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

Behind locked doors

Despite, or perhaps because of, our current restrictions work has continued apace at The Old Notaires' House. If I'm honest life has been quite enjoyable. The weather over the past week or so has been glorious with warm spring sunshine and postcard-blue skies. I've started painting the new doors and it's been really nice to be able to do that outdoors. We've had our sandwiches on the barn's terrace and even Mortimer has been contentedly dozing in the grass.

On the morning of our first day of 'lockdown', nearly a fortnight ago, we did a trip to LeClerc and a fairly large shop but since then we haven't been out in the car. I've walked twice to our local Petit Casino and of course our bread from the boulangerie but this is part of Mortimer's morning walk anyway. In fact it is the daily dog walks that have been the only real change in our routine. Usually we walk Mortimer together twice a day, but the initial restrictions dictated that you could only exercise alone, and that included dog walking. I took on the morning and Andrew the evening. Earlier this week when the French government extended our homestay from two weeks to four they made a small adjustment to the exercise section. We can now exercise with one other person from the same household however only for one hour a day and no more than one kilometre from home. As Mr M has at least two forty-five minute walks a day then we are no better off. It would be easy to work around these restrictions but that's not really in the spirit of it.

Beautiful view ten minutes from home

It's a long hill!

This blog, and to a degree our Facebook posts, have always been and will remain a light-hearted account of our house restoration and life in Corrèze. This does not mean that we are ignorant of the effect that the pandemic is having on millions of people and that it will continue to do so for months, possibly years ahead. It's not just those who catch the disease who are suffering, those who remain virus free may well have life-changing experiences too. Andrew and I know that we are extremely fortunate and don't forget that.

New doorways

So what have we been up to? At the moment we still have building supplies to keep us going. Andrew continues to concentrate on destroying walls and creating rubble which is a tad unfortunate as the déchetterie is closed. The upstairs of the Notaires' House is being rearranged, in some places quite dramatically. The sitting room is staying put although it has a recess which will be turned into an office. Two small bedrooms are being made into one space to include a bathroom. The old kitchen, loo and a corridor become another bedroom with its ensuite being constructed from half the old bathroom. The third bedroom has a new doorway and grabs the other half of the bathroom for its own. So in total that's three new doorways created, three to be blocked and three walls removed. And just because he was in the mood he took a ceiling down as well! In the process of all this we've discovered one difference in floor level and several ceiling height differences.

Old ceiling on the left. Andrew also discovered decades of wheat chaff left behind but some unknown creature

And a new windowsill

As mentioned earlier I have been painting doors. While I was back in the UK our new external doors were fitted, the double ones for the room that will be the kitchen, new doors for both the main entrance and the dining room. It's quite a lot of work but I enjoy it. Andrew finished the new steps as well and has done a beautiful job. They may look simple but they took a huge amount of planning to get right. Because they are the entrance to the kitchen I plan on having large pots of herbs either side of them so have started potting up, such a nice way to spend a sunny afternoon.

So impressed with the new steps

The kitchen itself is proving very bothersome and if I'm honest has reduced me to tears, particularly galling as I used to be a kitchen designer. The overall space is quite large, about eleven metres by five and although each wall has a door it is quite symmetrical. The issue I/we're trying to overcome is that Andrew and I are approaching the design from from two different angles. Andrew sees a calm, uncluttered space where, along with cooking, we can relax and escape from guests. I on the other hand see more of a warm, welcoming kitchen where we can cook as well as have a natter with friends over a cup of coffee or a light lunch. We will get there, we always do, but at the moment...

The other achievement was a big clear up of the sitting room. Along with the packing cases that remain unpacked since the move from England we also have repacked the items and furniture that we used whilst living in the house (plus possibly the odd Emmaüs purchase or two!). There is no handy annexe to put all this in so everything has just been piled up in random corners. Plus all the demolition work has left them covered with a thick layer of dust. So we set to, cleaned and organised everything in to the garden bedroom and cleared the sitting room, it's made such a difference.

Before

After

The beautiful spring weather has added to our enjoyment, it's been warm enough to work in a t-shirt (although that is changing for a few days this week). Spring blossoms are out and it feels good to sit on our new steps with a cup of coffee and warm sun on skin. Yes we are very lucky at the moment.

View from one side of the garden

And from the other

If you would like to follow our French progress then please feel free to follow/friend us here on Facebook Meanwhile I have a small confession. Remember how you couldn't get toilet rolls for love nor money...

A little bit of sparkle

We can always hear the Correze river at the Notaire's House, it's part of our soundscape. We can't see it apart from when the sun is out and at the right angle, then you catch a tantalising glimpse of sparkling water. Conditions were right this morning. I suspect that as the trees come into full leaf we won't see it at all, but it's beautiful when we can.

A glimpse of the Correze