Spring has arrived

It is hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago our village and surrounding countryside were covered in 6 inches of snow. As I write today, the sun is peeking out through the white clouds and it is markedly warmer. With the clocks going forward tomorrow night, it will stay light until almost 8.30 here.

We have made progress this week despite having a flat tyre on our left-hand drive Renault. My husband - Mr. Fix It you will remember -quickly put the spare on and we drove it to a local tyre garage where the most charming man spent a good half hour locating the puncture. He whistled as he worked and again we remarked on how friendly people are in this lovely part of France. We will re-register our Renault with French number plates very soon. French bureaucracy notwithstanding, this is something both my husband and I are keen to do: another step in integrating well in our new life in France. For more information on how to go about registering a car as well as how best to integrate and more, please take a look at my France Buying Guide here: www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm

There is so much to do in this beautiful house that one is almost spoilt for choice each day for what to do next! Currently my husband is working on making our future bedroom habitable: he has already fixed the “chauffe eau” (water heater) in the ensuite and will be going back yet again to the plumbers’ merchants this afternoon to buy enough pipe to run the plumbing and electrics up there. We await a couple of quotes for knocking the supporting wall down between the existing kitchen and next room and inserting a steel. I am so looking forward to actually seeing the space we have there and then planning our kitchen. But it is workable in its present state and I have managed to make several decent meals for us in my mini oven and stock pot!

Having a practically minded husband is something to be grateful for but sometimes he doesn’t know when to stop! Hence I took him off to Carcassonne last Sunday with the dogs. This really is quite the most stunning ancient city and is the second most visited site in the whole of France: one can easily see why. Eddie & Alfie, blissfully unaware of the history, loved meandering around the cobbled streets and we had supper in a restaurant with them by our side.

Having 2 cute dogs is definitely one way to ease the integration process: Eddie & Alfie are hugely admired wherever they go. We often take them, without leads, for a wander around the village last thing at night when all is quiet. I met a lovely girl doing just the same thing with her Alsatian the other day and we now meet up quite regularly.

We have been here almost a month now and cannot imagine wanting to go back to the UK. Aside from the enriching lifestyle here, I realise it is also the feeling of space one has here that makes us happy: France is not overcrowded and one feels far less stressed. We are just at the start of our journey, it is true, but we are determined to carry out our house renovation gradually and temper the work with visits here and there. “This is not an assault course” said my husband. It is so rewarding to see the house slowly taking shape though; we are just thrilled that we finally did it.

Cracking on in France

Spring officially starts tomorrow, according to Jean-Pierre in our local tabac. Little remains of the pretty snow which fell last week, save on the Pyrenees which we can see in the distance, also now bathed in sunlight. We have had a week of hard graft, knocking down walls to create larger rooms and making our main bathroom temporarily functional. My husband and stepson Jack took great pleasure in demolishing the grim WC and shower just off our existing kitchen. It already looks so much better! Next job: putting in a steel in order to knock down the wall between it and the next room. This will create a lovely spacious kitchen and dining area.

Hard at times though it is to be covered in brick dust, the reward of knowing we are creating a beautiful home keeps us motivated and excited. Now we have warmer temperatures and stunning blue skies, we all seem to have renewed energy, including Eddie & Alfie who bound about along the canal and in the woods.

I decided to drag my husband away from the plumbing and electrics yesterday and, dogs in tow, we headed up to the 13th century fortified city of Minerve for a well-deserved day off. This is simply stunning: a higgledy piggledy collection of small cobbled streets surrounded by a deep gorge and grottos hiding in the rocks. We stumbled upon a little restaurant looking over the river, seemingly carved out of the hillside, and had a leisurely lunch in the sunshine. “This is what it is all about really,” said my husband. He is right: life is to be enjoyed here, the pace is slower, the people less stressed. If you are pondering areas in France, I would recommend the Languedoc Roussillon, it has so much going for it: a great climate, proximity to mountains and the ocean and Spain is just down the road. You can read more about this and other areas in my comprehensive France Buying Guide:

www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm

Fortified by a day of relaxation, my husband is turning his attention to what will be our bedroom, looking out on to a balcony with 3 full length windows taking in the morning sunshine. He has already planned a little dressing area and an ensuite for us. As for me, I turn my attention to future colours, lighting and furnishings. I am lucky to have a great friend, Nadya Sawney, who has transformed many houses into warm homes with her wonderful eye for interior design. She has kindly agreed to come down here in the summer to help us. You can take a look at her work here:

http://www.decordivainteriors.com/

This is in truth a massive project. Some friends visited us for lunch this week and said they thought we were brave to take it on. It will take a while to finish but the key to success and happiness, as with many things in life, is to enjoy the journey as well as looking forward to the end result. I can tell you it feels so good to know we are here for several months and it is up to us how we pace ourselves, no-one else. Renovating a house like this requires energy, an ability to “rough it” and a vision. I think both my husband and I have all of these in equal measure. If we have ever had a moment’s doubt about the enormity of the job, we simply have to take a look at any one of the 7 marble fireplaces, the back lit huge stained glass hall window or indeed our village itself, almost the colour of peach in the evening sun, and we know we have done the right thing.

Snow and Sun in the South of France

Just a few days ago the 4 of us sat in the sun in our garden on a well earned break from working on this huge house. “It feels as though Spring is around the corner,” said my husband. He then muttered something about getting on with renovating our first bathroom in anticipation of being free to enjoy barbeques and glasses of wine on the terrace.

The next day we awoke to thick snow: our village was a picture postcard!

We have made great friends with Maurice who runs our local “epicerie”, literally a stone’s throw away. He says he has never seen so much snow here. Reassured however by Maurice’s conviction that soon after Easter the temperature will start to rise, we felt happy to continue work on the house on the basis that any exercise will keep one warm.

Meanwhile Eddie & Alfie are having a ball. They are rapidly becoming bilingual, something which impressed Jean-Pierre in our local Tabac. How great it is to be able to walk out of our house with the dogs, down a little lane and into the Tabac, dogs and all. Jean-Pierre and his wife welcome them with open arms and have told us about a wonderful vet in the next door village.

This is what I find so joyous about living in rural France: we have only encountered friendly faces and, aided by Eddie & Alfie, have already met many neighbours. We truly have no wish to return to the UK, this has felt like home since the moment we walked through the door. Are you tempted to do the same as us? You could do worse than consulting my France Buying Guide for tips galore on how to plan your own French sojourn. www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm

And so the work has started and my husband and his son Jack knocked a wall down in what will be our main huge bathroom. Buoyed up by such progress, they are much looking forward to doing the same in the kitchen, knocking a wall down to make one huge room out of what is currently two but for that they will enlist the help of a builder as the wall is a supporting one and will need a steel insert.

I marvel at their knowledge of the intricacies of plumbing, something with which I, sadly, cannot help, aside from translating in plumbing and builders’ merchants. My husband, ever modest, says it is not so hard to learn. I call him “Mr. Fix it” and thank my lucky stars that I am married to such a practical man.

I love the high ceilings in this house, they give such a feeling of space and light and whilst they were pondering over the correct pipes for installing the shower, I was imagining shades of French blue and cream for the walls, perhaps matching towels and why not a large bowl of pot pourri on the windowsill? Jack’s lovely American girlfriend Blaine agreed and husband and stepson gave us both a sideways look…. At that I realised that now all 4 of us make a good team and between us we will make this house become something quite stunning.

We have arrived!

The log fire is in full glow and Eddie & Alfie are at my feet. The electricity and plumbing leaves a lot to be desired and to be perfectly honest, the wallpaper is hideous. But I don’t mind, we are here!

Our journey down was great. I must say, having 2 gorgeous puppies creates much interest and we were welcomed wherever we stopped. We had one night in a little Auberge roughly halfway down and Eddie & Alfie met their first French friend: a miniature poodle called “Plume”.

Language was not a barrier for them, they got on well and we were able to have them at our feet as we ate supper in the cosy dining room. I love this about France: dogs are normally welcome in restaurants and cafes.

So our dogs will not have a problem communicating but my husband is determined to upgrade his “restaurant French” as he calls it and I caught him yesterday leafing through my France Buying Guide. He loves the language tips he found there and is already familiar with several rather obscure construction words which frankly I don’t even understand in English.
www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm

As we neared Toulouse we saw the Pyrenees in the distance and Edith Piaf’s famous song “Je ne regrette rien” came on the radio. It seemed somehow very fitting, made us both smile.

It is a great feeling to actually BE here, knowing we own the house and that we can take time to carry out the improvements it needs whilst embracing our new French lifestyle. Wednesday is market day in our nearby small town of Lezignan Corbieres. The whole town becomes a market, it is the most wonderful atmosphere and I took great delight in buying fresh vegetables, fruit and flowers. Although our kitchen is basic at the moment, I decided to try my hand at the local special dish, “cassoulet”, a wonderfully rich stew of goose, duck, sausage, beans and breadcrumbs. I had some appreciative takers: my husband, my stepson Jack and his lovely American girlfriend Blaine. No Michelin star yet but I am getting there.

It is wonderful having this space: our house is on 3 floors and is over 3,500 sq.ft. The ceilings are high and I have not yet even counted how many marble fireplaces we have, there is one in most rooms.

As I write we await quotes from 2 French builders but my husband and stepson have already got down to some hard graft and Blaine and I find stripping the huge walls is quite therapeutic.
We have slept well this week, lulled by the silence and peaceful evenings we spend here. There is a great feeling of safety in rural France and the sense of community is something I feel many of us have lost in the UK.

“This is just beginning to sink in,” said my husband, “we don’t have to go back to the UK for several months.” With that he and I both breathed a huge sigh of relief.

There is a lot of work ahead of us but what an adventure. We have much to look forward to in the next few weeks and right now, sitting in front of the fire with the dogs, life really does seem wonderful.