A roller coaster to the final
We came back to France a bit later than expected as Jo had to have a final check-up for his eyes - all good though he still cannot see any better with the operated eye. However, the surgeon says it could take months.
We left immediately after his appointment so arrived late on 2 June with just under three weeks before our first paying guests arrive on 21 June.
There were several things we had not been able to finish in April but also we were not happy with the way we left the car park and boules area.
The next day we looked with some horror at the jungle of garden which had shot up during May. Then Andy arrived at 10.00 to start work again on some things we had not been able to finish and most importantly to decide what to do about the car park - boules area. We were not happy with the finished product in April.
How we left the car park and boules area in April
In the end we decided that it would be better to cover the car park in the same gravel as the boules area but to distinguish the two areas more clearly with a stone wall and hedge. So that meant getting the digger back and more loads of gravel.
While we were discussing with Andy what to do with the car park, the caretakers arrived at 11.00 with very bad news. They had been there at the weekend to open up the swimming pool and had discovered it leaked. It had gone down by over a foot. Panic. They had already bee to several places to ask pool technicians to come and have a look at it but it is the busy season for pools and they were all very busy.
Alice then started painting the two downstairs bedrooms -
Alice painting
while I went off with Josh to rent a strimmer to cut down the jungle but in the end we came back with a scythe.
Josh scything the jungle
Meanwhile I was getting increasingly nervous about the pool as the first time we could get someone to come and look at it was the following Saturday.
On Wednesday we went to fetch Ginny who was arriving in Rodez. We were greatly encouraged by her reaction to the house and garden which she assured us was even better than the photos.
The next day was all go. Ginny started cleaning the loungers and I started clueing the chest of drawers we had bought in a 'brocante'.It took four days for Andy to finish his work from Monday to Thursday and Jo started work on the garden -
Jo at work
Frank started putting castine around the car park with his digger and Andy and Stuart put up the pergola in the walled garden and cut the high stone by the terrace. By Thursday the gravel was laid and the pergola was up.
We finally got some pool technicians to come on Saturday who said the only solution was to test each outlet pipe one by one. So we had to plug an outlet, fill the pool, wait overnight to see if it went down. If it didn't that outlet was ok. To test each outlet would take 3 days. They assured us that we could still use the pool providing at least one of the skimmers and its corresponding outlet were ok though it would be more difficult to clean. So we started immediately.
On Sunday the pool had gone down by an inch which indicated a slight leak on that outlet - or possibly a faulty seal. However, it also meant that there must be another pipe leaking more seriously since originally the water level had gone down very quickly by a foot.
The weather has been very hot since we've been here and haymaking in the nearby fields is almost completed.
On Monday Mick came to build the wall between the car park and boules area and Ginny took an intermission from loungers washing to put loops on the mattresses so that they could be hung up in the bike shed.
Ginny hard at work
On Tuesday Ginny and I went to a huge garden centre near Montauban to buy plants for the walled garden. We decided to make the hedge between the car park and boules area with lavender so bought 16 pots of that and much else. The car was crammed with plants but we managed. When we got back the bed for the bedroom at the far end had arrived.
Bed arrives
Ginny left on Wednesday and on Thursday Judith and John arrived by car with Woody. By this time Alice had finished painting the far end bedroom and we intended J and J to sleep there but when Alice and Josh tried to assemble the new bed they found the wrong slats had been delivered. So I called the firm in Ireland immediately and they promised to send the right ones by the following Tuesday. Fingers crossed!
By Thursday Mick had finished most of the wall and drilled holes for the lavender so we all set to planting the lavender. I don't have any photos of us at work as we were all too busy.
Josh mowing
On Friday the sofa arrived to go under the pergola.
Now we have done most of the planting the the beds and the walled garden, including a solanum to climb up the arch and a vine to climb over the pergola.
Pergola with sofa
Time for a sit down
Today (Sunday) Alice has finished painting the second bedroom so in the next blog it will hopefully be possible to show you the downstairs bedrooms furnished (if the new slats arrive).
We all went to St Antonin Noble Val with the aim of going canoeing but in the end just wandered round the market, bought some more plants and had a mediocre lunch but in a beautiful situation by the river Aveyron.
More soon.