple of days later, we were given eggs, figs, walnuts – its great! All this homemade stuff should be good for the opening of the gite and B&B too. Ah country life… can you imagine if I went round to my neighbours in Fulham and offered them some of my jam or chutney – they’d think I was trying to poison them! Actually come to think of it, may be my fellow villagers think that too and I ‘m in blissful ignorance!