La mère de tous les “blog posts”!

Ah, dear readers, it has been WAY TOO LONG. Our last post was in January, 2020, you know pre-GLOBAL PANDEMIC. So much has happened it’s hard to know where to begin. So, we’ll go month by month just hitting the “highlights” (as you’ll soon see, some of the highlights were more like “What The Fuck” moments!)

January was when we changed our heating system, purchasing a new, state of the art boiler/oil burner to replace the one that was more than 10 years old. The new system is 40% more efficient than the old system and much more flexible, so that it can heat the house and control the radiant floor system that will go into Sallie’s atelier/shop (more on that to follow). The installation was going along fine…even if it meant no heat for a few days while the new system as being fitted. And then the big moment came to fire it up. And it worked!! For 30 seconds.

Making a long. cold story short, we ended up without heat for FOUR WEEKS! It was a tragic-comedy of errors, which included a German manufacturer, their French office nearest to our house, an English installer/technician (who lived more than an hour from us) and nobody wanting to take responsibility for the fact that the BRAND NEW HEATING SYSTEM wasn’t running…despite being checked and rechecked by multiple technicians (from multiple countries). Luckily, Sallie speaks German and we were able to blow through some “customer service road blocks.” In the end, it was “human error(s)” and not manufacturing defect (even though a new boiler unit was ordered, built and sent out to our site, because the installed one “had to be faulty”…NOT). In the end, we were cold and frustrated by everyone (except each other). But soon the heat started working and all was warm and fuzzy.

One nice thing that happened during those “cold days of January” was that Sallie found the “baby/king/roi” in the King Cake (gatteau de roi) that was served at the holiday/New Year party at our village hall (salle de fête). It was a fun time…even if the “baby” i the French King Cake is a blue ceramic eclair!

The other big event in January was the repair of the wall in the “school house” that will become Sallie’s atelier/shop. The space was formerly a school house for this place way back when. It currently has a dirt floor and one of the walls had a bit of a bulge…not a good thing in a stone structure that is hundreds of years old. Happily, there are stone masons (maçons) working in our area who can do the work. I’ll let some pictures tell the story:

February was a pretty good month. The house was warm and dry, but outside it rained…a bunch. There was flooding in the area but it mostly caused some inconvenience (road closures, etc.) not serious damage. The

rain and relatively mild temperatures made for winter conditions that facilitated tree planting. We had purchased a few trees the prior summer from a nearby tree farm that was being converted to vegetables so all the trees had to go. SCORE for us…great prices for “specimen trees” that were delivered and planted by the guys who sold them. We planted a laburnum and an alder in front of the house. The laburnum flowers yellow and the alder has lovely foliage.

As February went along, the bulbs were fooled into thinking spring had arrived, providing pops of color in an otherwise gray time of year.

Still, all you have to do is turn around, literally, and you know its still winter. So I took a walk down the allée that starts near the house goes toward the west.

Meanwhile inside the house, Sallie was keeping busy with mixing paints and transforming the “secret passageway” into the music room from a series of yellow and brown effluents to a delightful gray and wonderful gradient of blues. I am a very lucky guy.

March started off great. We went to celebrate a friend’s 80th birthday in a nearby village. It was an international party, lots of local French folks, expats from multiple countries (UK, Ireland, USA, Australia), an Irish band and paella for 80-100! It was a lovely time and a great beginning to spring.

Around our house, fruit trees were starting to blossom, the potager (vegetable garden) was getting started and prepped for further planting, Spring was springing, the dogs were playing (or sleeping) and music gigs were starting to happen again. My first gig of 2020 was booked for Sunday afternoon March 15…until there was troubling news about a “novel virus” and the French government ordered all the bars and bistrots to close on Saturday night, 14 March 2020. C’est la vie! We all know what came next!

LOCKDOWN became the word of the year and life got strange very quickly. France instituted strict restrictions on movement and required everyone to print and sign an attestation for every trip out of the house (trips were limited to groceries, getting gasoline or going to the doctor/pharmacy). We are lucky to live in a rural area and to have some land to walk the dogs and move around on. And there is a lot of beautiful nature to look at and listen to…bird songs became a treasured way to pass the time.

On April 7, we were surprised at breakfast (around 8:00am) when the door bell rang. We went outside to find a truck driver from Belgium, who seemed to be totally unaware of the lockdown, the pandemic or anything about social distancing. After some awkward conversation (cue the Police song …”please don’t stand so close to me”) it became apparent that he was going to deliver cobblestones…if he could get his huge truck onto our driveway from the road. Turned out there was only one way…and only one place to dump the stones…completely blocking the driveway. Days passed,

weeks passed. Spring flowers, plants and birds (we have many nests and fledglings around our house and out buildings) continued to brighten our spirits, as the world settled into a strange pandemic rhythm. But projects

around the house continued apace. Sallie continued on her quest to remove all traces of the “mucous green” paint that was in and around the house (in varying shades) when we moved in. Shades of blue and gray are the new palette. The old hardware on windows and doors have had paint removed and restoration work where it is warranted. Lots of small details add up to a large visual impact when seen in context.

In time, the stone masons were able to return to work on the school house (since it is an unoccupied structure and much of the work took place outdoors). Re-pointing of walls, inside and out, as well as adjacent walls was the first order of business. Pointing is the placement (or replacement) of mortar between the stones. When done well, it really adds beauty and strength to the walls. While the pointing work was going on, there was also

a new “cap” of hempcrete placed on the wals to seal the gaps between the top of the walls and the roof. The hempcrete will allow the studio space to be heated heated more efficiently. After, pointing and hempcrete, it was on

to the terrace(s) outside the school on the backyard side. The cobblestones had been moved and sorted (from the driveway to the parking are near the barn/grange) and were wheelbarrowed to the site. This is serious hand work and craft that went on for weeks. But the final results are amazing.

Rain is due later this week. It will wash the stones and help “set” the sand as a permeable mortar. We’re looking forward to lots of outdoor living, gatherings and music. And visitors, as the “deconfinement” is under way. Until next time…À bientôt.

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