Potty again

On Sunday we thought we’d have a break from the decorating in the salon. Our friend GeGe, from Poterie Belair, had dropped a flyer through our door telling us of an open day she was having, so we decided to drive over to see her.

It was such a beautiful day, the sun was warm and the sky a deep blue. It was very different to when we went previously, then I t had been quite a stormy looking day, and we could see the rain clouds rolling across the Burgundian countryside. Today the view was a little hazy from the sun and moisture in the air, but beautiful none-the-less, and we could see for miles.

It made for a pleasant afternoon, drinking coffee and eating homemade cake in GeGe’s courtyard, whilst chatting to her, her husband and friend Jacques.

GeGe had been busy over winter making lots of new pots. I’d previously bought a jug, so was keen to look at what else I might take a fancy to.

We found a few items that we both liked, and took away with us. We used them on Monday morning for our boiled eggs and coffee. I love having different types of crockery and china to use, it gives a different feel to the meal.

Room to rent

We’ve seen a few blue tits flying around the garden the last few days looking for things to nibble on, and pecking out bugs crawling on the rose bushes. I wasn’t sure if they were also looking for a place to nest, so I suggested to Brian that we needed to get the bird box up that our friend Sharon had made for us.

Brian needed to add a suitable sized hole to the front of it, and added a stick on the outside for a perch. He also dropped a stick inside, if it does have a bird nest in it, the chicks will need something to be able to crawl up to the hole when they are ready to make a jump for it.

Now we just need to be patient.

Radiators

Because we had needed to remove the radiators temporarily from the salon, whilst Brian did some woodwork in there, I thought I would use the time to strip them back and paint them. So before we made our trip to the UK we stripped the old peeling paint off the two radiators. I had started by using a wire brush, but it soon became apparent that this was just not going to work, so I asked Brian if we could try the jet washer on them.

Well it certainly worked! The question was ‘how much do you remove?’. I came to the opinion that if it came off it was because it needed to, so I kept going. I just hadn’t thought so much would come off!

Plane simple

We ended the day yesterday with all the panels now back in place, what now needs to happen is to tidy up all the joins and gaps.

Sometimes a good old fashioned plane works best, for flattening those edges.

Then they need filling and sanding back. This is just going to take time, but I’m so looking forward to seeing it finished.

Bloomin’ genius

Brian is always looking for ways to improve his DIY skills, and one way he does that is to look at what other people are doing on social media.

Most times it’s woodworking skills that he intends to use one day, but sometimes there’s a little trick that he can use immediately. So when he learnt this one he was quick to use it as soon as the opportunity arose. So yesterday when he was boarding around the window he showed me what he had learnt.

Such a simple device.

Back to work

Our week in the UK had given us a change in scenery, and after our trip to the house clearance we were both keen to get back to ‘work’ doing the salon. Brian started by completing the fixing of the insulation behind the radiators, which we had temporarily removed, he then completed boarding the insulation in.

The main job now is to get the wooden panels refitted around the windows. This is a bit tricky as they do not fit exactly, so there’s a lot of amends he needs to do to make them all work perfectly.

He starts off with screwing the two side panels to the wall.

Picture this

Last week whilst in the UK a friend from France called us to invite us to a private viewing of a house clearance she was working on, as she thought there were some things we would be interested in. We arranged to take a look this morning.

Of course there were pieces we just couldn’t resist. I had been looking for a china pot for our toothbrushes, and the little white one I found was perfect. The jug is such a great shape for flowers, I can’t wait to fill it with daffodils or tulips. I’ve already washed the tablecloth, which cleaned up really nicely, I just need to iron it. It will look lovely in the summer for an outside dinner.

I had picked out the wooden frame, I loved the style, and Brian said we can never have too many frames so we also bought the two gold ones, which we both love - we just need to find some pictures to frame now.

Sunday morning

We woke to glorious sunshine, so after we’d had a late breakfast we decided to head out for a walk. The stillness of the countryside was delightful. Although most of the way we chatted as we walked, catching up on our weeks, there were moments when we would stop and listen to the bird chorus. The skylarks were hovering above, so tuneful in the spring air.

Along the path the spring flowers were poking through, bright little violets, lemon cowslips, and pink and white primulas. So dainty.

We couldn’t help but finish our week off with a glass or two of champagne enjoyed in the garden, in the warmth of the spring afternoon sun.

Home

The sky was blue, the roads were clear and we were feeling ready to head home.

The Chunnel was a little busy, but we boarded our booked train with minutes to spare, and were soon heading through the tunnel towards France. We didn’t feel a need to stop for coffee en route, just a quick stretch and to swap over on who was driving.

It felt good arriving home. Ready now to get started on finishing the Salon, although I’ve just looked at the weather forecast for this week, and I think I may also be doing a spot of gardening

Chatter, laughter and catching up

On Friday, we said our goodbyes to Hilda and headed into Kent. We had some appointments set up that we needed to be at and we also wanted to visit some friends before heading back to France on Saturday.

After our appointments we made our way to our friend Pam’s house. As we were settling into our room, for our last night in the UK on this trip, Brian captured this amazing sunset through the trees. It was the perfect finish to what had been a wonderful week being able to see our parents. Such valued and precious time.

To finish it off we enjoyed a gorgeous meal with friends, full of chatter, laughter and lots of catching up.

Books and pizza

We had a packed last few days in England. We took Hilda, Brian’s mum, to Bluewater, a large retail centre near Dartford. We had a great day shopping. Brian took some quiet time and visited Waterstones bookshop and bought himself an interesting collection of new books. I think there’s a few there I’d also like to read, so we definitely have our summer reading sorted.

We finished the day off with dinner at Pizza Express, which Hilda enjoyed a little too much!

ULEZ

We left Norfolk yesterday, and headed towards London to visit Brian’s mum. We had been making good time, but then the weather changed and it started to chuck it down with rain. The roads soon became very water logged, and we must have been driving through the rain for a good couple of hours.

On arrival in London we realised that we needed to register for the new ‘ULEZ’, or ultra low emission zone. Apparently all vehicles driving inside the north and south circulars need to be registered with TfL to confirm their emissions category. This is calculated using a Euro scale. Whereas in France, even though you would suspect the Euro scale was widely used, we are registered for emissions using ‘CritAir’, so we immediately had a mismatch. If you are not registered with TfL you have to pay £12.50 per day, so we were keen to get registered. We went online and began going through the registration. We stumbled at the first step, when our car reg wasn’t recognised, as it was a French number plate. Undaunted we continued with the manual registration. Brian eventually found what Euro category we were and that took us through to the last hurdle – they needed a scan of our log book. Used to the difficulties that arise with travel it has become habit with me to bring everything, and it just so happened that that included our logbook. Brian scanned it on his phone and uploaded it as a pdf – hoorah! However, they said it could take 10 days to review, but today it was confirmed that our car is exempt. Amazing!

We woke this morning to blue skies, what a difference a sleep makes.

Old favourites

We’ve enjoyed a wonderful few days with Dad, and the small village of Martham where he lives is looking beautiful in the spring sunshine.

The first evening we enjoyed a delicious roast Sunday dinner at the Kings Head pub on the green. I do love a good Sunday roast, and this one did not disappoint. I would thoroughly recommend it if you’re ever in the area. We also managed to fit in another old tradition, fish and chips, at a favourite of Dad’s, the Imperial Hotel on Great Yarmouth sea front. He certainly has a very good appetite!

Napoleon

We recently visited the Napoleon museum at Brienne-le-Château, about a 45 minute drive from us. The museum was first opened in 1969. It was created in the former military school which Louis XVI opened in 1776. It was one of about a dozen military schools he created across France to provide the nobility with a place to be educated in religious and military studies, however these were short lived as in 1793, after the revolution, the military schools were abolished.

Before they were closed Napoleon attended the school in Brienne as part of his early education. Then in 1805, during the Napoleonic wars, Napoleon passed through Brienne on one of his campaigns and on seeing how the school had become neglected he decided that one day he would like to rebuild it, but this never happened, I think events overtook him.

In 1840 it was bought by a religious order, the Carmélites, but although they had big plans to renovate and extend it, again that didn’t happen, and in 1861 a M. Vinot bought it to convert back into a school for secondary education. Around this time he had the statue of Napoleon erected on the entrance archway.

The town had always been keen to buy the building back, so shortly before M. Vinot died he sold it back to the town. However, they were then asked to donate it to the war department, who converted it into a military barracks, which housed three Battalions of foot soldiers.

But the town always fostered other plans for the building. Because of its history they wanted to create a museum dedicated to Napoleon. So in 1926, when the building was vacated by the battalions, they took it back and in 1933, to help protect it, it was designated as a national monument.

Because of WW2 the museum idea was suspended, and it remained a school until a new educational building was built and the school rehoused.

Finally, in 1965, work to create the museum started, and in 1969 the doors opened to the public.

In 2016 they decided to close the doors to the museum, and over the following 2 years performed a major renovation, reopening in 2018. It now displays a unique collection of Napoleon memorabilia. Most interestingly it explains – with paintings, statues and digital displays – how Napoleon understood the importance of his image and how he controlled it in art, especially his silhouette, which was to be known across Europe.

You can also discover how he had performed as a strategist, and how he became an important, confident leader.

Interspersed throughout the displays are well produced videos and commentaries, along with little snippets of interesting facts, all helping to describe his story.

Napoleon was not only a military leader, he was also a prominent political leader of France. He was Emperor of the French for over a decade. His legacy still remains, as he provided France with various administrations, reforming the penal code and civil code. His reputation often divides opinion, as although he was a successful leader he was also a controversial one.

The museum did leave us wanting to learn more, which for me is what a museum should be all about, igniting a desire to want to understand more. I think we need to get a good book on Napoleon.

I love learning about our surroundings and gaining a different side to the stories we are familiar with, either where we live, or when we travel.

I know I may have mentioned this before, but I’m very impressed with French museums. They are proud of their diverse history and like to share it, which really comes across in their presentation of it. This is not a big museum, but it has some unique and interesting displays, and the building is part of that, soaked as it is in the story it embraces. France offers well crafted museums throughout the country, not just in the large cities, but in smaller towns and villages, that often have their own little part of a story to tell. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Miss

We left home around 6.30am, and had a pleasant drive to the Eurotunnel at Calais. Both the roads and weather were clear.

We arrived in good time for our 11.50 shuttle, and were soon zooming through the tunnel to England, wondering how we’d feel when we were back in Kent.

This is the first time we have been back to the UK together since moving to France in 2020.

It didn’t take long for us to disembark from the shuttle and start our UK leg of the trip. We took the familiar M20–M25 route, then up the A12, heading into Norfolk to visit Dad first.

I have to say it was all very familiar, lots of traffic, lots of pot holes, plenty of roadworks, and a closed motorway. But we would soon be seeing family and friends … something we do miss.

A pause in proceedings

It has been gorgeous weather, and I grabbed the opportunity to work outside on painting the panels we had removed from around the windows.

We are off to the UK soon for a short visit to see my dad and Brian’s mum. Our friend Sharon has kindly volunteered to come and house sit for us, so we are working hard to finish as much as we can before we go, and ready the house for her arrival.

One small job Brian was able to do was to fit the ceiling rose and refit the light. After all the sanding it had needed a thorough clean before it went back up.

Garden gate

Since we bought the house, back in 2015, we have wanted to fit a gate and handrail to the stone entrance to the pool area. Last year we found a couple of very decorative cast iron window grills at a vide grenier (boot sale), and bought them because we thought they would be ideal to make into a gate. We just needed to find someone who would take on the challenge. Via Lee-Anne, who has helped us with a number of our projects where we have needed good local artisans, we found someone who was willing to help us out. It is invaluable having someone who is bilingual, has a diverse network of local craftsmen and can provide advice and offer guidance on the best way to approach a project.

Brian provided an initial plan for the artisan to discuss and price up, and a few days later we agreed the works. Finally it seemed the work would happen. He returned to do a proper survey of the stairwell, as it’s very higgledy-piggeldy and he wanted to be as accurate as possible. Now that the actual measurements have been taken we are really looking forward to having them made and fitted ready for when we open the pool in May.

Heating up

Day 7 - the plumber

Francois arrived this morning to temporarily remove the radiators for us, and extend the pipes. This is so we can insulate the wall behind them, paint it, and have the radiators refitted so they stand slightly further into the room. They are super heavy, so we were pleased that he has taken them outside for us so I can clean them, and give them a coat of paint.

Brian had worked hard on fixing the panel that had fallen apart during the sanding, and it’s now back together and ready to be put back on the wall. But first I want to give it, and the other panels we took down, a coat of paint.

Painting

Day 6 - painting

Today we have started painting. We are using Blackened modern emulsion by Farrow and Ball.

It is a big job as having all the panelling creates a lot of cutting in, but I don’t mind painting, so I just plod on, slowly getting the job done.

I’d managed to get a couple of coats onto one of the walls. It helps as we can now see what it is going to look like when it’s finished and it does spur us both on.

Day ?

What day is it, day 5?

This morning we flung open the windows to let the spring air in, and filled the room with light. Our plan today was to get the ceiling and coving painted, and to start on filling the panels with painters caulk.

Yesterday we had managed to get the larger holes filled with plaster of Paris and then sanded down. We hadn’t used plaster of Paris before, but thought we’d give it a go, as the setting time was only 15 minutes. Now that does mean you need to work quickly with it, but the great thing is you can sand it back almost straight away.

We made good progress and finished the day with me having painted the ceiling, and Brian having got a first coat on the coving.

It was starting to come together.