Renovating a Gite in Brittany

A Russian and Finnish couple that Caroline knows via her French lessons, run a business building Finnish Wooden Houses in France. As you'd expect they have lots and lots of wood offcuts, so we made a trip in the van today to one of the building sites and got a huge load of free firewood. They were pleased to be rid of the 'rubbish' and we will be pleased for the extra winter warmth next year.

Finished laying the block pavers for the patio of one of the gites today. I made the mistake of trying to brush damp ordinary building sand into the joints between the pavers, contrary to the instructions. After sweeping and sweeping for ages, even after it dried out, I still can't get enough into the cracks. Time to buy some fine sand.

Due to popular demand (well one request) pictures of me with beard and without beard.

Sadly, I'm now paying attention to the hours and hours of terrible shaving product advertising on TV. For the last 20 years I've just tuned it all out.

Everybody kisses everybody here, all the time. As a chap you generally kiss women 4 times on the cheeks, and children of both sexes just the once on the cheek. Men shake hands. Children kiss each other once. You always say Bonjour before anything else. You even say bonjour when entering a shop. It takes a bit of getting used to as a reserved Englishman, but it's a nice ritual that we've all got thehang off.

Last night we all went to a party for Eric's birthday, one of Caroline's friends. Everyone there was French except Caroline and I (our two kids are more French than English these days). We had a great time, ate late, got home late, the usual very extended meal.

As a present we bought Eric a bottle of scotch whisky which was duely presented. He was thrilled. Before moving to France I'd heard that men kissed as well, but I've only ever seen it happen once in a cafe. Now I've seen it close up – very close up. He was so pleased I got four kisses on the cheeks. It was a bit of a shock. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I shaved off my beardof 20 years this week ? I think I better grow it back fast.

Found this article whilst browsing.

Could owning a gîte be your passport to France?

Many British people coming to France do so in search of gites or property suitable for B&B accommodation.
Read More…

I'm shattered. The last few weeks have taken their toll. In order to be ready for our Easter guests Caroline and I been working really hard to get everything spick and span. The outside of the two new gites looks very respectable now that all the rubble has been moved the patios edged and the courtyard has been refreshed with gravel. All the tables and chairs are out on the patios, lawns mowed, play equipment out of winter storage, everything back to normal. Even the moles are back!

My entries have been a bit mechanical and factual recently; it's difficult to be funny when your tired, so I'm going on a go-slow next week to recharge the batteries. The clocks go forward this weekend – even less sleep – giving us lighter evenings, so a few glasses of wine sat outside in the evening sun may lift the spirits (pun intended).

It's felt like Groundhog Day so far this week. Everything we did last week in the gite on the right we have repeated in the gite on the left. On Monday we prepared for the chape, on Tuesday we laid the chape and today did the patio edging for the other gite.

The only difference is that this week it was much much harder and I've ended up with a huge blister/cement burn on one knee after spending hours and hours crawling about in damp sand and cement. This week the chape seemed a little more moist – and so heavier – and I ordered just over 0.5m³ too much which meant barrowing too much into the gite in the first place then having to move nearly a tonne of surplus chape around before finally throwing it all back out the door.

It's quite tricky getting the amount just right. Last week we were about 4 wheelbarrow loads short so I think I over compensated not wanting to be short again. A half-centimeter difference in thickness over the area we were covering makes a difference of about 0.25 m³, or 5 big wheelbarrow loads.

The patio for the gite on the left is a little bigger and had a deceptively back breaking slope of old farmyard compacted yard. I spent most of the afternoon with a pickaxe breaking up the ground to get a level for my friend Ian to lay the granite sets for the patio edging. Note to self, next time hire a mini-digger.

I might be a little previous here, but this is what we came to France for, warm cloudless days in the beautiful Brittany countryside. The weather has been warming slowly over the last week and now it's seems to have skipped Spring and headed straight for Summer, it hit a high of 27C in the shade today. The garden has gone through the most notable changes, with the daffodils and hycacinths blooming, the trees budding and the grass growing.

To celebrate we all went to the beach this morning to stretch our legs, play football and build sand castles. Blow the winter cobwebs and gloom away. The kids wanted to go in the sea but I think it's going to be a while before the sea temperature catches up.

Spirits are up, guests arriving later this week and the gite season is off and running.

The last few days have seen superb weather here, up in the high teens. After the last month of cold it's a real welcome change. Spring starts officially in a couple of days or so (20th), I'm hoping it's here to stay.

Caroline has been busy gardening and catching up rolling and mowing the lawns. Our local friendly farmer, Yves, came and cut the grass in play field. Sadly we had left it too late and the grass was too long for the mower to cope with. His tractor did the job in just a couple of minutes. I wish we could afford a mini tractor and attachments, it would save so much time.

Got another 15 tonnes of gravel arriving tomorrow morning to 'repair' the courtyard after the streams of building lorries etc. I spent most of the afternoon skiming the top layer of muck and rubble left by the building work etc. It was so warm I even took my shirt off. Not advisable in April, as I found out last year, but hey, lets live a little dangerously for once!

As if we hadn't abused our bodies enough yesterday, Ian and I decided to lay the granite edging stones ready for a patio. With the chape finished in the gite and the electricity trench dug and filled it meant we could sort out the front of one gite. No more lorries to churn everything up.

We slightly under estimated the amount of work involved and by the end of the day after mixing the umpteenth load of concrete we hit the pub toute suite. Beer always tastes fantastic immediately after a hard days labour. Don't get changed, just go to the nearest bar and order two cold beers. Reminds me of the closing scene in Ice-Cold in Alex although we've got a few more mountains to climb.