France - April / May 2007

The first few days of this trip made use of the continuing fine weather to cut the grass, weed the borders, and plant out geraniums etc.. The village was starting to " bloom " in the warm weather. My roses, which flowered twice last year, also put on a fine show.

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English Fish and Chips from a van, eaten outside at Le Local bar in nearby Couesmes-Vaucé, was the menu for the first Wednesday evening, and at the weekend, as the fine weather continued, there was a 50th birthday BBQ celebration at La Petite Reigniere.

For a change, renovation work was started slowly, in order to have a bit of a break first. Some finishing off of plasterwork and electrics, the construction of a balustrade and modification of the stairwell for the second bedroom saw progress in this area of the house. The windows need to be replaced in this room before next winter.

The end of April saw the first signs of rain, but only a brief shower or two - although there was much thunder and lightening. Generally, the days were fine, most of the rain being overnight. It remained very warm.

At La Petite Reigniere work on a new swimming pool, at the back of the outdoor kitchen, proceeded quickly, and it was very pleasant to have a dip as the days remained mostly sunny. Water temperature was helped by solar heating panels and was well into the 20s C most days.

At my place, I decided to start one of the remaining major jobs, the replacement of the main stairs. These stairs were originally made in solid oak but had suffered the ravages of time. They were much worn and definitely sagging under centuries of use. So far it has taken just over a week to replace them with a custom built stairway, but the effort will be well worthwhile since it will provide a larger stairway, increasing the ' kitchen ' area below and providing additional storage space.

For a couple of days access to the bedroom was difficult to say the least, and the dust created reminded me of the first weeks in the property, before the floor was tiled and walls sealed. The kitchen area was also out of use. The stairs should be finished off on the next visit along with the kitchen area. The hot water cylinder on the landing will be concealed and a start made on finishing the upstairs bathroom.

Seeing the remains of the old stairs made me realise how dangerous they had become. Despite being solid oak, age and wear had certainly taken their toll.

Back at La Petite Reigniere there has been the patter of tiny feet: a litter of four kittens, 3 black and one black and white.

No other major work was started, since, all being well, I shall be returning in a couple of weeks. The rest of the time was spent cleaning and tidying up, and gathering things to take back with me - either worn out, empty or surplus to requirements. All of which helps relieve the existing storage space.

A fine drizzle and a heavy mist made the trip up to Cherbourg a bit weary, moreso because it was Ascension and the garages were closed en route, and I was short of fuel ! But 30 Km out of Cherbourg the skies cleared and it was wall to wall sunshine, which made the temperature rise into the twenties again. A gusty wind made for a lively crossing, but it was still sunny on the way back home from Portsmouth.