Corrèze in confinement

Just two weeks after writing my last post France went into confinement for the second time, scheduled to last for the month of November. Only essential shops and services were open and once again we were limited to one hour a day exercise and no more than a kilometre from home. It's fair to say we found it harder than the first one. In March there was an optimism, summer round the corner and the fact that many of these types of virus tend to peter out during warm weather. Covid-19 is more tenacious than most and it didn't disappear.

The view from the barn is ever changing

We have been blessed with some beautiful weather though. Crisp days with bountiful sunshine and hardly any rain. We were also allowed to travel in a car together and unlike first time round the DIY shops were deemed as essential so we could get supplies. The focus on the restoration has been on plumbing (Andrew) and window renovation (me). We both despair of the T.V programmes where everything seems to get done in a couple of months, in reality it's not like that. True we don't put in 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week but most days we are doing something renovation related. I think it's just that the scale of this project is really quite large. When we bought the Old Notaires House it was really a first floor 3 bedroom apartment with one bathroom, minuscule kitchen with an entrance hall, summer kitchen (room with carpet up the walls & a sink!) and offices on the ground floor. We've knocked the four offices into two large spaces which will become the kitchen and our suite (a.k.a. the servants quarters), the garage will also house a utility area and loo with the summer kitchen becoming a guest dining room. Upstairs two bedrooms have been combined to make one large bedroom with bathroom and a second bedroom has been fashioned from the old kitchen, a corridor and a loo. The third bedroom has had its entrance changed and the old bathroom (which was bigger than the kitchen) has become two en-suites. And we've managed to squeeze an office in too. So when I say Andrew is re-doing the plumbing it's not a case of simply replacing the pipes and a new shower.

The only loo is rather exposed at the moment

One of the joys of renovating an old house is being able to re-use original items. I'm working in the entrance hall at the moment which is the oldest part of the house, originally two rooms downstairs and we think one upstairs. It has two windows but we think one opening is newer than the other as they both have different fittings. I spent a happy few hours getting the layers of old paint and varnish off, then polishing with my trusty Dremel before a light wax. We really love the slightly industrial feel the polished steel has.

Refurbishing

Once again we explored footpaths around our village to give us more variety of walks but it was a relief when President Macron said that we could exercise for three hours a day and up to 20 kilometres from home. We bundled Mortimer into the car and headed for one of our favourite destinations - Château de Sédières.  It's such a beautiful place to walk and it was a perfect autumn day.

Château de Sédières

We've been taking quite a lot of time with planning too. Although I had done concept boards for the bedrooms, I hadn't for the kitchen neither had I actually selected specific paint colours for rooms. I needed to get this sorted as radiators off walls gives me an ideal opportunity to paint behind them. A lot of negatives things are said about French paint but I do like Leroy Merlin's own brand Luxens and I've also just discovered that Liberon do a wall paint which is very similar to Farrow & Ball. Colours here can be quite, how can I say, primary and I want some subtlety so I ordered a RAL colour swatch so I can get some paint mixed. RAL is a European colour match system and at most paint mixing outlets you can specify one of the unique number and know that the colour is true. This system is so common in France that you will see a lot of pre-mixed paint tins with a RAL number alongside the colour names.

Kitchen concept board

My RAL swatches

Despite social media being full of images of people's Christmas decorations I have resisted being early. I just can't do it in November but will probably be a little earlier than my usual mid-December. I've also had to wait for the non-essential shops to open (particularly Emmaüs) as my Christmas decorations are buried somewhere under packing cases and it's too much effort to hunt them down. Inspired by an on-line video workshop I did on the subject of 'A winter table' I may take the opportunity of going for a more natural look this year. Watch this space!

Christmas is now just three weeks off and we will give ourselves a break from physical work for a week, that's not to say we won't be doing something. I need to re-cap on furniture requirements and we really need to nail the kitchen plans down and maybe even order it. I'm really hoping that we can see friends properly instead of doorstep conversations and chance dog-walking meets, after all we have a very large Christmas cake to share. Oh and I'm doing another online workshop this weekend baking two sorts of Italian biscuits. It's one where we bake as the we go but I'm definitely going to turn the camera off, no-one deserves to see the mess I'll be making!

I'm really hoping to show you some lovely progress shots soon but meanwhile if you would like to see what life in France is really like then feel free to follow/friend us here on FaceBook or on Instagram

Hot chocolatey mornings

"It's the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!"*

Okay so there aren't many dropped leaves yet, they're not even really turning red. You can see a change in the colour on some trees but I think we're still a couple of weeks off. Finally after a very dry summer we have had a reasonable amount of rain, enough for mushrooms and fungi to spring up everywhere. The weather has been cooler, much to the relief of Mortimer who can once again enjoy longer walks.

Our evenings are getting chillier now so we've had the pellet stove going. Across the two houses we have three, no four, types of heating. The main house has oil fired central heating and a log burner whilst the barn has the pellet stove and some electric underfloor heating in the two en-suites. Much as I love the romance of the log burner I really appreciate the cleanliness, efficiency and speed of the pellet stove. I come upstairs in the morning, press a button and it starts instantly. By the time I've showered and am back upstairs for breakfast everything is toasty. Our local Gamm Vert had an offer on the pellets at the end of the summer which we arranged for delivery last week. Because the store is in the village the guy trundled them down to us on his little forklift and helped us unload them into the sous-sol. Such great service!

We came back from holiday with renewed energy for the renovations. I finally finished the pointing in the entrance hall and Andrew completed the re-wiring. Last Monday was crunch time as our electrician came to install the main board. It took him most of the day to connect it all but he did it and there were no errors. Andrew was particularly pleased when the earth rod registered 84  (apparently this is very good) The re-wiring has been such a huge job, so many decisions had to be made as to the position of sockets, switches and lights. Some of the rooms didn't even have all the walls so Andrew had to build these too. I can't begin to tell you the admiration I have for him. By the time we reached Monday evening we both felt de-mob happy.

We decided that we would spend the rest of the week doing some long overdue planning, well apart from a celebratory lunch. The electrical work has been such a huge part of the renovation project that we hadn't really set a structure as to the next stage  I'd already started the window renovations but that is slightly weather dependent. The next big job is plumbing but fortunately this can be broken down into more manageable mini-projects. We started by reassessing two of the en-suites and have made a couple of tweaks that will improve them. I've spent time researching bathroom fittings and orders have been placed for showers and basins, and my oh my do we have some fancy basins! 

Currently the house hot water is supplied by the oil heating system but that only had to do one bathroom and two sinks (kitchen & laundry). Once we've finished we will have a kitchen & separate utility, four showers, one bath and five basins. Not only would the boiler not produce enough for all of this but oil is a very expensive option in France so we are fitting two electric heaters known as 'ballons'. The en-suite with the bath is at the far end of the house so Andrew has decided it can have it's own. Siting of this has been a bit of an issue but, because we've had time to think properly, Andrew has come up with a cunning plan which actually improves three rooms.

This week we've got back to physical work again with Andrew tackling the two ensuites over the garage. We'd decided to give them both underfloor heating but the floor level (I use the term level very loosely!) was causing quite a headache. It's oak floorboards straight onto the joists, beautiful but so irregular and impossible to tile over. The decision was made to take these up, they will be re-purposed, and then lay a new base to take the heating mat and tiles. Another advantage to this is we can stuff insulation under the floors. Sounds like a simple plan but as with all old houses it's not proving to be quite so straightforward, at one point I was levering a wall up so that Andrew could add extra joist supports.

Yes that is the garage below

I'm back on window duty which gives me more time to think about the room designs as it's a fairly mind freeing job. I'm still on the hunt for vintage lighting as my needs seem to grow. I worked out we have a total of 17 rooms that need lights. Now a couple of them are just loos (although one of these will sport a chandelier) while others are more complicated, I think the sitting room has three separate lighting circuits plus there will be floor lamps. I'm doing quite well at the moment though with another chandelier and a pair of fancy wall lights added to my stash.

Of course autumn life hasn't been ignored. Our menu has changed, my new (old) oven dish has proved perfect for roasting vegetables. Soups have replaced salads and Andrew has already had one duck confit making session (it's the season for inexpensive duck in France). I have some figs that need to be made into jam and am even beginning to think about the Christmas cake.

So that's it, I think we're all up to date now. As always you can follow/friend us on Facebook or if you just want the pretty photographs then we're here on Instagram.

*Winnie the Pooh - Pooh's Grand Adventure

August notes

August ended with a feeling of comfort for me. I dislike the phrase 'a comfortable life', it has a touch of middle-class smugness. 'The children have marvellous careers, there's a decent car in the garage, pensions are doing really quite nicely thank you and a cheeky little Merlot is ready for Sunday lunch'. It's hard to explain but I realised how much contentment life in Corrèze gives me and how comfortable it fits with me. I didn't realise quite how much until we returned from holiday last weekend.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. August was always going to be a busy month. Work on the house progressed well, Andrew thinks he is still on schedule for his electrics deadline at the beginning of October. It's not just a question of pulling cables (so far 2.5 kilometres), sockets are needed in walls that don't exist and so they have to be built. If it's lighting, he needs to know exactly what type of lights, for example the chandeliers need special fixings. I know I am boringly repetitive but I genuinely don't know how he holds all the information in his head.

I was a little frustrated as I wanted to get the pointing finished in the entrance hall before friends came to stay but I didn't quite make it. I have returned from holiday with new enthusiasm and I've nearly done, maybe another 6 or 7 days to complete the walls and under the stairs. I really enjoy doing it but it would be nice to move on to something new, I think I'll be back to painting duty, windows and radiators maybe? As you can see the original windows are in a bit of a state (toy horses Andrew found under the floorboards so I thought I'd get a bit arty!)

The windows really do need more than a lick of paint!

August is the month that my oldest friend and myself have birthdays and we try to get together to share celebrations. This year was a significant one for both of us and, despite Covid and the threat of quarantine (which did happen), she and her husband drove over from England for a visit. Although they were not here nearly long enough we managed to do some sightseeing, a trip to Emmaüs and some great meals. I was really grateful that they made it and hope it will be for longer next time.

My original birthday plan was to celebrate at home with friends and then a family holiday at the beginning of September to Italy. Understandably family were concerned about flying and so the trip was cancelled. We were always going to drive so for us it wasn't an issue. We found alternative accommodation and decided to spend my birthday in Lake Como instead of Corrèze. We broke the outward journey with an overnight stay in Chambéry (I certainly want to go back) and so had time to take the mountain pass instead of the tunnel. The views were spectacular and I would certainly recommend it.

Lac du Mont-Cenis

We've visited Bellagio previously so didn't feel the need to rush about doing a load of sightseeing, it wasn't what this holiday was about.  We went to markets, spent a lot of time reading and just chilling. I don't think we realised quite how much we needed a break from work but we did know that we needed to try and switch off for a week. We didn't even have to get up early to dog walk as Mortimer stayed in Corrèze being looked after by kind friends, so nice not to have to worry about him.

Morning view

We did the return journey in a day, it's about a 8.5 hour drive for us, and went straight to friends to collect Mortimer. I'm not sure he'd even noticed that we'd gone! He'd been taken to the lake for walks and swimming sessions, had been groomed everyday and looked a very happy dog. We took an extra day off, the journey had been quite tiring, and then of course the usual unpacking, sorting and washing to do. It was on the Monday evening as I walked Mortimer through town that I realised how comfortable I feel living here, Corrèze suits me. The ancient walls cocoon you, I could hear families chatting as they prepared the evening meal and there was the odd snatch of music. Children were playing outside and I got a "bonsoir Madame" as I walked past.  It's a beautiful place but not Disney polished, people are friendly (we can tell who are the  holiday makers as they rarely say 'bonjour'). It's not what I do, or what I look like, it's how I am and how I treat people that's important here. It was a lovely holiday but coming home is like putting on a favourite jumper. I'm happy here.

Our holiday was exactly what we needed and we've started back on the renovations with a new vigour. It has helped that the weather has been perfect, blue skies and not too hot at 22 - 26 degrees. Nights are cooler and I have been able to put the summer duvet back on the bed instead of just a linen sheet. We know that we have a lot of work to do over the next few months but we're enjoying it again.

If you would like to know more about daily life at the Notaires House then feel free to join us here on Facebook or if you just want the photographs then you can find us on Instagram

It's good to be home

Progress report: The Notaires House

Hello? Anyone there? I suspect you've all abandoned me by now. For someone who thinks blogging should be a weekly affair then this is a pretty poor show! I have no excuse, Mortimer has not eaten the wifi cable, floods and tempests have not swept through Corrèze, it's just life really. And deadlines. Now I know that a practitioner of slow living shouldn't really be concerned about such things as deadlines but sometimes we have no choice.

Our focus over the past few months has been twofold, for Andrew the house rewire and for me the pointing. I understand that these don't sound too bad but trust me they are. How Andrew has remained focussed I have no idea, he is blessed with dogged determination and the ability to think in 3D. A rewire is a big job anyway but a huge undertaking when nearly every room has at least changed shape and quite often form and function too. What do I mean? Well take guest room three a.k.a. the Artist's Room. This has been created through the merging of a corridor, the old kitchen and a loo, with the ensuite being half of the original bathroom (see image below)

The birth of a new bedroom

Mainly for the kitchen - about 11 circuits

There are hundreds of decisions to be made, I have to know where furniture is going and preferably specific pieces. Why? If we take a bedside cabinet for example then the height could effect the placing of sockets and switches.  What will guests want in a room? heated towel rails? underfloor heating? Do we have a range or two ovens? How many sockets do I want in the kitchen and where are they going? T.V. internet, wifi, hubs and ethernet!!!!! And so it continues. On one day alone over 250 metres of cable was laid and that was mainly for the kitchen.

More hacking

It's not just where sockets/switches are placed, it's where they switch from. Is it a two or even a three way? Do I put a dressing table socket on the left or right? Andrew can't wire if he hasn't got walls in place so they've been built too but of course some of these will have plumbing in them... Fortunately Andrew's graphic design skills have been invaluable as he can get all this down 'on paper' with accurate measurements (although there are times that I still insist on chalk marks on floors.) Before anyone comments the dotted lines show the switching links and not the actual cable runs.

Downstairs

Upstairs

I know he is my husband and I'm biased but Andrew's skills and abilities amaze me - how he does all this, how he knows what to do, how he thinks so many steps ahead I really can't comprehend. I am involved in the planning particularly with furniture placing and functionality but it's not that hard to say 'oh yes I need a dressing table here with a socket for a hairdryer' is it? Or to choose some paint and wallpaper.

The kitchen layout bugged us for almost a year and we've finally put that one to bed. We then moved on to our suite. We've kept the sitting room on the first floor with the three chambre d'hôte rooms and separated ourselves downstairs, creating servants quarters behind the kitchen! I know this sounds a little odd but it means that we can keep some personal space if we feel that we need some time apart from guests. Our area is a bedroom, ensuite and dressing room as well as a pair of comfortable chairs and small table in the kitchen. Breakfast à deux in the dining room, table for 12, under the chandelier would seem a little odd!

Kitchen colour scheme (not necessary at this point in time I grant you!)

Just trying it for size!

My focus has been the stone walls in the dining room and entrance hall. Originally plastered with the addition of concrete and wall carpet, these two rooms suffered from damp (they were originally stables). Stripping everything off and exposing the stone gives the walls a chance to breath. I'm not the fastest pointer in the world, although I've definitely sped up, but it is a time consuming job. I do enjoy it though and it's nice to think that once it's finished we will never have to redecorate.

Three metre high walls take a lot of work!

There has been life outside of work though. The summer season is in full swing with night markets, concerts and vide-greniers all back. We've enjoyed socially distanced apéros with friends and the occasional coffee out.

Egletons vide-grenier

It's been very warm and with only about 3mm of rain in the last month which has meant a re-ordering of our day. Mortimer's evening walk has become quite late, rarely before 9 p.m. but we love walking through town at this time. Many of the houses are filled with families on holiday, windows are flung open to let the cooler evening air in and you can hear the chatter and laughter. Sometimes music is playing and I take sideways glances into houses that are usually shuttered up.

Mortimer's summer river walk

This week I'm downing tools though as my oldest (not in age but we have know each other for nearly 50 years) is coming to stay. We share August as our birthday month and her husband surprised her with a trip so we can celebrate together. So apart from some fairly major housework tomorrow the rest of the week will be spent enjoying summer in Corrèze.

If you can't wait another 4 weeks for the next update(!) then feel free to join us on Facebook or for sometimes very random photographs of daily life in Corrèze then we're here on Instagram

So what happened to May?

For the life of me I can't understand where May went! I know, I know, I'm getting older and so the years seem to shrink but it's getting a tad ridiculous. Last time I posted it was the 3rd of the month and tomorrow it's June. It's not as though we've been gadding about. French lockdown restrictions have been eased, and will do a little more from Tuesday but even so. I've had to have a look at my photographs to see what we've done this month. So here we have a pictorial record of May 2020 at The Old Notaires House.

It was the month that I noticed the bearded iris around the village. I had never really spotted them before, maybe it's been a particularly good year but some of them have been stunning.

After the rain

This has to be my favourite, such beautiful faded colours

Before we were allowed to stray more than a kilometre from home we were still exploring new paths around the village and we forged a new route. At one junction was this seemingly ancient stone cross marking the Saint Jacques de Compostelle pilgrimage route. I know I've mentioned before that the Rocamadour path goes through our village and there are several examples of the cockle shell on ancient buildings.

Cross of St Jacques de Compostelloe

We also found this old wood shed. I can't resist an old building -  barns, sheds, old doors are a magnet to me. In a roundabout way this led me to artist Sharon McDonagh who paints on the subject of decay and also 'urbex'. Urbex stands for Urban Explorers, people who go out in their urban environments photographing old and abandoned buildings. If you have Instagram do a search for Urbex, there are some amazing photographs.

Old shed

Making the most of our new freedoms we went dog walking a couple of times at Château Sédières, a favourite of both us and Mortimer. We need to go back soon as the water lilies are just about to flower.

Never one to miss an opportunity to paddle

Château Sédières

Work on the house has been going well. Andrew is ploughing on with the new electrics. Nothing had really changed since electricity came to the house in 1959 but because we are redefining spaces it needs a complete re-design of the system. It also means 101 decisions and I need to be confident that the furniture will remain where I've designed it, sockets stay in place and the lighting works. With metre thick granite walls it's not an easy task to add a power socket. I've been continuing the window restorations and will be doing so for quite a while as there are still eleven to go.

One of many that need refurbishment

Poor Andrew spends a lot of time chiselling out the old granite walls for cables. It's tough work.

We have been having some fun too. The brocantes are slowly starting to open and we've purchased some vintage lighting and some art. The weather has been beautiful, really quite warm for May with several days at 30 degrees. This is the first year of the barn terrace so I was able to get out the table we found at the end of last year and we added a large sunshade. It's now a rather pleasant spot to enjoy a coffee or evening apéros while we watch village life.

This one is for the garden guest suite

We needed to try this one out for size and fortunately it's perfect for the new dining room

And of course we've both had haircuts which was such a relief, if not a slightly bizarre experience.

Haircut in a bin bag and a mask

Slowly the village is coming into summer mode, fishing is now allowed and this is a favourite spot just by the chapel.

Fishing in the River Corrèze

And of course the markets are back and we are enjoying the most wonderful vegetables.

Woodland asparagus

So that was May. I will try really hard to not leave it quite so long until the next blog post. If you want to know what's happening on a slightly more regular basis then we'd be delighted to see you here on Facebook or have a look at our Instagram squares

Join us in the garden?

Come in, come in - the gates are open. Can I offer you a glass of wine? Let's take it down to the table at the end of the garden.

Come in - the gates are open

I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to invite you over but with all the work converting the barn and now the house restoration the garden gets somewhat forgotten. Also I'm not much of a gardener, I love having one but I don't spend hours planning and working in it. I know a lot of people buy property in France so that they can get a couple of acres and become self-sufficient but not us, in fact this was bigger than was ideal but it's really easy to maintain. The French call it 'park style' which doesn't necessarily mean acres of parkland but it has a lot of trees and few flower beds.

The previous owner planted lots of specimen conifers which give beautiful shade in the summer. Yes you're right, that is a monkey puzzle tree. I'm not overly fond of it, it's become a little squashed by the other trees so is lopsided, that and it has quite vicious spikes. However it is a perfect place to hang the hammock from!

You didn't expect that view did you! I know it's a surprise isn't it? When guests come in they are drawn down the garden to the seating area and the view of the river (I took this photograph last autumn when the Corrèze was full). It's not until you come back up the garden that you see the view of the medieval village.

View of the River Corrèze

Corrèze town

The garden is an L-shape around the house, to the front and side with nothing at all to the back. The door you can see leads into into the grandly called summer kitchen (although how a room with just a sink and carpet up the wall qualifies for this I have no idea!)

Side garden

We will make it the dining room, in fact I was researching chandeliers when you arrived. We are planning to put a terrace along this side, design and timing is still under marital discussion - although I would love something like this:

We inherited several of these with the house, apparently they are Franco-Roman funérarium, where urns containing burial ashes were put. I have no idea if that's true but they are quite common in this area.

Franco-Roman burial stone? 

The watering can? Yes that's old too, must be at least 60 years and I use it all the time. It belonged to my grandfather who was a keen allotment holder, frequently winning prizes. Behind it is a Victorian rhubarb forcer.

As you will have seen we have quite a lot of wild flowers, I keep some areas unmown until the end of May. You're just in time to see the laburnum come into flower, such a beautiful tree. I remember there were a lot when I was a child but they fell out of favour as the seeds are poisonous, such a shame.

Wild flowers in the garden

Laburnum trees

Seen enough? Let me top you up and we'll go and sit and look at the river. We'd love you to stay in touch, we're here on Facebook or on Instagram

Perfect spot for aperos