Our new home in France

While looking for a house to rent, somewhere to base ourselves while we hunt for the right property, we found the perfect house in the perfect spot -and with the help of the lovely people at Cle Rouge Immobilier in Duras it is ours! This blog is primarily for our friends and family to follow the ups and downs of the adventures. However if we don't know you, I hope you'll enjoy the story too, and that one day you may consider booking into our lovely home as a paying guest - you'll be made very welcome!

Friday 31 December 2010

Happy New Year

A very belated Happy Christmas to everyone! Time has flown since returning from the UK on the day before Christmas eve!

View from the window of the flat in Upton
Given the state of the weather in Worcestershire - we had to dig the car out of the snow to get on our way - we had  an uneventful journey to Portsmouth, arriving so early that we had time to call in on family in Eastleigh for a cup of tea. We drove down through France from St Malo through pouring rain, four of us stuffed into the car with barely room to breathe. We arrived home just as the turkey was being delivered - the most enormous turkey I've ever seen! I had to remove it's legs to get it in the oven! Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo, but it tasted delicious.
Within an hour or so of arriving home, the snow arrived too. It looked beautiful, but we were very lucky to have got here first. I don't think we would have made it home with a laden car in the snow!
What remains of the barn/gite in the snow.         
Christmas day was clear and sunny, but cold enough to leave the snow lying.
Christmas day in the gite!
The only time we've managed to use the dining table so far! Breakfast and lunch on Christmas day.
On Sunday evening, David, who had fallen asleep on the sofa watching tv, woke up at 2am to the sound of running water. A pipe had burst in one of the bathrooms (the only one not touched by the plumber!) and water was gushing out of a mercifully small pipe with great force. It was cascading through the ceiling into the corridor downstairs. There were inches of water in the back lounge. So, having turned off the water at the stop cock outside, we set to, wearing wellies and rubber gloves and using loads of towels we cleared up the mess. Amazingly, the water had found its way between a beam and floorboards, doing no damage to the ceiling. It poured onto a tiled floor( that slopes, we now know!) into a corner, missing all floorboards. So, a nice clean floor, a bit damp, but no damage that we can see. So many things could have made it worse..it could have been the week before when we weren't here, if David hadn't been asleep on the sofa it might have been hours before we found it, I may not have noticed where the plumber turned off the stop cock.......how lucky were we?!!
We have also had a new load of logs delivered.
David and I after stacking the logs (Hugh did do some!)
On Tuesday we had a changeover day. David went back to the UK, eventually...his plane from Bergerac to Southampton was very delayed and eventually diverted to Birmingham. Closer to home, but his lift was waiting in Southampton! Before Nicole and I got back from the airport, Ellen (lovely daughter!) and boyfriend Matt had arrived via the Caen and the ferry.
Today, Matt and Hugh have cut some of the logs into manageable sizes using Hugh's new toy, a chain saw. I can report that they both still have all their fingers and toes!

Off to a New Year's Eve party this evening, so all dressed up now, will try to remember to take photos - it doesn't happen often!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 
to everyone reading about our adventures - have a good one!
Fiona and Hugh
XXXXX


2 comments:

  1. Happy New Year! Close shave with the pipes, thank goodness you caught it so early. You would have had an indoor ice skating ring when you came home, otherwise!

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  2. HI Fiona, what a great project the two of you started! Thank you for visiting and following creJJtion. Happy Sunday! Love, Maaike

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