Progress in France

Work has continued slowly with lots of bits not really visible as it's the foundations.  Also, the weather has been mixed with occasional wet days. And lots of public holidays: Ascension Day is a Thursday so no-one works on the Friday either, so a 4-day weekend.  The house kit is due to arrive on 18th July and the team here say all should be on schedule.

We've been sorting stones saved from demolishing the top of a wall and Chris has been discovering the joys of French plumbing.  While pipework in UK is all 15mm, here you have to choose between 12, 14, 16, 18...  a-aghh!  Got there eventually and we now have a washing machine and sink down in the barn - luxury!

Went to a 'Course Landaise' which is not bull-fighting but more gymnastics around a charging cow - weird but good fun, especially when the cows don't do as expected.

Doing lots of paperwork and chasing people, so not a dull moment!

We were invited out for our wedding anniversary and spent a great evening with mostly French people at a lovely old (12th century) house in the country.  Everyone very friendly, even got offerred a bed for the winter if our house isn't ready.  Will have to throw a party for them soon.

Today the concrete arrived for the slab on which the house will sit.
Later today - we've christened the slab with a bottle of bubbly shared with the mason and his side-kick.  Hooray!!

The green stuff is an eco-anti-termite coating (oxymoron there?) and the sticky-out bits will be terraces.  House will arrive in 3 weeks, so lots more planning to do with visits to IKEA, Leroy-Merlin (the French B&Q), builders merchants etc.

Another party - and progress.

We were invited out to lunch at a hotel training college on Friday and this turned out to be another surprise birthday party organised by our friend Héléne. Nine people for a 3-hour lunch and Hélène had brought a cake and bubbles. The others were all very jolly and tolerated our poor French even though they all could speak Anglais.

In the evening we went to the opening of 5 simultaneous art exhibitions in an old abbey and met some of them again and some others, along with nibbles and drinks. Doing the culture thing is a good way to meet people.

J's birthday was hot and sunny and very relaxed with pink bubbly and steak. We now have our own phone and internet on the barn, so Judy did her ET impression and phoned home.

On Monday the big machine arrived to put in the piles and we went to Auch to register in the French health system, taking birth and marriage certificates. Monday night we watched terrible storms to the south and east but our patch stayed largely dry. On Tuesday the piles went in - HOORAY!! - and we towed the caravan to Pau to be inspected for registering it in France.  After much trepidation on our part we had no problem getting the necessary certificate of conformity.  Step 1 in a 3-step process complete.  More paperwork to come.