VADOULOU

It’s been an interesting week with the new house.
The new (to us) sit-on mower arrived Monday with some difficulty, but it’s now in a garage close to the gîte until we need it.
Then we went on a meander around the Tarn until we found the “store” shop. That’s the blinds & shutters showroom near Carmaux. An interesting experience which we’ll keep for another day.
On Friday I helped a removal man load some more things we’ve bought to go into storage along with the rest of our furniture.
Louise & I also both spent a happy afternoon updating our French nationality dossiers, mostly with stuff they already had, plus some more translations. We’re just hoping that they progress the dossiers now.

And as Friday was my birthday & Louise had an appointment in Gaillac in the late afternoon, we started the celebrations in the wine bar there, before continuing them into the late evening sunset at our village bar.

And the house progressed as well.

I’m starting with an unmarked floor plan & you can play a little game to match the photos to the plan. I’ve tried to be logical with the photos!
We’re fast approaching the roof stage now & suddenly we’ll have a house.
Following that of course comes the process of making it into a home. Electrics, water etc, underfloor heating pipes, floor screeds & finishes, wall finishes, kitchens, wardrobes, entertainment controls for TV (French & British), music throughout the house, magic wi-fi to cast all around the house, alarms, a 20,000litre tank to collect the roof water for the garden & in case of forest fires etc etc etc.
The photo of Louise in the chemin shows our walk straight into the forest & the hill behind Vaour. It’s close yet we will be no further from the village than we were in Rue de la Poste.
And the two photos of the same spot are where we’re renting now, showing the seasons.
We’re getting impatient.

We’re loving the sunsets that we can see from our temporary home but it looks like we’ll be having some of our own very soon.
The building of the internal walls has started along with one of the gable ends & the walls of the garage. It shouldn’t be too long before all the roof supporting walls are there & then the roof can go on. Now that some of the “hidden” work is done progress is more evident.
We’re having to finalise things such as colours of the blinds, gates etc.
It was a shock today to get a call from Darty that all our white goods (washer, dishwasher & fridge etc) + the TV are ready for delivery. Thankfully they’ve agreed to wait until September!

My niece Vikki & her husband Adrian have been staying in a gîte in Vaour this week for a week’s holiday. We had a lovely time with them & we look forward to playing Canasta with them next year in our new house.
Last night we went to “Atmosphere” (village bar) for a drink & found this designated driver in a van outside.

It’s been over 2 weeks since the last post & another 3 days lost to jours fériés. With the weeks’ absence earlier that’s 10 days lost in total. We’re glad to see the back of May. The next jour férié is Bastille Day 14th July & we’re organising a big soirée in the village with our pal’s Rocket 81 band, & so we’ll be having the day off as well!
There’s quite a bit of progress but much of it “hidden”. The lintels are slow detailed work but well on their way now & the garage floor & walls can start soon. Then hopefully on to the roof.
You can now see how the house will be laid out.
We’re having the weirdest weather at the moment, with glorious hot sunshine & then cool & cloudy. There’s huge thunderstorms rolling around most days, often to the east of us, which is odd in itself, but rarely bothering us here. We still need the rain but storms right now with huge hailstones ruin the vines & the the young fruits on the trees, which are absolutely laden with produce.
We’ve changed our winter to summer wardrobes & opened up all the outside space, so come on summer.
We also had a long weekend in Dublin for the EPCR rugby finals, with French teams winning both & Sergio Parisse playing his last club game. What a career & it was great to see it. It was also great to meet up with the rugby “gang” again for the weekend party!!
Looking forward to the Rugby World Cup in France later this year & it’s easy to see why France & Ireland are in with the favourites.
Some photos:

Another 4 day week, with a 3 day week coming up.

The walls keep on going up & all but one of the lintels are being prepared on site.

The one exception is a huge lintel over the north facing window which needs a specialist. As soon as that’s done then the roof can be put on.

Still lots of local interest, this time Arnaud.

These photos are from Friday evening & boy was that a great storm sneaking up on us. We were stuck in the bar Atmosphere until it blew through.

It’s a tough life but we make an effort!

Hi.
The team’s been back & the walls are growing each day.
There’s some difficulty getting the lintels on order & so they’re making them on site this coming week. You can see where they’re preparing for them. The lintels over the enormous glass windows/doors of both sides of the lounge are a challenge.

We are assured that the pile of spoils will all be used in the infill, which is a shame as we had hoped to have enough stone to put in a wall all along the road. But moving it will certainly improve our view!
There’s some pressure being applied to recover some time & the architects are still saying end of October finish. We’ll have a better idea after next Friday’s meeting with all the contractors.
Last Monday & this Monday are both jours fériés, which means 4 day weeks with 2 more jours fériés in May.
To use a well known phrase ” France is a paradise inhibited by people who think it’s hell”
Recently there was a article in the Guardian by a student at Science Po, a very prestigious French university, which asked the French students to identify France in the pecking order for lots of statistics on life & politics in many of countries in the world, but with all the countries’ names removed.
Many of them easily identified the USA from the data.
Most DID NOT identify France, always choosing a result near the worst. When the countries were disclosed France was regularly near the top!!
Just to back up the paradise theory, there are three pictures of our temporary gîte.