Ooh la la

I think Brian had been a bit concerned about hanging the pictures, sometimes it’s the little jobs that bother him. I would just screw the brackets up and see how they hang, but we needed to make sure things were level, and it was an awkward space for the laser.

As we’d seemed to over order on the brackets, we decided to use three on each picture to help spread the load, and minimise the weight on any particular point on the very old wood panelling. I don’t think this decision made our job any easier.

Voila, the first one was up. We were a little concerned on how the pairs of brackets would slot together, due to the uneven panelling, but we had used some pieces of rubber to pad the middle one, to help bring it off the wall slightly, in line with the other two. It all worked perfectly.

It wasn’t long before Brian was slotting the second one into place

By the evening we’d forgotten what the room had looked like without them.

Picture hooks

It was a day of deliveries. Amazon had emailed us to advise that the date of arrival for our Z hooks had been brought forward by a week!

We’ve been renovating two old frames which we’ve now fitted two posters into, and we’re really keen to get the pictures up on the wall. We knew that hanging them was not going to be a five minute job, and when we had tried the first time we realised the frames were far too heavy to be hung in a traditional manner. If our walls were flat and straight that would help, but they are not, so we had bought some specialised hooks online to do the job properly.

Now time for the hard part.

Armoires arrival

The phone rings, it’s the delivery driver from ‘general troc’ saying he is outside. Well I think that’s what he says, Brian runs to the gate. Yep, he’s there.

We both help him unload two armoires. Those of you who read the ‘Troc’ blog will know that we had an exciting bargain hunt in Troyes a few days ago, and have been anxiously awaiting their delivery. When we’ve bought them in the past they have been delivered dismantled, unfortunately though they were not this time, and they were destined for the top floor!

We had a bit of a conversation with the driver about where he could go and buy some Champagne while he was here. Then we said cheerio, before admiring our purchases.

“Will they both come apart?” I enquired tentatively. “I don’t think so, well, one might. Let’s go and have a cup of tea, and think about what to do”. That’s always a good idea.

Two of six

When we first arrived in France, I managed to reupholster two of our six dining chairs. Yesterday, two and a half years later, we started on completing the job. This time we are doing it together. We have taken two to work on in the atelier, and we have started on the slow task of removing the old staples and material.

The webbing on the seat of the chair is still good, but it needs tightening up. So we needed to take some of the tacks out, tighten the bands and tack them back again. Whilst Brian starts removing the staples and fabric from the second chair, I will clean this one, and start painting it. It’s a very slow process but I’m really glad we have started it, and it has made its way up the priority list.

exposed

Our bedroom and bathroom are up on the top floor of our house. The rooms are built into the roof space giving us high ceilings with lots of beautiful, old exposed beams.

It’s wonderful in the summer, as it stays pretty cool, however we have noticed, through winter, that the space does have quite a few drafts. One particular one I noticed the other night was in our bathroom.

There is a maintenance door, to all the plumbing in the bathroom, which was rather ill fitting. The icy wind that we had the other night was coming from this side of the house, and it was blowing a mini gale around the sides of this maintenance door, so we needed a plan to insulate it. Brian had previously put foam around the inside edge, but this was obviously not working, it was in need of a different approach.

He went to his woodshed and came back with some pine beading, which he carefully cut to fit around the edge of the door. I was a little horrified at this point as the pine couldn’t have been a worse fitting colour, but he assured me not to worry; it would work. He then colour matched it to the door with some watered down acrylic paint and medium oak wood stain before attaching it to the door. He then used some of the insulation tape we had bought for the gold frames to fix inside the lip he had made.

When he secured it in place, it fitted like a glove, not a draft to be felt.

There are still more drafts elsewhere on the floor, but we will gradually find them and fill them in. It’s a job you can only really do as you find them.

Chilly!

Ooh it’s a chilly one, the temperature dropped to -4°c last night, and today there’s an icy wind blowing. It’s good for the vines, as it means they will not be budding too early, but it’s a bit cold to be doing any outside jobs. Today we are keeping busy indoors.

I’m so glad I got my bulbs all sorted, and that I’ve now got some spring colour indoors.

The hyacinth is smelling particularly sweet and gorgeous.

Personal touch

I think I’ve mentioned before that we decided very early on not to sign up for any of the main booking sites, like Airbnb or booking.com. We believe that the personal touch is just as important as whether you have availability, so we wanted to be fully engaged with our guests through their booking journey, giving them advice, and helping them plan their trip, whether it’s for one night or all week. We felt we could market our business ourselves, using our social media accounts and our business networks built up over the years.

We had a very successful first year with the B&B in 2022, and this year has started well, but we know it’s important in any business not to be complacent, so yesterday we took some time out to think about our media/marketing strategy.

It’s a pretty simple affair, but we both work well with some structure, so we took the time and committed pen to paper, noting down our ideas and formulating a plan. It focusses on our Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, supported by our newsletter and website. Word of mouth (or sharing of our content) is also very important to us.

It’s not surprising then that content creation is one of our most discussed topics, with frequent questions around ‘what can we share?’, and ‘what would interest people?’. Instagram is more straight forward than LinkedIn in that respect, so we had to look at the different types of content we could share on each platform.

We are both very mindful that things have to stay fresh and relevant, so we also spent some time this week updating our ‘Places to visit’ page on our website. We still have a lot more we’d like to add here, which we will do over the coming weeks, and continue to add places as we discover and visit them.

It’s great fun when we get it right, and really rewarding when we receive likes and feedback. Here’s hoping our plan comes together and we have a successful 2023. 🥂

heavy

The frames were now ready to put the posters in, which we had bought on our trip to Paris a couple of Christmas’s ago. We had got some glass cut, which now needed a good clean. I did this simply with water and a glass cloth, not wanting to leave anything on the glass that could harm the posters. Brian stuck a strip of insulation around the inside edges of the frames where the glass met them, to help prevent dust getting into them once they are up.

When this was done we carefully laid the glass in, and positioned the posters on top. They had needed trimming slightly before we placed them in the frames. We fitted the back boards, and finally it was all sealed with some framers tape. It was a very diligent job, and needed lots of care, with us both being involved .

They are ready to put up now, however we are concerned a normal picture hook will not do the job, as now they are completed they are quite weighty. So we have ordered some Z hooks, which are used to hang heavy items on the wall. Just need to wait for them to be delivered now.

Right to drive

Great excitement this morning, Brian received a text saying he was going to receive a delivery today, which needed to be signed for.

Absolutely brilliant, his driving license has arrived. It’s one of the things that’s been left in a bit of a limbo by Brexit, and we thought it was going to be a real battle, but in the end the final process was really swift, and well communicated, if a little long-winded. Hoorah!

Les trois brasseurs

On our day out yesterday, whilst perusing the ‘trocs’ we had also picked up a few interesting items.

I’m thinking the tureen I will use for plants. The old book is full of little science tricks and experiments, that’s right up Brian’s street. I also got a couple of books in french. The first is a gardening book, which has a paragraph for everyday on what to do in the garden. I thought it would be a great way to improve my gardening vocabulary.

The second one is a cookery book, ‘little dinners between friends’, it has some super recipes that look delicious,I cannot wait to try them out.

Before we left Troyes we enjoyed a relaxed lunch at ‘Les Trois Brasseurs’. It’s a large restaurant which is open all day, so ideal if you want a late lunch or early dinner.

Troc

We took a trip into Troyes yesterday, firstly to follow up on our Carte Vitale’s (health cards), which we have now been waiting for over two years. We had a conversation with an administrator who assured us that they are being processed and we will hear something in the next few weeks. We shall stay conservatively optimistic.

Secondly, we wanted to take a look around the ‘troc’ or secondhand stores. We are looking for something that we can use in the library, not quite sure what yet, but we are keeping an open mind.

We do love looking to see what interesting objects we can find though, even if we’re not looking for anything in particular. In one of the shops they had an amazing retro, ready-made kitchen unit, all melamine and very sixties. They also had a couple of bed sets, which were an enormous 1,500 euros each, not exactly a bargain, even if you were in the market for some rather gauche bedroom furniture. We did kind of like the fold-away bed; that made us smile. Not something we were interested in though.

We did however find a couple of armoires (cupboards) that we both thought would work well for storage upstairs. Not what we went out for, but you have to be flexible on these trips. They are being delivered next week. I can’t wait to get them, as they both do need a bit of renovation, and I want to get started.

Potty again

We had woken to a very frosty morning, but by the time we’d had a slow breakfast the sun had broken through. Feeling the warmth of the sunshine, and being able to comfortably spend time in the garden is just wonderful again, so I decided to sort out some of my pots. I don’t find that there is much of a selection of bulbs in our garden centres, but I’d managed to buy a few from our local one last week, and wanted to get them potted for both inside and outside the house.

The hyacinths I’d previously planted in my tureen had died back, so I’ve popped them into the garden. They will reappear next year. The daffodils, or rather narcissus, I’ve planted in a few pots for outside, and repotted my tureen for the salle à manger.

I just have to be patient now.

Read in time

One of the things Brian wanted to do more of when we first moved to France was to read. I think we can both admit though that we haven’t read anywhere near as much as we thought we would do. That is because we simply don’t make the time, which seems crazy.

So we decided that this year, once a month, we will set a day aside for a ‘reading day’.

Our January reading day, I think, got missed, but we were committed to February’s one taking place. Brian had bought himself a new book, all about the history of our local area; the Côte des Bar. Unusually, it is a local book which has been translated into English.

I used the day to research plants for the garden. I’d like to gradually develop the garden, but I’m very concious the temperatures here are far more excessive than I was used to in the UK. That said, I know that if I get the right plants, for the right situations, they should thrive through the seasons. So having the time to research and plan what I’m doing is such a delight, rather than my previous approach of ‘that’s a lovely plant, I’ve got an empty space for that’, and finding it wasn’t really suited for where I put it. My garden gives me a lot of joy, so it definitely deserves more thought.

Golden leaf

A few years back we bought a couple of ornate plaster and gilt frames from a flea market. They were a bit battered, but Brian was keen to make them a little project and repair them. The intention was never to make them perfect, as we like to keep some of the history within the objects, but just to fix them. The main areas of focus are the broken details, where the white of the plaster shows through from underneath the gilt.

First of all they both needed a thorough clean, he did this gently with warm water and a soft cloth.

The whole process is quite lengthy, and it’s perfect having l’atelier (the studio) where he can leave the two frames out on the table without having to clean everything away. Every now and then he disappears off to shape some more plaster moulding, or add some gold leaf. He is now starting to finish off some areas by painting and shading them to blend in with the old parts of the frames.

It’s very exciting seeing their development, and I’m now looking forward to seeing the finished articles, and fitting some suitable pictures into them to then put up on the walls in the house.

First cut

I love it that the days are getting longer, and that spring feeling is definitely in the air.

We woke this morning to another beautiful sunny day. ‘Let’s do some gardening’ I enthusiastically said to Brian. It took him a moment to shift his mind to doing garden work, but he was soon thinking about some gardening jobs he also wanted to do. Firstly, he wanted to cut the elders down, before they get too unruly. It’s a much simpler task this time of year, as they’re just spindly sticks.

Job finished, he then came and helped me with some pruning. The roses were definitely in need of a prune, as was the wisteria.

We tried pruning the big rose with ladders, but Brian soon gave up on them and hung out of the window instead, with me directing from below. I love this rose, its rich, red colour looks really elegant against the white stone.

The sun was still just hanging in there around the back of the house, so I quickly prepared us a ‘spot of lunch’ to enjoy in the patio area.

Last job for the day was to give the lawn its first trim of the year. It wasn’t a perfect cut, but it tidied it up, and starts the year off right. I was pleased we had got some jobs done in the garden, it makes it feel fresh again.

vignettes

The cork tiles had dried overnight. We had selected a couple of sheet music covers that we had purchased at a vide grenier, some postcards and some playing cards with Champagne bottles on. We didn’t want to damage any of the items we were using for the vignettes, so Brian secured them along their edges using drawing pins. This also added to the look and feel of them.

He then carefully secured them in place using a piece of wood across the back of both tiles. We are loving the result, it brings a little pop of colour and nostalgia into the hallway.

Lac d’auzon-temple

After leaving the observatoire we took the main road towards Dienville, and decided to make a stop alongside the lake ‘d’auzon-temple’, and just sit for a while, enjoying our little picnic we’d brought with us. We set up our table and chairs, and sat quietly in the cool air watching the bird activity on the lake, hoping to see the cranes close up.

I poured us some coffee, but Brian was soon off with his camera, wanting to get some early pics.

I took a moment to sit and take in the amazing view of the lake and its bird life. Once again it was rather spectacular, the sun was shimmering on the water. As I sat I could hear the sounds of the birds. I don’t know all the individual calls, but it was delightful listening to them screeching, whistling and schrilling to each other. What a little conversation they were having. In the background we could here the chattering of the cranes. We had spied a whole group of them wading off an island in the middle of the lake, but they were too far away to get a good look at them. ‘Let’s have our coffee and see if any come along a bit closer’ I suggested.

As we sat there peacefully, we heard what sounded like someone peddling their moped to get it started; a rapid thumping. We realised it was the wings of a nearby swan slapping against the water as it took off. The whole launch seemed to take ages, but it was soon gliding over the lake surface. We watched a couple of little grebes darting under the water, obviously looking for lunch, they were having a lot of fun.

A chattering sound behind us grew rapidly more noisy. “Look” I said excitedly, “up there”. We could now see three cranes flying over. How beautiful they were.

As we headed back home, via the small town of Bar-sur-Aube, Brian spotted some cranes feeding in one of the fields. I was able to safely pull off the road, so he could get out to see if he could capture a photograph of them. Just as he pulled his camera out, a heron flew past, looking for a spot to land.

We waited a short while and our patience paid off, a lonesome crane was strutting his stuff, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine, such elegance.

What an idyllic afternoon, and an abundance of bird life. Next time I will bring our binoculars.

Make it snappy

It was such a gorgeous day, with a bright clear blue sky and temperatures creeping up to about 14°c. We decided to make a trip to the lakes to see if we could spot any cranes that had migrated there for the winter. We had thought they only stopped off before heading further south, but they do actually stay over winter. There are 3 lakes, Lac d’orient, Lac du Temple and Lac d’ Amance. It is a huge area full of natural beauty, surrounded by forest and some pretty little villages. The lakes are divided into different uses, watersports, pleasure boats, swimming, beaches, fishing and a nature reserve.

We decided we would try and find the observatory overlooking the lac d’orient called ‘Observatoire du lac d’Orient’, it’s just off the D43. We found the parking area and walked through the forest. It was just a the short walk to the hide, which was on the edge of the lake, although at this time of year the water is quite low.

We climbed up the steep steps into the wooden structure and took a few moments to just take in the view. Absolutely stunning.

There were a lot of birds feeding at the waters edge, and we could see a lonesome crane in the distance.

I hadn’t thought to bring our binoculars, but Brian had his camera and long lens. We soaked in the environment for a while, took some photos, then decided to head to a different viewpoint.

As we were leaving we could hear the whooping of some cranes overhead, as they flew past just above us. I took a quick snap before they were gone again. They are ever so noisy!

Cover up

As we were sorting out the shoe and coat cupboard we started to talk about the two little windows over the door. I had wanted to cover up the view of all the old cables and the underside of the staircase. I had thought about making a couple of little curtains, using some linen or even lace, but nothing I tried looked right. I Suggested to Brian ‘How about a Picture?’. We have a number of old Champagne adverts from magazines, and also some postcards. We thought these could work.

Soon the idea was developed, and Brian had cut a couple of cork boards to fit the spaces.

I was then tasked with painting them, before we could go about setting up our little collages.

Tea time

A friend called this morning, asking if she could pop by this afternoon for a cup of tea. ‘Of course’ I replied, delighted to think that I could make some scones and serve an English afternoon tea, although unfortunately I didn’t have any cream, so I would just serve them with jam and butter.

Brian had wanted to get the shoe racks finished. He had found some more wood in his wood store, which he needed to carefully join together to fit into the space. He needed to fit three more shelves in total.

Whilst I made the scones he finished off the shelves, just in time for tea.