Restez Calme Et Continuez

“Keep calm and carry on” – that well known phrase taken from a poster brought out at the start of World War Two to raise the morale of the British public just happens to be one of Mr. Fix It’s favourite phrases. Why, he even translated it into French for me and mounted it in a frame to look much like the original and it now graces our hallway, somewhat fittingly I feel, perched below St. Francois de Regis.

This week we have had cause to reflect on this phrase as the bulk of the structural work has got underway: the tower is gone, we now have 2 large openings on the ground floor where we are making doors instead of windows and upstairs we have opened up what we had thought was once a window but in fact was simply a façade. To achieve all this has in reality meant living amongst falling masonry, mountains of rubble, thick brick dust everywhere and constant noise.

To add to this, our local commune decided to pick this week to dig up the ground at the side of our house to replace leaking water pipes. There was one afternoon when I was sitting at my computer, wiping the screen as I wrote whilst listening to the diamond drill breaking through solid concrete above me, heavy machinery digging into the roads outside and Mr. Fix It cutting wood with one of his heavy duty English power tools upstairs. I had to laugh: I felt like a war correspondent carrying on regardless – there comes the phrase again: “Keep calm and carry on!”

We are overjoyed at the gradual result of this heavy work however. It is always joyous to see the light come in and this house is bathed in it from dawn till dusk, particularly now we have made doors on to the garden. The dust and mess will be easily cleared before too long and once the rubble is gone there will be little, if any more structural work.

I chat to a lovely lady each day who sits outside her house, just steps away from ours. She loves to watch our progress and said she is delighted to see so many English people in our region, why did I think they come here? I replied that the climate has a lot to do with it – and people like her have a lot to do with it: once you make an effort to integrate into the community, you are rewarded with smiles and friendliness. Mr. Fix It and I are always aware of this strong spirit amongst the people here: they just seem to have got it right! A smile and a cheery “bonjour” go a long way and kindness is rewarded with kindness.

Our visitors arrive this weekend and Mr. Fix It and I look forward to some outings in the hot sun: it is gloriously warm and still light until gone 10.30 pm each evening and he will no doubt relish getting out of these 2 ensuites (yes they are ALMOST finished!) to enjoy some richly deserved leisure time along the Canal du Midi, perhaps taking in some wine tasting in one of the numerous “caves” here, ambling around one of the many markets and contemplating life in the South of France outside in our garden.

We will have been married for one whole year next week and this, the happiest of years for us both, has flown by. Our good friends will be with us as we celebrate our anniversary, perhaps in one of the Michelin recommended restaurants close by. After that it will be back to work on the house, content in the knowledge that we have each other, a beautiful house in the South of France and a huge amount to look forward to in this most beautiful country.



Alexis

http://www.francebuyingguide.com/

Seeing The Light!

We are greeted each morning on the dot of 8 am with a firm handshake from our cheery builders. I make them a “petit café”, we discuss the French World Cup team’s lack of team spirit and with a “boff” and a shrug, they set to work outside, now rendering the wall which remains after the destruction of the tower and ancient balcony. Yes, the tower is down! Yes, we can see the light amid the rubble!

This was no mean feat: unbeknown to any of us, the tower contained 2 heavy iron water tanks and needed all 3 of the builders to extract. I watched in trepidation one day as one of them beat away at the edge of the tower with a heavy hammer, perched precariously on the scaffolding tower. They have made no fuss about this, have simply got on with the job and really seem pleased that WE are so pleased with the result. These builders have been deservedly recommended to us.

We have long imagined how our garden would look without the tower, how big the space will seem and now we have the reality at last: one has a real sense of width and space, the large trees at the left side forming a natural break from the hot sun. Eddie & Alfie seem like mountain goats as they explore the mound of rubble and occasionally dig, perhaps hoping to find the odd scrap of something delicious only to dogs.

The pigeons of course are confused: no balcony, no tower, no home. They have had to fly away to find another place to nest. That is, except for a few: on the first day one of the builders picked up 2 tiny baby pigeons, almost featherless so perhaps just a few days old. We found a box and made a makeshift nest for them with twigs and earth and put them on the sill outside our bedroom. Lo and behold, the mother came back and we have watched her all week, sitting on them, feeding them, nurturing them. They are still there, flexing their little wings ready for their first flying lesson and even Mr. Fix It checks them out each morning, won over by their helplessness and perhaps relieved that at least one pigeon family has withstood the demolition of the tower.

Our fuseboard is in and the new cabling for the 2 ensuites almost done. Now it is plastering and tiling and the builders are, as I write, opening up the 2 windows on the ground floor which will become doors on to the garden.

It is always a good idea, as I mention in my France Buying Guide www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm, to make the acquaintance of the maire. Our maire paid us a quick visit the other day, intrigued and hopefully pleased that we are restoring this grand house to its former glory. He and his wife are popular in this village, they are good people and one has a real feeling of purpose and pride in the community as one walks along the promenade.

“Is it my imagination,” asked Mr. Fix It the other day, “or does this village become prettier each day?” I knew instantly what he meant by that. Now that we feel we are a part of it and have the comfort of some routine here, it looks so beautiful. We feel both lucky and proud to be able to see through the brickdust and know that we have much to look forward to living here in the south of France.

Alexis

Demolition In Progress

“Ca va pour demain a 8 heures?” asked our builder when he popped in after work on Wednesday. “Ca va” we said, and do you know, he and his brother turned up at 7.45 on Thursday morning, armed with scaffolding towers, heavy breaking tools and huge smiles. Now, it is sometimes a dangerous thing to generalise but our experience of English builders has mostly been such that when they say, for example, 8 o’clock, we think they mean 10 o’clock, and when they say tomorrow, they mean next week….

As I write to you this morning, the balcony is almost down and they are now tackling the huge steels which held it in place. Next job: the tower! We are impressed with their attitude: they get on with the job, stopping only – as the French do – for lunch and a morning and evening “petit café”. We can already see the difference in terms of light and space in our garden and although the dust and rubble abound, it is truly exciting to see the exterior of this beautiful property take shape.

Eddie & Alfie – now almost fluent in French of course – nose about amongst the rubble, not bothered in the least by the mess. The pigeons however are having to find a new home and we notice them flying across to the top of our Church, no doubt aware that God loves all animals and will doubtless allow them in. We noticed a cat peering out of one of the small windows of the tower this morning, perhaps hoping to profit from the pigeons’ moving home day in some way. Several neighbours look up as they pass by on their way to the boulangerie for their morning croissant, interested to see the works in progress. So we really have set the cat amongst the pigeons. You know, I just couldn’t resist getting that in...

I cannot emphasise enough the benefits of local recommendation. Our builders came to us after a chat I had with our local epicier and we have now found a charming and capable electrician after the couple who own our bar, recently refurbished, gave him a good write up. He spent an hour with us going over what we can and cannot do. Although one can have plug sockets in bathrooms here, they must be at least 60 cm. from the water outlet and cables must be buried in walls to a thickness of 3 cm. He will come next week to install a huge fuse board and will connect enough cables to serve our 2 ensuites and 3 bedrooms: the remainder will be done as we go along. After that Mr. Fix It will be tiling and fixing up lights and those soft towels and elegant soap dishes I have been dreaming of will finally be put in place.

Our bar will be filled tonight with guys from the village watching the France v Uruguay World Cup game. Mr. Fix It is so taken with living in France that he is now rooting for them – although I have a sneaking feeling that he will be cheering England along too once our guests arrive in a couple of weeks’ time. But today it is “Allez France!”

Meanwhile we are blessed with strong sun until late each evening and love the greater contrast of light and shadow which being so far south offers: no wonder so many great painters were inspired to come to this region of France. Mr. Fix It seems to be equally inspired, perhaps the more so because he – and I – take time to enjoy life here, think about what we really want to do and always stop at some stage during the day to look around us.

Alexis

http://www.FranceBuyingGuide.com

Let The Sun Shine In

Our house stands gracefully just a stone’s throw from the 14th century Church of St. Julien. Such is France’s pride in its historical monuments, permission to alter the exterior of one’s property is far stricter when that property lies so close to a Church. Thus it was that Mr. Fix It took painstaking care over his drawings and details of what we intend to do to alter the exterior of our house. This paid off: after just 5 weeks, we received notification that our plans have been approved!

Unlike the UK, you can do what you like to the interior of your property in France. When it comes to altering anything outside however, you must first apply to your local Mairie and play the waiting game in the hope that the Maire approves of your plans.

This house is unique in its design: it was built roughly 100 years ago by a Flemish businessman and one can only assume that either the rules were less stringent at that time or the Flemish businessman carried on regardless and no-one had the heart to make him rebuild it! It stands out amongst the Languedocien architectural style here, its beauty, we feel, lies in its symmetry and shape. Why, it almost looks as though it is smiling at us!



We are blessed with sun, warmth and light each day and now that our permission has come through, the tower outside will soon be no more and the pigeons will have to find a new home. Although already flooded with light in the morning, our new bedroom will retain the sun’s rays far longer once the tower is gone and we will be able to plan our garden, using the rubble from the tower as a base to level it off. When Mr. Fix It is not fixing things, he really does come up with some great ideas.

The ancient balcony, now dropping and broken, will come down and we will create a new larger one along the length of our new bedroom, with a spiral staircase running down from the first floor to the garden. I foresee mornings of sipping coffee in the sun on this new balcony, then wandering down to tender our garden. We will also create doors where there are now windows: one going out from the kitchen and one on the other side of the front door going out from the small drawing room. This beautiful Mediterranean climate means far more outdoor living and further plans include making a summer kitchen/utility room at the side of the garden and a small pool at the other end.

We sat outside our little village bar the other evening, Eddie & Alfie at our side, and tried to put into words why it is that we feel so fulfilled, so peaceful and happy here. Aside from the wonderful climate and the beauty of the hills, mountains and vineyards which surround us, there is somehow more of a feeling of mutual respect and less envy than we remember in the UK. People work to live, they don’t live to work, lunchtimes are sacred and folk look out for each other.

A friend asked me the other day if we had encountered any anti English feeling. The answer is a resounding “no”. Our village has welcomed us with seemingly open arms and we marvel at the characters we have met, from our craftsman of a carpenter in his blue overalls, to the chatty chimney sweep who popped in yesterday, enamoured of Eddie & Alfie, to the old man I met in the market the other day with his much loved Yorkshire Terrier, his constant companion, he was telling me since the death of his wife.

So I suppose it is the sun and light coupled with the sheer goodness of the people which give us a feeling of relaxation and peace here. By the time I write next week, we will have said goodbye to our tower and our evenings will be spent in the garden looking up at the strong blue sky, ready to let the sun shine in bright and early in the morning.



Alexis
http://www.francebuyingguide.com