Attack of the mattock

We woke to a day quite grey, and a little chilly, but we were all ready to get started. Louise and I were going to start on chipping away all the old cement and Chaux from one of the stone walls — near the steps of the walled garden. It was a tough job, and one we soon realised was going to take several days of work, it would just be a case of perseverance.

Brian and Chris had chosen to start on preparing the area on the other side of the wall, to lay some pavers and create me a bed to plant some dahlias. I’d like to try and grow some for cut flowers in the house. I will also use this area to pot up cuttings and bring on smaller plants in a cold frame.

It really didn’t seem to take them long to have the area measured out, and a plan in place on how the pavers were going to work. It was very exciting seeing this vision actually happening.

Whilst Brian progressed with this, Chris was attacking the ground, with what we found out was his favourite tool, the mattock. He was swiftly cutting the path on the opposite side of the steps, to lead up to the composter.

It was a very rewarding first day, which we finished off with a little stroll up to the point de vue to show them the village from above.

Work away

Our Workaways, Chris & Louise — an English couple — arrived today around noon. After they settled in, and enjoyed a light lunch of homemade soup and onion tart, we sat and chatted together, to learn a little about each other and to learn what we were all wanting from the couple of weeks they would be spending with us. They had been in France doing work away since early January, and we were their third hosts. They’ve had a variety of experiences on their trip, so it was good to listen to their stories and understand what they expect.

We spent some time showing them the house and the garden, and explaining some of the jobs we wanted to try and get done while they were here. It was good to hear their ideas on some of the projects, and hear some different points of view on how we can approach things. We now had a plan and were all looking forward to getting started.

Clearance

The last few days we’ve been pulling together things that we no longer need, and that we think can be used, or will be treasured by someone else. That’s to say we’re going to make a trip to the charity shop, to help us clear out our cupboards and our minds. It’s always so satisfying when you have a sort out, and ours was way overdue.

We put together some rather nice stuff, that I would imagine people would be happy to find and purchase, and we set off for recyclorient — our local recycling plant with a charity shop on the side. Such a brilliant idea.

There was just a little problem though, after we’d dropped our car load off to a very grateful man, We realised they had a special room set up selling just books! Neither of us could resist, so unfortunately we came home with a bit more stuff — 2 French cookbooks for me, a wine book and jazz book for Brian, and he also found a beautiful old book of French after dinner anecdotes. So much for the clear out, Hey-ho!

Alley cat

There’s a wonderful little alley in Troyes called ‘La ruelle des chats’, which I think is one of the prettiest views in the whole city.

It widens out into a charming street of restaurants and bars, which is buzzing with people in summer. Today it was much quieter, and as we were here for me to have my hair cut we decided lunch out would be a very nice addition to our day.

I did like the look of the ‘plat du jour’ at Chez Felix, just what I fancied.

The restaurant was quite lovely inside, and nicely quiet for a Friday lunchtime. We were able to enjoy a whole corner to ourselves, which was delightful.

A glass of Auxerre was a lovely aperitif, and a good match with the plat du jour.

And during the dessert the ‘chat’ of the alley finally showed his face.

Day 2, looking good

We had arrived at our friends early to hopefully get as much completed on their barn doors as we could, although we knew we would not get everything done. Brian started by finishing a few pieces off on the little door. It had firmed up really well over night, and was soon ready to be hung and painted.

I put an undercoat on, and it already started to look rather good. Brian had moved on to fitting a sill to the little door overhead, to help prevent the rain from coming in. He soon had it cut and ready for me to paint, before fixing it into place. He then went back to fill a few holes that had become visible on the main doors, after we had painted them.

Unfortunately we just ran out of time to complete everything we wanted to do, so we’ve arranged to return in a few weeks time, after our Workaways have been with us, and before our first guests arrive. Our Workaways are arriving very shortly. We’re looking forward to getting some of our bigger jobs completed with them that would be difficult with just the two of us.

A bit worse for wear

We packed the car up and headed over to JM & Valerie’s. The forecast was good, so we were looking forward to making some good progress on their barn doors and enjoying a productive day together.

Brian started off by sorting out a few leaky holes on the main double doors. He cut out the areas of rotten wood and filled them with small pieces of reclaimed wood JM had recovered from an old cupboard.

Whilst he worked on the left side door, Valérie and I made progress on getting a first coat on the right hand side door. We diluted the paint slightly with some thinners to create an undercoat, and were soon seeing a good coverage and great foundation.

Brian had moved onto the smaller, side door, which was looking quite worse for wear. We removed it first and placed it on two tables. Then he scraped all the loose wood off to get back to what was salvageable. He soon had the rotten, bottom section cut off, and swiftly replaced it with more reclaimed wood. He needed to replace one of the diagonal supports, and a number of rotten areas around the hinges.

Back at the barn doors we needed to leave the undercoat to dry, and the mends to the doors to fix properly before going further. Not a bad start.

You have been warned!

Whilst driving through the village of Charry-sur-Seine on the way to friends the other day Brian noticed an unusual sign, and asked me to stop, so that he could photograph it.

It reads:

“Careful, French village.

Enter at your own risk.

Here we have steeples that ring regularly, roosters crowing very early, herds that live nearby — some even have bells around their necks — farmers working to feed you.

If you can't stand that, you've come to the wrong place.

Otherwise, we've got great local produce and talented craftspeople who are happy to show you their skills and products.”

Gosh, I do love rural France.

A colourful gift

It was a nice dry, warm day today, so I was keen to get some jobs done outside. First I wanted to prune the wisteria and get Brian to help me fix it back on the wall, as it had broken away during winter. Then I set about cleaning up all the fallen leaves, it’s amazing what an instant change it makes. I’ve got some spring bulbs trying to poke through, so making it all clear will help them flourish.

Happy with that patch of gardening, I decided to get the crémone ready for Brian to fit. It’s one of the last things that needs fitting to the bibliothèque doors. Once we had decided which elements he was going to use, from the parts we had been given, I started to clean them up. The metal rod just needed a light sand, to remove some old paint and a bit of rust. I then cleaned it down with some white spirit. I also put a bit of WD40 into the mechanism of the handle, just to loosen it up slightly. The last thing to do was to paint rust remover onto the little fixings and handle. I will leave this overnight before wiping it off with some wire wool tomorrow.

My last little task for the day was to make up a table flower display for a friend who was coming over for apéro. It had been her birthday earlier in the week so I wanted to give her a little present.

It made for a very colourful little gift for her to take home.

Coming to Champagne 2025

We enjoyed a late breakfast in the courtyard this morning. Brian then finished off our first newsletter for 2025 and went online to publish it. If you are already registered to receive the newsletter you should have received your notification yesterday, if not, I have put the link below. It makes for an interesting read.

March 2025 newsletter

Hung up

We had got these pictures framed a few months ago now, and I was keen to get them up. However, it’s never a quick job hanging pictures, in fact it can take quite a while to get pictures hung on the walls here, because Brian likes to do it properly.

And properly means the trusty laser level, a lot of measuring, and the right kind of hangers.

We also have to agree on whether we want to bunch the pictures together or to space them out across the wall, whether they line up at the top or through their centres, all of which means it isn’t as easy a decision as it sounds. Once all is decided though it doesn’t take long before they’re hung up and changing the look of the room for the better.

I love how the new pictures bring the two sides of the room together.

Les fleurs

We had received a flyer in the post inviting us to a discussion about the village flowers for the year. I always try to make myself available to help when the flowers are being prepared each year, so I thought it would be a good idea to attend a meeting to find out what’s going on for 2025.

Our French is so much better now, but if there’s a lot being said, and it’s being spoken very fast, we still need a bit of help, so I sometimes use our translator app to see if it can throw some light on what’s being said. It’s usually pretty good, if it’s one on one, but the flower discussion got quite excited, and all the other eight attendees were all talking at once, so I decided to just go with it and see what I could understand.

What we picked up is that the local department that decides whether you’re a village worthy of a flower rating had told us that we had ‘too much rosé’. I’m not sure if that meant the colour pink, or too many roses. Either way it didn’t seem to go down too well with our audience. Our village also plants a lot of Geraniums, because they are pretty hardy plants and good for water conservation, but the department had said, “Why Geraniums? You’re not the Alsace”, this obviously caused a lot of heated responses, which, although we didn’t fully understand them, we got the idea.

It seemed like a lot got sorted out and the meeting ended well, with a cordial glass or two of Laurent Perrier, and a catch up with our neighbours.

Of course we can

Our friends had mentioned previously that they wanted to paint their barn doors, which were starting to look a little tired, and were deteriorating quite quickly. When the conversation arose again over dinner I made a mental note to speak to Brian about it. On the drive home I asked him “Do you think we could help them with their barn?”. His reply didn’t surprise me, he said simply “Of course we can”.

Jump forward a couple of weeks and we’re back at our friends, sizing up the work. It’s a bit of a big job: two large barn doors, in pretty fair shape, but they do have a few leaky gaps in the wood; a small side door that isn’t too good, with a broken panel near the hinge and the bottom quarter very rotten; then a loading window above the small barn door, that leaks a lot due to the gaps that have developed between the wood panels. The rain water runs straight onto the stone ledge and then onto the small door below. No wonder it’s rotted.

We discussed what result they would like and what needed to happen, then left them with a couple of preparation tasks, which included removing all the old flaky paint and a short list of things we would need. We pencilled some dates to get started and hoped for a window of good weather.

Scuffs and scrapes

March is an important time to take stock and look at things a little more critically. Just like the plants shedding their brown, tired colours of winter and emerging fresh, ready, and vibrant to welcome in the change of season we’re going through our own refresh. Energised by painting the doors of the library, I thought it was time to take a look at some of the other areas that could benefit from a refresh.

I have a list of things to do, making sure all those little scuffs and scrapes are covered over. There’s little dents in walls that need filling, wallpaper that needs gluing, woodwork that needs painting. It doesn’t take much though before we are making a difference.

Still got a lot of jobs on the list, but little by little…

Clear out

We needed to tidy Brian’s workshop and the barn, as it had got a bit disorganised over winter. So we put a day aside for it, and planned to start early.

I knew we would need to do a full clean up, so I got him to bring his saws out so I could use the blower on the cleaner to remove all the sawdust. This was way overdue, but a good job done as we were going to have to load them into the car at some point to take to our friends JM & Valerie for the ‘little project’ we’d volunteered for.

Machine tools cleaned, we were soon making good progress with his work area, and making decisions on throwing a lot of old junk out. Brian doesn’t like to waste anything, but there is a limit to what he can store.

Later that day we headed to the déchèterie to get rid of all the stuff we’d packed into our little trailer.

It’s so therapeutic clearing out all the old stuff you don’t need anymore.

And we actually like our local waste tip, it’s so clean and efficient, and the staff are really friendly, it makes for a good experience.

Just beautiful

It’s been absolutely gorgeous weather this week, it definitely feels like winter has finally waved goodbye.

I have to start by saying that it’s been a little bit busy for us, hence why I haven’t kept up with my blogs. The week began with our friend contacting us and offering a crémone that he had spare. ‘What’s that?’ I hear you say. It’s an ornamental device with two metal bars that are connected with a handle in the middle, that when turned unlock or lock a door or window. We’d mentioned, when our friends were visiting us, that we needed one, and the next day we received a WhatsApp message with photos, asking if this was useful.

It’s absolutely brilliant, just what we needed. We asked when we could collect it, and they suggested we go over on Monday evening to share dinner with them at the same time.

It was a really beautiful evening chatting in French and English and trying hard to improve our language skills with our French friends.

Veronique and Antoine have a beautiful elegance in their home, and Veronique has wonderful style about her. I love seeing how she presents her dinner table, and the way she uses seasonal touches like hellebores and ivy in her flower arrangement. Just beautiful.

We really value how lucky we are to have such wonderful friends.

Strapless

We knew one of the straps on the pool cover had broken, which we needed to repair. It had given us a bit of a quandary, as it had been severed by the edge of the concrete and there was no clear way to mend it.

The plan we came up with was to rivet an additional piece of webbing to the two ends with overlap, hopefully that would hold for this year.

Looks like that went okay, I think we will be reinforcing the others very soon also. The plan is to buy a new cover, once we’ve sourced the right one.

Out and about

We woke to a beautiful blue sky this morning, so I suggested we take some time out and head off for a walk.

Quick coffee and a slice of toast and we were out and about.

We headed up the little stone track opposite our house, and through the vineyards. Most of them by now have been carefully pruned, the cuttings disposed of, and the soil between the rows carefully tilled. This is done by tractor nowadays, with a very light touch.

We were so enjoying the expansive views that we decided to stop and enjoy them for a moment. We chose a nice little picnic spot and had a mid morning coffee. The little area was delightful. Bird boxes had been hung, new trees planted, insect hotels created, and picnic tables installed.

After our break we headed over towards the little village of Loches-sur-ource, and walked along the river to the neighbouring village of Landreville, before walking up to their point de vue, with lovely views out across Landreville.

From there it was just a short walk back home. What a gorgeous day.

The second door

After spending a long time putting up the first door, trying to understand how it all worked, it was surprising how fast the second door went up. I literally only nipped out to get a few groceries, when I came back it was in place.

Obviously Brian had learnt so much from the first one that it made the second so much easier. That meant that he also had time today to look at the lock.

I keep thinking the doors are finished, but they still need to go out to the workshop for little jobs. This time it was for the holes to be cut for the key and handles.

I must say the lock looks magnificent, it was definitely the right purchase.

All that was left was to rehang it.

Gosh, it looks so different from inside the bibliothèque.

And just perfect from the salon. Hoorah!

Waste not

Paint in France is quite expensive, and I do love the Farrow & Ball collection, which is even more so. I find their finishes work really well in older buildings, and the colours and tones are complimentary for the traditional look we like. Our style is an eclectic mix of up-cycling and renovation, with sometimes modern, but often quirky elements included in the end result. This is definitely how the bibliotheque/study has developed. During our decoration of the space we have tried to reuse and up-cycle wherever we can.

Because I dislike waste, looking after our paint is a key priority for me, as a little bit of care with the paint tin can mean the difference between it being useable when you go back to it in six months time to do some touch ups, or it being past it’s best and ready to go to the déchèterie.

Some simple tips on caring for your paint are; Do not damage the lid – take care when opening the can, damage to the lid, means air will get in, and the paint will dry out. Do not damage the tin – this can cause leaks and rust spots. Always clean the top of the tin and the edge of the lid, so you are not closing the tin on paint that will dry and allow air in, which again will mean the paint will dry out. If you return to an old paint tin, and the paint looks a bit tired, give it a really good stir, and if it’s water based add a little water, you may be able to recover it. Oil based paints can sometimes be recovered with a bit of white spirit.

These simple little care tips after every use make it so much nicer to come back to your paints at a later date, knowing they’ll be good to use again.

Will it, won’t it?

Well, the waiting is over, it’s come to that time when we see if the doors actually fit. I’d like to say that this is the easy part, but the truth is it’s one of the most stressful, because Brian’s fitting traditional French hinges.

As always, it seems success is in the preparation, and even the marking of where the hinges will go is an important task.

French hinges can fit into the wood of the door and frame, so effectively you do not see the supporting plate once they’re in, the only difficulty is that they’re not as adjustable as other types of hinges. All marked up though, and the first cuts are made.

Brian is quite nervous about the cuts, because they can’t be changed once they’re done, it’s a kind of one shot fitting.

One in place! We will need to fill the screw holes and touch up the paint work, but when finished you’ll never know the holes are there.

With the first pieces in the frame, the door will now have something to hang on. Just got to do the same for the door.

Final cuts made, just need to fit the second part of the hinge and he can hang it.

Voila! The door not only fits, it looks amazing.

Now he just needs to do that all again.