Archive for May 2006
Gite finished
The gite is finished. Hurrah.
Everything has been cleaned up and my tools are safely back in the workshop. I've no plans to see them for a while. Curtain poles are up, and Caroline has been hanging curtains and pictures. The missing kitchen cupboard doors arrived from IKEA, which was a relief. Nearly all the furniture is in place with just a sofa suite left to put into the gite lounge.
Over the next few days we have got to take photos of the rooms and publish them on the website. The garden has been a bit of a distraction over the last few weeks, the grass growing like the clappers, weeding, hedge trimming etc. but fortunately we have got enough spare time to add the finishing touches to the gite and smarten up the garden.
The first guests for the new gite arrive on Saturday 27th May.
Update: Gite Photos
Gite kitchen finished
The kitchen is the new gite is finally finished.
Well finished apart from the two cupboard doors under the kitchen sink. They are in the post from IKEA because for some reason we got the wrong doors. Hopefully they should arrive before the first gite booking at the end of the month. All the white goods, cooker, dishwasher, fridge etc. are in and working. The tiling is finally finished and grouted. On the suspended ceiling you can see the smoke alarm and fire extinguisher on the wall. Apart from popping in the other 'essentials' like a toaster, kettle, microwave etc. the kitchen is complete.
With the kitchen finished it's really that last piece of major work in the gite. All thats really left is picture hanging, curtain poles a major clean up and shifting all my tools back to my workshop.
So next week we should be able to dress the gite ready to take some photos for the website. It's been a long slog but certainly been very satisfying to see the end of the project.
More low cost flights for Brittany.
More and more low-cost airlines are starting to service Brittany giving holidaymakers extra choice. Hopefully the additional airline routes might increase the competition for the cross-channel ferry routes and push prices down a little.
Aer Lingus has a new route between Rennes and Dublin.
Flybe is increasing the number of flights between Rennes and Southampton with a new service between Southampton and Angers
Aer Arann has announced routes from Lorient to Cardiff and Kerry in addition to existing routes to London, Galway, Cork and Waterford. Extra routes from Angers to Cork and Manchester are also planned.
RyanAir already services Dinard, Brest and Nantes.
Dinard and Rennes are about 30 minutes from our gites, whilst Brest, Nantes, Lorient and Angers are around 2 hours drive.
Gite furniture moving in.
At the end of last week the upstairs rooms in the gite were finished. They have been almost there for a couple of weeks, but still needed light fittings, heaters, stairgates, mirrors, shelving, etc. Now that all the final finishing touches have been completed Caroline has been busy sorting out curtains and putting in the furniture, beds, wardrobes etc.
The vast majority of the smaller stuff for the gite had already been bought but the larger items we left to later to avoid having to store loads furniture and move it all twice. The 'window' shopping and planning is the hard bit (well and paying for it) so it was just a matter of driving the van about and collecting the beds etc.
We are both really pleased with the result and the gite is really starting to take shape. A week or so left downstairs for the finishing touches and the gite should be finished. Where have I heard that phrase before.
