Visitation – Lundi de Pentecôte

Did quite a bit of work on the fireplace, pictures when it's finished.

Caroline spent most of the day doing the accounts and paperwork. Paperwork is hard work at the best of times, let alone in French. I helped by taking Elizabeth and Hugh to see a Radio Controlled Model Car racing championship and the Railway Museum in Dinan. The car event seemed to be cancelled (I think it was 1/8 scale) due to the weather. Typical, we have had glorious weather for weeks then you stage an outdoor event and it rains all day. All was not lost, we still had the Musée de Rail in Dinan to visit. Lots of railway memorabilia, some lovely static models and several fairly large model train layouts. I quite liked the Dali SNCF posters, but the children preferred the models wizzing round the tracks. It took about one hour to visit.

Added a section to “NewGite” with a portion of the architects drawings of the new gite.

Normal service has been resumed.
Schumi storms to home win. World champion Michael Schumacher cruises to victory at the European Grand Prix. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]

Saint Aymar

Another three families arriving today in our gites. Two of the families we know from last year and we got on very well with them. All the children were about the same age as ours so they all played together really well.

This weeks guests left quite early this morning which meant we had time to attend the May 29th Memorial service in Les Champs Geraux. On May 29th 1943 a B17 bomber crashed on the outskirts of Les Champs Geraux with the loss of 11 American crewmen. Exactly one year ago the village held a service to dedicate a new memorial for the 60th anniversary of those lost that day. In attendance we had the American Ambassador to France, the local Mayor and various other dignitaries, along with three American families who had relatives or close connections with the crewmen.

The site http://www.b17-29mai.com/ explains in more detail the events of that day and each of the crew members. There are also photos of the event one year ago.

The three American families all stayed in our gites over the weekend and one of them was Ray Kaskey. His father was one of the crew and he is a famous American sculptor. During his stay he said he was working on a series of Bar Reliefs for the National WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. One of those reliefs depicted a B17 bomber and crew. Consequently he had a copy made and shipped to France and that now hangs in the town hall for the village.
Quite a number of people remarked on the similarity of the B17 Captain's surname, Hecox, to our own, Haycox.

According to the website http://www.wwiimemorial.com/ the National WWII Memorial, Washington, DC will dedicated today May 29th 2004 one year on from the Les Champs Geraux memorial and 61 years after the loss of the B17 and crew. Another spooky coincidence.

Saint Germain

Nice weather again so a bit of strimming and weed and pest control to get the garden looking nice for the Summer. There was half-a-dozen mole hills in the croquet lawn this morning, so that has taken top priority.

I found out today from one of our guests where the Internet Cafe is in Dinan. It's a proper shop rather than the travelling WiFi commune thingy I mentioned yesterday. It's a little more expensive, 6€ per hour rather than 3€, but he said it was quiet and easy.

Finished tidying the hard standing area. It was really a by-product of my rock grading exercise for the fireplace. No more progress on the fireplace but now there is a pile of rocks in the lounge waiting for me to mix up some mortar. BTW using the door as a 'prop' from the wall didn't work out, as you can see, so I'll just stack 'em one row at a time.

Added a picture from the newspaper here, Ouest France 20th May 2004, regarding the school trip to Jersey last week. I've been a bit slow scanning the article cos I've got an old HP ScanJet 4s and I could only get drivers and software for Window 3.1 or 95. I ended up taking a digital photo on macro mode.

Saint Augustin de C.

Caroline was one of the parent helpers for another school trip today. Elizabeth's class and two others (63 children) all went to Rennes for the day. The primary reason was ice skating, but they also travelled on the Metro (underground, subway) and some buses and saw various sights around Rennes, including a cow poster exhibition. Caroline was very impressed with the Metro, which was only built a year ago, but then she had the London Underground to compare it against. Amusingly they got overtaken by a bus load of kids from Hugh's school on their way to a museum in Rennes. French school kids go on loads of excursions, which is fantastic for their education.

I've been catching up at home after spending a couple of days helping someone else. Spent two hours mowing, and most of the rest of the day laying stones for the new fireplace, after buying cement, doing the recycling run, checking out the local Internet Cafe in Evran, buying more petrol for the mower, and eating. There is a Cyber Commune around Evran with the Internet Cafe moving each evening to all the local villages, Saint Juvat, Saint Judoce, Tréfumel, Le Quiou, Les Champs Géraux and back to Evran. Quite a handy system, bit like the old fish and chip van we got in our village back in England.

I'm trying to build my stone wall using sand and cement mortar but not using any towards the front of the stones. Once it's dry I'll point it with traditional lime and sand mortar to match the rest of the house. The trouble with lime & sand is it goes off very very slowly, hence the cement. I watched a stone mason renovate an old house using stone and he made a temporary outer skin of plywood, placed the face of the stones against the plywood then back filled with mortar. I'm trying the same technique but with an old door. All will be revealed tomorrow.

Saint Bérenger

Another day helping out a friend with some electrics. I fitted the last few lights and had to wire in a new circuit in the kitchen cos all the lighting wires and switches left by the previous owner were dead. A helping hand with some sink plumbing and to move a radiator in the middle of the kitchen (don't ask). At least the kitchen is operational and they can now see in the dark. It gives them a little breathing space to find a local tradesman. It's always difficult in a foreign country especially if you don't speak the language very well. I remember the massive list of jobs that needed doing to our place, but I'm very handy so I did most of it myself except we hired an electrician to safety check all the gites.

Saint Sophie

An emergency electrical job at a friend of a friends today. They recently brought and moved into a very nice house in Dinan, but the previous owners took everything, all the light fittings, even the kitchen sink. With just wires hanging out the walls ansd ceilings it wasn't very homely. The owners had tried to get tradesmen in but they are so busy and again the language barrier was a problem. So here comes the calvery, tools in hand, spending the day in Dinan wiring in lights general DIY work.

Didn't get anything done on the fireplace.

Saint Donatien

Stone grading today for the fireplace. I've been searching out appropriate rocks and pressure washing them in preparation for renovating the fireplace. Currently I've got most of them layed out on the floor in the rough pattern they will end up on the wall.

Lugging rocks about in the heat is hard work so I had a little siesta in the hammock for an hour or so in the orchard. I deserve it, and one of the joys of working for yourself.

Rennes 4, Montpellier 0 – 22,000 crowd, 10€ ticket, premier league team, better value than MUFC, peut-être.

Saint Didier

This week we have three different nationalities staying in the gites, one Irish, one Austrailan and one Belgium. Quite a mixture.

Now it's warmer I have removed our wood burning stove which was only plumbed in temporarily. Last Autumn we had a French stonemason come to partly renovate the chimney in our main room downstairs. He replaced the granite mantlepiece and restored the structure of the chimney. It was a heft job cos that piece of granite is 2.2m long and 1.7m off the ground. Because of time and money constraints, I am going to face the back of the fireplace with stone and lime mortar to match the surround and build a hearth for the wood burner.

Hopefully it should look something like this once I've finished, but with a woodburner instead of ornaments.

Tonight Caroline has gone with Yves and Celine to her first football match to watch Rennes vs Montpellier. The last game of the season apparently. I prefer Formula One,

Trulli grabs maiden triumph. Michael Schumacher's winning run ends as Jarno Trulli claims victory at the Monaco GP. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]

exciting race but a shame MS stuffed it in the tunnel. I'm an MS fan, but I reckon he made a mistake and Montoya just got caught up in it. I was really looking forward to the rest of the race after the first pit stops as Schumacher put in some stunning driving to be in with a good chance of winning.

Saint Émile

Trulli grabs maiden pole. Jarno Trulli edges out Jenson Button in Monaco qualifying to take his first F1 pole position. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]
I had every confidence (and a little luck) should see a sixth victory for MS.

Today and tomorrow is the «Un siècle de vapeur» on the Rance canal between Evran and Dinan. We went today and saw two old steam pleasure boats flying British ensigns at the lock in Evran. I overheard that they had come from Lake Windermere in the Lake District, UK. How they got here I've no idea. The exhibition hall was full of steam models of various sizes, some of which were radio controlled. Outside there were some stationary steam engines running machines to make 'sabot' and cut very large planks of wood and a pool for the model boats. Hugh liked the traction engine because it whistled. Every weekend there is something on in the area during the summer. Next week the beer festival at Lehon caught my eye

Below is the clog cutting machine driven by a stationary steam engine. The dark wood (hardwood) in the foreground is a blank clog shaped pattern that rotates with a follower rubbing on the clog. The follower moves the cutter to make a copy from the block of wood (light coloured in the background) behind. The men to the left then use a similar technique with 'clog moulds' to moves cutters to make the hole for the foot. Quite a production line.

The English? steam boats