A game of cat and…

“There’s a pheasant in the garden”. “Where?” Brian replied.

Up on the slope, half way up to the pool, there was a magnificent, male pheasant. He was just strutting around, exploring his new discovery.

“Ooh!” Brian announced “There’s the neighbours cat creeping out of the trees”. “Little devil” I replied. It was definitely creeping, keeping low and only moving when the pheasant looked away. For a short while we both feared the cat was about to attack, but as it got nearer I think it realised just how big the bird was and its confidence eked away.

I think he was happy just to take a look, and the pheasant really didn’t seem very concerned either.

Layers

I’d been looking forward to getting started on painting the doors, and the day had finally come. There was a bit of a breeze, but the sun was poking its head up occasionally through the cloudy sky, and with a few layers on I was warm enough to enjoy the freedom of painting outside.

With the undercoat on one door, there was now time for a quick cup of coffee whilst the decorators caulk dried on the second one.

When I came back out, the wind had picked up slightly and we were conscious there may be a risk of some rain, so we moved me into the barn. The paint was going on really well, the colour I’m using is ‘blackened’ by Farrow & Ball, to match the panelling in the salon — a subtle grey tone which works well throughout the downstairs.

It really pulls them together.

Ta-da!

This is it! The last stage before painting. Today Brian’s cutting and fixing the inner panels to the doors, the final stage of creating them.

He worked out a radius for the corners of the panels that was in proportion to the ones already in the salon, then cut all the pieces to the sizes he’d worked out at the end of the day yesterday.

Dropped into position it was the first time I could really see the final idea coming together. It’s amazing how different they look with the decorative additions in place.

They’re clamped into position for a few hours before being finished with a little painters caulk to fill the edges.

And voila! They’re finished and ready for painting.

Privé

We were sitting enjoying our morning cup of coffee, and I happened to ask Brian if he knew when the lock for the library door was due to be delivered. Then, as if by magic, we heard a car radio outside the front gate and someone started to ring our bell — it has such a beautiful clang.

Brian jumped up and sped to the gate, never wanting to leave them waiting too long. ‘Hoorah’ I exclaimed ‘how spooky is that?’

It arrived in an overly large box, which meant it had been nicely protected.

We had looked for a reclaimed one, but hadn’t managed to find exactly what we needed, so we eventually chose an antique style made in the UK. Having it shipped had incurred import taxes of around £20, which had to be paid before they would deliver. We need to have the library private, as it will also double up as our office.

It’s so beautifully made, and I think it will work really well with the styling in the library. I cant wait to see it fitted.

Nearly there

It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, the air is still and it’s about 15°c in the courtyard. After I’d done a little bit of admin I venture out to find that Brian has set himself up outside in the sun. These doors have seemed like quite a long job, with lots of different stages — more than I ever imagined, but they are finally coming together and looking like doors that will suit our house. That’s always the challenge when you build something from new to fit into an old house, is to get the balance of being new but looking ‘just so’. Today Brian’s adding the long-awaited trim to the inside panels, and I think it’s really completing the look.

He starts by cutting 45° angles in the moulding, measuring them to length against the door as he goes.

He has to do it to 16 strips in total, with 32 matching cuts, before gluing them all into place. Despite spending a lot of time in the Brico trying to select the straightest pieces of wood, some of them are a bit twisted and need help staying in place.

While he’s waiting for them to dry a bit he gets on with marking up the inner panel pieces, ready for the next stage.

He’s using a template that he cut to get the right form for the inner panelling. I’m getting very excited to seeing them completed and start painting.

Brico mania

We were having trouble finding suitable trim for the inside panel of the doors, so I suggested a little trip to Troyes. A friend had told us of a large ‘Brico’ (DIY shop) on the outskirts of Troyes, which I thought may be a good place to try.

The shop was huge, and packed full of useful hardware bits. We did manage to buy a few things, including a nice new garden broom, but unfortunately no trim. We did have another great find though, as next door there was a lumber yard and builders merchant which we could walk around and actually price the products on sale, which can be surprisingly difficult in DIY stores in France. This has always been the case at our local ones, where they seem to expect you to know what you want, and you need to order it from the counter, so it was great to be able to walk around. We found a whole bunch of wood and building products that we need to start the garden shed that I’d like.

Excited by our finds, and plans to return, we headed off to the Bricorama, another store just opposite this one, in the hope of finding the much needed trim. Success! They had a much better selection, and we were soon counting out how much we needed.

It was such a gorgeous day and, with our successful morning behind us, we decided to stop off for a bit of lunch at ’Feuillette’, before heading into the city centre for a little wander. Feuillette boulangeries and cafés can be found all over France, and they’re a great place for a snack.

It was nice seeing Troyes in the sunshine, although it was still very cold. We’d noticed a new flower shop had opened on the little street that has a couple of good brocantes and a coffee shop we like. It was very striking, and looked quite good value.

After completing our shopping tasks we needed to warm up, so we dropped into a pleasant little cafe for a cup of tea and a hot chocolate.

I had wanted to visit the Notre Dame exhibition at the cité de vitrail, but we both decided over our drinks it had been quite a long day, so we plan to return to visit it before it finishes on 9th March.

Spot the difference

I’d started the day by getting down to trim the lavender back in the courtyard. It is beautiful in the summer, the scent fills the air, and bees love to collect the pollen, but the underneath is getting rather woody and spilling into the courtyard a little too far, so a little haircut is definitely needed.

Spot the difference! There’s certainly plenty of lavender left, that will look gorgeous again in the summer, but I’ve revealed the edging stones beneath it, and also given the grape hyacinths some space to flower. Their little blue heads make a lovely display in spring.

In the afternoon it started to warm up, with beautiful blue sky and sunshine, so I kept going. I decided next on my list was the rose at the back of the house. There’s a bit of work Brian wants to do on the wall here, so to help with his access to this I need to prune the rose back. Brian came to help, as there are some pretty big branches to tidy up. First we got rid of all the dead and damaged branches, then looked at how we could shape it better and provide it more air. This is a beautiful white rose, which is nicely scented, so I really want to encourage lots of flowers. We shall see later in the year how that goes.

Little touches

One of our doors had been glued together and the clamps now taken off, so Brian had pushed ahead and filled some of the imperfections. Today, he wanted to get it into a near finished state.

After a good rub down with sandpaper, he turned his attention to the pegs for the corners of the frame. Even though the frame has been well fixed together there is always a risk that over time it will want to droop under its own weight, so to help prevent this Brian wanted to add some wooden pegs that would stop it from shearing.

It always worries me when he has to cut into something that already looks finished, but I know he wouldn’t do it unless he was sure of what he was doing.

The pegs are now in place, and once the glue has dried he will cut them off. It’s the little touches that make these jobs look so fabulous and I have to say it’s looking very authentic.

Bish-bash-bosh!

Yesterday Brian moved ahead with the doors, gluing the first three pieces of the frame together. It was exciting to see something finally forming, but it still seemed like such a slow process.

Today, with the first bit fixed, he was able to take the final measurements for the panels. He was very happy that they were exactly as per his original plan. With the measurements fixed, it didn’t take him long to cut all the panels to size, and moments later he was checking them for fit.

I didn’t know what the next step was, but before I could ask he was gluing everything together.

Then ‘Bish-bash-bosh’, we had one completed door! I was so surprised, but as Brian said “It’s all in the preparation”.

Coming together

With all the elements now cut, apart from the internal panels, Brian now needed to start to fix them together. The key thing was to ensure they were square, and to do any final adjustments before gluing. All the checks done, and a few edges trimmed slightly, he could now start gluing and clamping.

Because the weather is still quite cold, he had put some sheets down in the dining room to do the work, as we didn’t want to risk the glue not fixing outside. There are just three pieces he can put together at this point—they will become the frame for fitting the panels and the final gluing together.

I’m so excited now to see him bringing all the different elements together and seeing the doors as we envisaged them.

Cutting back

We were up early this morning, as we had to drop the car off for its service. As we were in town we headed along to the market to buy some fruit and veg. There weren’t many stalls there as it’s school holidays, and some of the stall holders are away, but luckily my local veg lady was there, and the man selling citrus fruit. We’re stocked up with fresh veggies and I got a few succulent clementines for the week.

We headed home in our little loan car, which always makes us giggle, as they’ve always got a lot of kilometres on the clock, and are a bit clunky, but we are so grateful to have it as it means we can get on with our day.

It was such a gorgeous day, I thought I’d make the most of it and made a start on some pruning. I have decided to cut the roses back quite hard this year, to hopefully promote some good fresh growth. We shall need to see how that goes.

Marmalade

Yesterday I did all the chopping for my marmalade, and left the peel soaking in the juice overnight. This morning I added 4 kg of sugar—I use confiture sugar, which just helps the set. The longer you boil a jam or marmalade the stickier, or more set, it will become, however it will also make it taste more caramelised, so you need to work out what you prefer. I often prefer a fresher, fruity flavour.

Once the sugar has been mixed in, and it feels like it’s all dissolved, you can start to warm it up. You need to achieve a rolling boil, which is so easy on an induction hob. I’d always been committed to gas previously, but the village isn’t plumbed in and I didn’t want tanks, so I reluctantly went to induction. It was a stroke of luck for me though, as I find induction so controllable and so easy to clean.

It takes anywhere between 20–45 minutes to achieve a setting point. Check this by placing a saucer in the freezer, then when you think you’re ready, take the cold saucer out and drop a bit of marmalade on it. If it wrinkles when you tip the saucer it’s ready.

I’d prepared my jars by washing them and popping them in the oven for 20 minutes. It was time to fill them, and seal the tops. For ease, I either use screw tops if I have them, or the rubber seals.

Once they’ve set, I’ll label them and store them in the cupboard to let them settle for a few weeks, but first I think I’ll be having a little on my toast, just to be certain it’s okay.

Bridle joints

So far Brian has cut grooves in all the pieces of wood for the doors, but I couldn’t see how they were all going to fit together. The answer is ‘bridle joints’, which will allow the ends to slot into one another and will make the door frame stronger. He drew a little picture to show me.

Apparently they’re not the easiest thing in the world to cut, but he said he could do half by table saw and half by hand.

The bits he could do by table saw are the male parts, which he does by adjusting the saw to the height of the cut needed and then passes the wood over it time and time again, moving it a fraction along each pass. It’s very time consuming, but faster, and more accurate, than doing it by hand.

The outcome looked pretty good.

He then had to cut all the female joints by hand, which took much longer.

He now has all the parts of the jigsaw. Can’t wait to see how it comes together.

Liquid gold

I was looking forward to making my marmalade. I had been reading about how the making of marmalade at home is a dying art, partly because Seville oranges are less prolific, but also because people just don’t seem to have time or the want to do it. I actually find it very relaxing and very satisfying. Maybe it’s because I love eating marmalade, and I’d much rather know that the marmalade I eat is made with organic oranges and lemons. Although I have to admit I do not use organic sugar.

Incidentally you won’t find ‘marmalade’ in France, here it’s called ‘confiture d’orange’, or citrus jam.

Unlike jam, you need twice the weight of sugar to fruit. I had approximately 2.2kg of oranges, and used 4kg of sugar, rounding the quantity down slightly for less sweetness. I also added three lemons, for a balance of acidity.

Start by cutting the oranges and lemons in half and squeezing out the juice. Then scoop out the remains of the fruit and pips and put all the pulp and pips into a piece of muslin cloth and tie it off.

You then need to slice the skins, thin or thick, however you prefer.

I’ve used quite large quantities, as I wanted to make enough for our summer guests, but halving the recipe should still give you six to eight pots and makes it easier to do. I use a large jam pot to prepare it all, but all you need is a thick bottomed saucepan with a lid.

Pop everything into the pan - juice, muslin bag filled with fruit pulp and pips, and the sliced skins. Then add some water, a litre per kg of sugar. I added four litres of water. Cover this and leave to soak overnight. This helps the skins soften, and they will be well distributed throughout the finished marmalade.

I have left mine on the stove to do its thing, ready to be cooked tomorrow.

Update

Having a presence online has massive benefits. Firstly, it enables us to reach so many people, which means my blog is read by people all across the world. It also means people can find us, just by looking at their phone or computer. Which is brilliant when you’re a small, boutique B&B in Champagne.

However the website needs regular care, as the platform we use is constantly being updated, which means adapting the website for the latest changes. It’s also important for us to keep our website current and fresh, to ensure our readers and visitors have a pleasant experience, and to make sure all the photos are up to date.

We will often chat between us, to discuss what’s needed; what works, what doesn’t work and what we’d love to do. Brian is the one who knows how it all works though, so, with some input from me, he takes care of it.

For a few weeks he has been wanting to move our site to an updated version that our platform had recently introduced. However, this came with a couple of worries, which I know had been playing on his mind. Firstly, would we lose all the blog pages? And secondly would the diary still work after the update? Both of these could cause a lot of heartache, and difficulty, but he knew it needed to be done. He’d had a few days working in his workshop on the doors, in the cold, so I suggested that maybe he has a change of scenery and spends the day working on the website. After a day of testing and checking, then changing things and testing again, the move over went pretty cleanly, apart from a few little things that need fixing. Phew!

A big thank you to those readers who have spotted a couple of issues for us. We really appreciate your input, and Brian is working to get them corrected.

Measure thrice…

The process Brian’s following for the doors to the library is to measure, create an accurate plan, cut important pieces, measure again and then cut the connecting pieces. It’s all very meticulous and makes the process quite slow, but he’s wary of making errors. Making a door like this is all new for Brian, and it’s so easy for it to go wrong, and not fit, so we’re happy for him to take his time.

Confident that the pieces he has so far are correct and match the drawings, he pressed ahead with cutting the other pieces.

He now has all the pieces he needs, he just has to cut all the bridle joints…I say just!

Edgy bits

Using the router properly for the first time was a bit daunting for Brian, but the pieces he did yesterday went well, and I think his confidence is growing. A quick check to see if the plywood will fit in the grooves he created also helped.

Happy that the grooves had worked he moved on to the channel around the edge of the doors. This is a typical old French way of overlapping the door to the frame, presumably to prevent light spill and drafts.

He didn’t want to take the router right to the edge at first, so he had to finish the ends by hand.

It was a bit slower, but he was happy with the outcome.

Getting in the groove

Brian had made an early start in his workshop, measuring, marking up and cutting the wood, ready for him to start routing the grooves out of the pieces of wood that would frame the actual door. These grooves are where the panels will slot into.

It was a very long process, as he was taking his time routing only a small depth each time, repeating it 3 or 4 times on each piece of wood. Although we will be painting the door, we have used oak that we had left over, which will also add strength.

Inspiration

We were waiting for a collection this morning, for our pool robot. It has to go back to the company we bought it from to repair one of its rollers. However we didn’t know when they were coming, and I wanted to get to the market. I was literally walking out the door, when I called to Brian, “They’re here”. What great timing, as it meant we could go to the market together, a little visit we enjoy having on a Friday morning.

I was hoping I could buy some Seville oranges, to make some marmalade. After a good search around all the stalls, which had lots of different oranges, I could only find Navels, which I know can make a good alternative to Sevilles for making marmalade. I bought around 2kg, quite a lot, but during the summer our B&B guests enjoy eating my homemade marmalade on fresh baguette for breakfast.

The fresh produce on the stalls, looked very tasty, and enticing. I get very inspired to try different dishes when I see the beautiful (often organic), locally grown ingredients.

I will have a peruse through some of my cookbooks to decide what to cook, but first though I need to make the marmalade.

A spot of lunch

Yesterday we needed to pop into Bar-sur-Seine to pick some wood up for the doors Brian is about to make for the library. We had thought about trying to reclaim some doors, maybe from an old wardrobe or old armoire, but although we’d found some beautiful pieces of furniture on our visits to the local charity and depot ventes we did not find anything that really suited.

So, Brian has drawn up a plan to make them, and has already found the planks to make the frames from his wood store, but we still needed to buy some wood for the panels he will inset.

We headed off to Weldom, our local DIY store, to buy the wood which we had already ordered via the internet. When we arrived it was ready and waiting for us on a trolley to load into our car.

With the wood in the back, Brian suggested we head to a favourite restaurant of ours—Le Jardin des Tonnelles—for a spot of lunch before heading home. What a perfect idea. After a couple of cheese gougeres each, to entice our taste buds, we tucked into our main courses. Brian had ordered the rabbit with a tarragon sauce, and I had the kidneys with little roast potatoes.

A very impromptu lunch, my favourite kind, and all very delicious.