Come with me inside our French home!

Excitement mounts this week as one by one, thanks to Mr. Fix It and Justin working happily in tandem, the radiators are being piped in and we look forward to finally having gas central heating installed in our house. I marvel at their speed and when that Friday feeling came, we went to our little bar for lunch, a welcome and richly deserved break for these two hard workers. With Autumn now upon us, the vines and plane trees have turned to burnt oranges and reds and yet we are still blessed with strong sunshine each day and count ourselves lucky to be living in this bright and beautiful climate. Nonetheless, we have sat by a log fire most evenings now that the air has turned a little cooler.

Mr. Fix It can be justifiably proud of the work he has done, the progress he has made throughout the last 8 months. He is a member of the “old school”, that is to say his motto seems to be that if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well: a fine attitude. It takes time and energy to be meticulous but it pays off in the end and so it is that over the next couple of weeks I invite you on a mini tour of parts of our house where huge improvement has been made so that you can see for yourself.

Come with me now and step inside for a peek!

Small sitting room with fleur de lys tiled floor, marble fireplace, cast iron radiator piped in


Bedroom overlooking the garden, another radiator piped in and another marble fireplace

One of the ensuites, large soft tiles and oblong shower tray

The other ensuite, almost a luxurious bathroom!

Another bedroom, light flooding in from the left where we created a new window to receive the morning sun (and another marble fireplace)

There is something magical about this house: the atmosphere is one of peace and space and I have yet to meet anyone, be it our visitors from the UK or French friends, who has not looked up with an expression approaching awe, not only at the scale and proportion of the rooms but at the amount of work there appears to be in store! Yet it is because of those two things: scale and proportion, that we find it easy to live amongst the dust and debris. Renovating any property can bring with it moments of hardship and I will be the first to admit that I look forward greatly to having an actual kitchen and good lighting. But notwithstanding its present state – work in progress – we feel comfortable and nurtured here. I can only imagine how glorious it will be when it is finished, our balcony in place and garden landscaped.

That day, whenever it will be, is a long way off and in the meantime life down here in the Languedoc Roussillon continues to be full of happiness for us both. Creating a beautiful home, particularly in this stunning part of France, is something I would not change for the world.

Alexis
http://www.francebuyingguide.com/

It's a gas (naturally)!

Heating a grand old house such as this one takes some planning. Mr. Fix It, as thorough (and knowledgeable) as ever, has given much thought to this very important stage of our renovation. Having scoured “Le Bon Coin”, the French internet selling site, for cast iron old fashioned radiators, we now have 11 of these ready to be fired up. We will need more in the future of course – our top floor has yet to receive the magic Mr. Fix It touch – but it has been all systems go this week to work out the pipe runs, the location for our 2 boilers and the positioning of each radiator on both ground and first floors. We have a huge cellar! So the boilers will be sited there, vented to the outside with a grille at garden level.

Next step: finding someone to help Mr. Fix It get it all working. Here is where it pays to make an effort to ask around, get talking to people, be sociable. Now Mr. Fix It’s French is not perfect by any means but he is well passed that elementary “restaurant French” stage (as he would put it) and so it was that we found ourselves chatting to an enormously likeable Frenchman at our bar recently who was, like most people here, very interested in our house renovation. His face lit up as though he had discovered some new invention: “Vous allez rire,” (You will laugh) he said, “Je connais un anglais tres sympa qui pourra vous aider” (I know a very nice Englishman who will be able to help you) Enter Justin, who lives in Carcassonne with his wife and young family. He has advised us well and this week sees Justin and Mr. Fix It working each day to get the heating system up and running. “I love it here,” he offered one day, “I do go back to the UK to visit family occasionally but can never see myself living there again.” We could not help but agree with him.



Not one to be standing idly by, I suppose I could call myself Mr. Fix It’s mate this week. As the gas connection finally went through to the cellar, there was plenty of clearing up to do: every little helps as they say.

Meanwhile the vines, now emptied of their grapes, are turning a glorious colour of burnt red and the French Autumn sun has become golden. It still streams through our bedroom window in the early morning and stays with us till 7 each evening, giving a soft, gentle light as it goes down. Eddie & Alfie enjoy long walks crunching through the leaves beside the canal and this beautiful season is here to be enjoyed, as yet unsullied by thoughts of Christmas. We had a great day out in Caunes Minervois one day, meandering around the old streets and celebrating the “chestnut” fete. Who on earth would think of arranging a fete around chestnuts but the French, we asked ourselves! Quirky it may have been but the atmosphere was so special: generations mixing, a small band playing and a general feeling of relaxation.

Thanks to our lovely Mayor, who contacted Gaz de France to hurry them along, we will have our natural gas connected this week and the boilers will start to hum. We have been lucky, we know that: not everywhere in France has natural gas and to have been able to establish this here is something for which we will be eternally grateful.

We look forward to having our heating up and running very soon but meanwhile marvel, along with the animals, at the gentle sunlight which graces this beautiful village every day.

Alexis
http://www.francebuyingguide.com/

Creating Connections in France

We have watched the guys from Gaz de France work tirelessly this week digging up the road, inserting our meter in the wall outside our gate and installing the pipe run which will run the natural gas to our house. A great and very jolly bunch of guys, they offered to dig through further to reach our cellar where the pipe will connect to the 2 boilers and afford us central heating. Admittedly, these situations are helped by being able to joke with them in French. A smile goes a long way, a “petit café” even further and thereby we have a great connection.



We have been down here in the Languedoc Roussillon for almost 8 months now and have yet to experience the Autumn season. The air temperature is a little cooler now but the sun is still hot and golden. We have watched the leaves slowly fall, the shadows still long beneath them, their colour rust hued. Autumn fetes abound in local villages: the chestnut fete, the lemon fete, the garlic fete: people go to great lengths in these communities to involve the locality and we have felt very much a part of it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why we love our life here: we seem to have established a connection with people that was harder to find in the UK. I still love the way everyone says “bonjour” when you enter a shop or meet in the street. It is so simple to make friends here.

October 5th was a special day for Mr. Fix It and me. Having known each other for several years through friends, this date 2 years ago was our first proper meeting on our own and what a day it was: an instant connection! So now in France, we decided to celebrate this great day and drove to Narbonne for a wonderful evening. Built by decree from Rome in 118 BC as a trading post along the then newly constructed Via Dolmitia, this city grew to become the capital of the Roman province of Narbonensis and one of the most important cities of southern Gaul, as it then was. Now, it is a beautiful city, graced by wonderful architecture and rightly proud of its situation alongside the Canal du Midi.

Autumn brings its own rewards, the colours on the landscape here in the South of France become golden and thoughts turn to log fires in the evening. Our kitchen awaits the Mr. Fix It touch: plans for its design are already prepared on paper and I look forward to the day I can indulge in some great culinary delights in what I know will be a wonderful room. But for the moment, as always, we are determined to enjoy our life here whilst planning the next stage of our renovation. This huge project would not be for everyone and if I had a pound (or a euro) for every French friend who has walked into our hallway with that very French “drying thumb” gesture, I would be a rich lady! Little by little, however, our house is taking shape and the space and grandeur of this building go a long way to making up for its present – and temporary – shortcomings.

We feel a huge connection with the French way of life already and still marvel at the strength of the blue sky above us. Why, even one rose has stayed with us as summer fades away.



Alexis
http://www.francebuyingguide.com/

Mr. Fix It and Family

Familiarising ourselves with the French way and becoming a real part of the village seems to have come easily to us. This has been largely helped by our 2 cocker spaniels, Eddie & Alfie, who greet everyone they meet with loving wags and licks. Thus it was that we met Justin the other day in our local bar, a young English boiler engineer and dog lover. Mr. Fix It was in planning mode (as he frequently is) and although his French is coming on apace, it was with some relief that he was able to discuss our heating requirements with a fellow Englishman, well established in the area and totally au fait with the “normes” or general requirements in France for where and how to site boilers, pipes and the like.

We have a huge, dry cellar and Justin advised us that we should go for 2, rather than 1, boilers side by side, to be placed in the larger part of the cellar with flues giving out to the garden. “November was glorious here last year,” he offered smiling. “But you are wise to get this going now; you will be warm as toast throughout the winter with these grand radiators and a few log fires on the go.” Mr. Fix It is justifiably proud of the 9 cast iron radiators he bought on line and seemingly magically connected the first one in our large entrance hall just this week. Neither of us have any doubt that if the dogs could do, they would help and so their interfering noses as he worked on this first one endeared us to them even more.



The soft late summer sun continues to shine, the last few tractors are still harvesting the grapes and we continue to meet Dutch, German, Spanish and English people on late summer breaks by the canal. Somehow one feels much more centred living down here in the Languedoc Roussillon: there is a vibrancy that comes from mixing with our fellow Europeans. Friends who visited us this week looked in awe at this grand house as they walked in: it seems that everyone is bitten by the same lovely French bug when they come here and we found ourselves looking in estate agents’ windows to encourage their dream of buying a property down here. One of them said we were brave taking this on – there is still a huge amount to do – but could see the continual reward which comes as each improvement is made.

Our evening barbeques are not yet over, it is still warm enough to sit outside until late and although our mini oven serves us well, I start to look forward to the day when our kitchen will go in. I can visualise black granite worktops, sleek finishes and soft lighting as I make our morning coffee watching the sun rise in the east. The plans are down on paper, the logistics left in Mr. Fix It’s capable hands. I know this will be quite a stunning space.

Meanwhile Eddie & Alfie, our immediate family here now, with our adult children spread around the globe, help us in a way they cannot understand. Happy to be wherever we are, they have somehow enabled us to integrate into this little community perhaps more easily than we would have done otherwise: France is a dog loving country. One only has to look into their soulful eyes to realise that being here in the Mediterranean sunshine with them as we continue with our renovation has an added meaning. It all seems so easy.



Alexis
http://www.francebuyingguide.com/