Saint Constantin

Old houses and especially French houses seem to be lacking in electric sockets. For the last few months in our bedroom I've had my clock radio, usually tuned to Radio 5 MW or Radio 4 LW, plugged in via a long extension lead that trails around the bedroom. The last of the niggley finishing off jobs before I could start on my next major project was to put a new socket next to the bed for the radio. I went to the bricolage magasin to buy a new socket but came back with a new cordless drill as well. It's a monster 18V power machine, fantastic. I've already got a drill but it's seen so much action over the last 18 months it a bit tired and the batteries don't hold their charge very well. So I've now got the most expensive socket in the whole house next to my bed. Sleep tight.

The holiday season is really ramping up now. In the last few days we have had quite a few people call at our gites looking for Chambre d'Hôte. I've also noticed the number of cars that are not locals increase substantially. In France there are 96 départements (administrative regions) each with a name and number. We live in Côtes D'Armor (22) and our car number plate is suffixed with 22, so it's very easy to tell when someone is from out-of-town. It's particularly useful, for example, at a tricky road junction/intersection because you can give someone who is unfamiliar a bit of extra consideration. It reminds me of a time when we had a friend over to stay in the winter when nearly all cars have the suffix 22, or 35 (Ille-et-Vilaine is our neighbouring département) . We had to travel in convoy and as I was the lead car he remarked to his passenger in the following car 'I'll just follow the Peugeot with 22 on the license plate'.

Saint Bernardin – Ascension

Jour Férié, Bank holiday, today so the children have not been at school. I took them cycling and round the local lake and they had a play on the made-man beach. Whilst we were cycling round Hugh was in front and we came up behind these two old people walking on the path. Hugh hollers in his best French voice attention (look out!) and the couple leapt to the side then smiled sweetly as this grinning 4 year old comes past peddling furiously.

Left Caroline painting three internal doors in two of the gites. Whilst we were on a roll we decided to knuckle down and finish all the painting jobs on the list and give ourselves more time in the Autumn to work on our own house. We haven't done alot in our house at all as the gites and public areas always take priority, however this Autumn I hope to put a in a new kitchen to replace the current rather tired model.

In preparation for starting the new kitchen I thought I better finish some of those niggley little jobs in our house that never quite got completed, fit an architrave around one door, fit a plinth and add replace some silicon sealant in the bathroom, tack in a bit of beading under a wardrobe, screw in some hooks for the net curtains. Just very minor jobs that seem to take all day.

No mowing today, I thought I'd have a day off

Article from todays Ouest France. See if you can spot Caroline.

Saint Yves

Caroline got back late from her enjoyable trip to Jersey with the 36, 8-10 year old children. As the principal/only translator she was exhausted. The children really enjoyed themselves and really wanted to spend their Pounds instead of the Euro. Most of the boys bought whoopee cushions and the girls bought ornaments ! They were all desperate to practise their English and so were saying hello to everyone as they walked down the promenade. It's normal for French children to say bonjour to everyone, but I think the people on Jersey found it a little overwhelming.

Fitted the Garde de Corps I made yesterday with the woodworking machines I inherited from my Father. Adds a bit of extra security. The window in the picture was replaced in the winter because the old one did not open, so now it needs a safety barrier for small children.

Opps, Mistake with my entry from yesterday about Permis de Construire. Caroline read it with her better French and it actually said there was a delay from the normal limit of 2 months, to 3 months. Bad translation !

Lovely weather today, so we spent the afternoon with the kids at a beach between St. Malo and Cancale. Considering tomorrow is a bank holiday (Ascension), with the likelihood that most people with take a pont on Friday, it was very quiet. I think quite a few people might be going away for a long weekend.

In a past life, before escaping the UK to run gites, I was an I.T. Consultant. A colleague of mine who I spent many happy hours programming with, is in the process of writing a book about Spam, and more specifically the product Spam Assassin. I have been sent the chapters as they are completed as one of the reviewers of the book. It's been a pleasure to review and from what I have seen so far it is an excellent book. It's also nice to keep in touch with I.T. You can read more about The Spam Assassin Book here.

Saint Eric

We received a letter from the planning office about our Permis de Construire for the renovation of the barn into two gites. Judging from the translation it says that we will definitely receive a decision by the 23 July 2004, there is a statutory limit of 3 months for the process, and if we don't receive a decision by that date we get permission by default. Well at least that's what I think it says. Much better than the planning system in England, as that can drag on for years sometimes. It is excellent for a public body to make a commitment.

La Poste, the French post office, delivers only once a day round here and to a box at the end of the drive. I think it's very similar to the American system but we don't have a little flag. Everyone has their own little box, although in small communes you often see 4 or 6 boxes joined together, and the facteur (or facteurese?) has a master key which opens all the box fronts on one hinge. They also must have a master key for our solitary box because I'd found packages from Amazon inside that are bigger than the slot!

Caroline left at 06:45 this morning to spend the day in Jersey, part of the channel islands, with a couple of classes of children from our village school. She was the only parent that went with three other teachers. She was very honoured to be asked, even if it was mostly for her translation abilities (they speak mainly English in Jersey even though it is much closer geographically to France than England). We must be bien intégré (well integrated) into the French community, which is very pleasing.
She should be back about 21:00 local time, hot (it's 25°C again), exhausted and hungry.

Saint Pascal

Caroline planted up 10 trays of geraniums to go on the window sills of the house and gites. They grew to a reasonable size and the weather has really warmed up so we put them out about a week ago to harden off. A few days ago we noticed some of the plants had died or were doing very badly. Couldn't work it out (too high for slugs, soil OK, water, light, no sign of disease) until this morning. A Pied Wagtail was pecking out the little shots and killing the plants ! The larger plants are OK so I guess we will have to put them under cover for a few days.

The old spiral staircase has finally gone. I chopped it up with an angle grinder and took it to the déchetterie (recycling depot). It was a shame to dump it because a lot of time and effort had gone in to hand crafting and welding it specially. It was a one off. However, some people are put off by spiral staircases and they are difficult with suitcases, so we replaced with something a little less industrial and more 'cottage' like::

Saint Honoré

Started reading Sixty Million Frenchmen can't be Wrong last night. Part of the synopsis reads:

The French drink, smoke and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet they live longer and have fewer heart problems than the English and the Americans. They work 35-hour weeks and take seven weeks' paid holiday each year, yet they are the world's fourth-biggest economic power. So how do they do it?

I only read the introduction and the first chapter but it already answers a few questions about the French culture. I'm absolutely sure I'm going to learn alot from this book. Something which never occurred to me before moving over was the cultural differences. I appreciated that the language barrier would be hard, but the cultural barrier is even harder. There are years/centuries of habits, reasons and methods of doing things in France. We've got a lot to learn, but I'm hoping this book may provide a few pointers.

We had some guests arrive today, it little later than expected. They were due in the gite yesterday, but they got the dates and days a little muddled up. Ah well, the weather is better today The temperature hit a high of 25°C (77°F) today so was very pleasant indeed. The May trees are in full bloom and with the warmer evenings the crickets are back.

This morning we all went for a family bicycle ride along the disused railway line at Le Quoi (near to Evran). It's easy for the children because, like the canal, it's almost flat. By the time we got back the local bar next to the old railway station was doing a good trade with traditional accordion music floating out of the windows and doors. Very French.

Saint Denise

Finished reading Life of Pi, Yann Martel last night. I won't write a review (there are loads already) but surfice to say I really enjoyed the book.

Fairly straightforward change-over day. The guests left a loverly comment in the guest book saying it was the best holiday they had ever had ! Makes it all worthwhile.

Caroline has finished painting all the external windows and doors to two of the gites. They look much much better than before.

We had a roofer come round to provide a devis (quote) to replace the slate roof on the barn down in the field. Unfortunately it has been neglected and was completely covered in ivy and the roof was leaking in quite a few places. Last autumn I cut through the ivy at ground level to make it die off. The roof really needs doing otherwise there is going to be water damage to the walls and it could comprimise the structure of the building. It would be a shame to leave it to deteroriate, you see too many old barns falling down in the countryside.

Cleared out loads of general rubbish from the garage.

No mowing today. Hurrah.

Saint Matthias

Finished sanding 14 windows and doors, unfortunately Caroline is still painting. Two gites finished. The other gite we will have to leave until September because it's fully booked from now until then. During the summer I think we are going to tackle our house windows. I can really see the attraction of uPVC.

Outside of the summer season (when we haven't got guests' children staying) the chickens and the goose roam all over the grounds foraging for food. During the summer they are confined to their enclosure because some of the younger children are nervous of the animals. They love helping Caroline feed them each morning but we keep them out of the 'public' areas in the summer. Last year they munched through all the grass in the chicken pen, so this year I've added a bit of fencing to double the size. It's partitioned so we can move them between pens to allow the grass to recover in each idle pen.

Ate our first lettuce from the vegetable garden. I forgot to take a picture so I took a picture of the new chicken fence to wet your appetite instead.

Oh Yep, still mowing

Saint Rolande

Still sanding and painting windows and doors. Three more windows finished, just another 2 to go. Hopefully we should be finished by the end of the week if the weather holds out.

Last French lesson in Dinan today until October. Dinan is noticeably busier now the holiday season is getting into gear. Dinan doesn't close down like some town in the winter, but it definitely picks up in the summer. There are fetes and activities all the time in the surrounding areas. This year is the Fête des Remparts (24, 25 July 2004) in Dinan. Every two years they hold a medieval festival within the castle and on the walls of the town. Most of the townspeople dress up in costume and the jousting tournament is one of the highlights.

Did I mention mowing

Added the story What is a Gite ? for reference.

Saint Achille

It's Wednesday so Lizzie and Hugh don't go to school today. The weather for the last few days has been glorious so we decided to have a day out and go to the beach. After a couple of quick jobs round the house the four of us went to St Malo to have lunch then on to the beach at Rotheneuf. Just down the coast a few minutes from St Malo. A really nice relaxing day.

Of course it can't be all fun and no work, so Caroline put another coat of paint on the doors and windows whilst I have a quick run around with the mower. I made the mistake of putting the grass collectors on, and spent most of the time backways and forwards to the compost heap. The key is to cut a little and often then you don't have to collect the grass.

We had a phone message from ITV (the television company) saying they were making a TV series about peoples holidays and they are interested in a self-catering gite holiday. Very flattering, but I'm not too sure. I've seen some of these programs on TV and they usually only highlight the bad things for ratings. Need to call back for more details. If anyone else has experience of being involved in a TV reality show, press the comment button below (or mail me) and let me know.