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

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

Sorry - what day is it?

Since we've lived in France we haven't had 9 to 5 office jobs so giving structure to the week is important. If we don't, time has a habit of going either of two ways, a day may drift as something catches the imagination and before you know it Mortimer is demanding his evening meal. The other option is that we work on the house restoration seven days a week which is tiring, physically and mentally.

We try for a working week of Monday to Friday, alarms are set and there is a regularity to the days. Saturday is usually still for jobs but a gentler type of labour - gardening, maybe some research and even occasionally some household chores! We have a couple of good markets nearby so they may get a visit. Sunday we always try for a slow day, breakfast is leisurely and croissants replace cereal. It's when Mortimer gets an extended walk and long, relaxing meals are enjoyed. In the summer we may go to a vide-grenier or explore some of the beautiful countryside that we have in Corrèze.

The river Corrèze this week

Although we set our own weekly structure, living in the village also helps. I wrote this post a while back and up until three weeks ago it still held true but not anymore, since lockdown the village rhythms have changed and it's quite disconcerting. There is definitely less traffic in the morning, the college is closed and fewer people are working. The small gatherings of people lallygagging are not there, no longer can I hear the 'ladies who coffee' chatting in the restaurant. At about 10 past each hour the college plays a short burst of 'Under Pressure' which echos across the town but that is now silent too (actually not a great loss!) The church still chimes on the hour but the long 10.45 peal to call Sunday mass has stopped. We live just a few doors from the tabac which is now only open in the morning so afternoon traffic is non-existent. Without the ability to leave the house we are having to try even harder to not work seven days a week.

It's very peaceful at the moment

I have quite a lot of upholstery and furniture projects to do for the bed & breakfast rooms, last count there were at least eight chairs and I'm not even looking at chests of drawers, dressing tables and beds. So my plan is that on Saturdays this will be my task. Well it's hardly a chore as I really enjoy doing it. I'm going to start with the chairs, strip them down, sort the woodwork out if necessary and get them all up to calico stage. I haven't allocated them all to rooms yet and with design schemes still to be finalised it seems a good stage to get them to. Also the house will continue to be a dusty building site for a good few months so putting final fabric on would be pointless. The weather this weekend was glorious so I took two chairs into the garden to start. The first one was easy, it had only had one set of covers so no multiple tack holes which is a bonus. It was easy to strip and not much of the woodwork needs repairing. The second was a different story entirely. A much older chair that had been recovered with some petit point work. I took the back off first to find dozens of dead moths! The stuffing was a mix of horse hair (which was OK) but also some really nasty rotting wadding. Really pleased I was doing this outside and with a mask on. The tacks are proving really difficult to get out but I shall persevere, I have a few tricks for this task. Moral of the story, if you are buying old chairs to recover, always try and strip down as many of the old layers as you can - you just never know what may be lurking there!

Mortimer supervising my work

We have also had a breakthrough on the kitchen design. Regular readers may know that this has been an ongoing issue between Andrew & myself but with work on the electrics having started we needed to get a layout finalised. Again we both hit the design boards and finally we have agreed a design. We've both made compromises but the design is better for these. I do however confess to have gone a little pale when I saw that Andrew had a label 'steam punk table' on his!

I have finally got round to starting on Instagram, it's taken a while and I won't be flooding it with posts but if you would like to take a look then we're here. I'd love to see what you share too.

I couldn't resist these that I found tucked into a hole in the wall

This week is Easter and we're going to take a long weekend. The weather has been good and with a forecast of warm and sunny weather ahead it looks like week four of lockdown isn't going to be too bad. As always you can keep in touch with us on Facebook as a follower or friend, it's been lovely to make new friends, catch up with old ones and to be part of your lockdown life.

Beautiful blossom on our morning walk

House/3

December has been famine and feast in The Old Notaires' House. We've either been demolishing with gusto or almost motionless in front of a computer, planning. Many an evening has passed with a glass of red, batting ideas about and solving problems. Lists made and spreadsheets created. Experience has taught us that time spent in this manner is a crucial part of a successful project and guilt shouldn't be felt if you're not physically getting on with work.

The two downstairs rooms of the original house have now had their walls stripped back to the granite stone. Both have some damp issues, mainly caused by the ground level being built up too high against the outside walls and an historic misunderstanding of how to solve damp issues. Apart from the installation of a French ditch around this part of the house we've decided to allow the rooms to breathe. Everyone has been so complimentary of our stone wall in the barn that we've decided to do both the dining room and entrance hall - I may regret this! It will be a long, messy job but will look fabulous, more importantly it will improve the damp issue no end.

Entrance hall

Hall from the staircase

Andrew has finished demolition (well apart from two new doorways to be knocked through). There are times on large projects when you have to concentrate on your vision, it can sometimes be difficult when confronted with a building site to think that it will one day be a beautiful space.

The new dining room

I have managed to remove all of the stuck-on sticky back plastic circles in the bathroom and Andrew has taken out the bath. This room will become two ensuites.

Old bathroom

Another wall removed downstairs, the four old notaires' rooms have become two. This has made such a difference to the light in the space that will become the kitchen and snug. The external doors have been ordered, no longer will we see daylight through the cracks!

This will be a kitchen and snug

This should become our bedroom & ensuite

Concept board for the Gentleman's Room 

I've also been creating concept boards for the guest bedrooms and planning the furniture layouts. It's important for me to get this done early in the project. On a practical note it allows Andrew to finalise the electrical circuit & plumbing plans. We're trying to use as much of the furniture that came with the house and items we already own to furnish rooms so planning them in now really helps. I then know what we need to buy, along with sizes, and can take time to find the right pieces.

The old kitchen, hall and loo will become the Artists Room

Concept board for the Artists bedroom

We're having a break from the house over Christmas and New Year to recharge the batteries for what will be a very busy few months in 2020. If you would like to know more about life in Corrèze then feel free to follow or friend over here on Facebook

Concept boards for the Garden bedroom

Our morning walk

Mortimer is ready to go - are you coming too?

Back in March some of you came with us on our evening walk with Mortimer and I did say that you could join us for our morning promenade if you wished. Today seems perfect, still cool but with a promise of a gorgeous autumn day ahead. It's a bit more strenuous than the evening stroll but definitely worth the effort.

All set? OK so like before we're turning right out of the drive and heading into the centre of the village. Yes, well remembered, that's where we turned down to go into the 'ville clos' but this time we're going through the centre of Corrèze. That's our boulangerie, Madame is very kind about my French and I have a mini lesson each day, but I don't think I'll ever get the hang of 'millefeuille myrtilles'. Those boards? we're fortunate to have several marked walks and cycle routes of varying degrees of difficulty that start in the village and these show you the routes.

Entrance to Corrèze ville clos

Our boulangerie

Walking and cycle paths in Corrèze

As you can tell from Mortimer's insistence that we cross the road our traiteur has the rotisserie chickens on the go. Bernard Fraysse is an award winning traiteur (it's like a delicatessen) as well as being a superb butcher.

Sadly closed but I just love the tiles

We're now starting the long climb out of the village so just tell me if you want to stop.  We moved here from the Fens in Norfolk where we were at sea level and not a hill in sight, so all these hills and 500 metres altitude came as a bit of a shock! This is the Atelier du Pénitent Blanc, I love the style of pottery here and covet one of the striding pilgrim figures. I suspect it's so named because it's situated opposite the Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs up there. Yes that's the village cemetery, I know I need to have a good look round too - maybe we'll do that another day as I think it will be worth spending some time in there.

Atelier du Pénitent Blanc

Chapelle des Pénitents Blancs

You see that walnut tree? We turn left there up to Vieux Foirail, I love that every cluster of houses, however small has a name. This is quite steep, you can see Mortimer starts plodding and falls behind. When we're pushed for time we cut a corner off the walk and go up these steps but not today. Down there is an old lavoir, there are a lot in the village and in fact one of the marked walks I was telling you about earlier is called 'lavoirs et fontaines'. Originally they were used to do the laundry but many are like this now, home to water lilies.

Vieux Foirail

Old lavoir

We're turning left up this track and I promise the final uphill section. In the summer it's lined with hundreds of wild strawberry plants and there is the most beautifully scented honeysuckle. This house? It's cute isn't it and for sale I believe, as is one of my favourite buildings. I love this barn, actually a small house and barn, if you just look round the back you can see it has a bread oven too.

That's it for uphill now, unless you want to do an extended walk? Maybe another time. One of the things I love about the village is the amount of livestock and chickens that you see in 'normal' gardens. These hens are quite bold and come up to the fence, I do count them each morning though! Earlier in the year there were two beautiful Limousin cows in this field and then of course we have the goats, they seem to prefer life off the ground.

This has to be one of my favourite views of Corrèze, you can see why this lane is called Belle Vue. Down there is La Poste and watching the small, yellow postal vans is like seeing Trumpton in the flesh. I'll see if I can find you some photographs in different seasons.

Today's view of Corrèze

Last winter

For some reason I love this shed and seem to have quite a lot of photographs of it!

We're heading down here, look -  another lavoir. You may have noticed some iron crosses as we've walked, some of our route has been on the 'Voie Rocamadour' which is part of the Santiago de Compestela pilgrimage route. I forgot to point out a small cross by a barn further back, crosses were often placed by barns or fields to protect harvests.

Lavoir lily pond

I was about to say that we're coming up to our small supermarket and Gamm Vert and that they were not quintessentially French, just blocky buildings round a car park, but actually I think they are. Anyone who has spent time in France will be familiar with the out of town shopping malls. This is not in that league but not overly photogenic either, however I'm very pleased that we have them within a few minutes walk of our house.

We're nearly home now, just down this hill and we've completed the full circuit. Go on, through the gates, and if you want to go down to the terrace I'll put the kettle on. Tea or coffee?

Tea or coffee?

If you want to know more about our life in France then feel free to follow or friend us on Facebook