Carmen visited us briefly in the first few days and came back again yesterday for the full tour.
She lives in a house in the woods a few hundred yards away but lived here from being a baby. 82 and sharp as a tack.
Moved out when she married at 21, husband was an electrical engineer and they lived in Gabon, Brazaville and others, taking electric light into Africa. Then moved back to France after Africa became trop dangerouse and lived in the Pyrenees but he died 15 years ago and she came back to the Bouchet retreat.
When she was born, she and her mum and dad lived in the bottom house ground floor room. That was it, one room, a family home. We’re using it to store spare furniture.
Her grandfather lived in what is now our kitchen, and his bedroom is now our utility room. The door through to the sitting room didn’t exist - that room was part of the stables - but in the meter thick wall, photograph below, was his wine store and it held 300 bottles..
...Now don’t get me wrong, I find door ways between rooms as useful as the next man but 300 bottles next to your bedroom..? Would it hurt to go outside, walk along a bit and come back in again.. even in the rain?
Feisty girl Carmen. Toured through the houses clambering over piles of stripped wallpaper and missing floor boards talking all the time and giving our stuff the once over. Said the sideboard we’ve bought is pretty much identical to the one they had positioned in the kitchen and in the same place we propose to put ours. Next to it they had a table - as we also plan to, courtesy of the Hoggarths. She gave the kitchen install a thumbs up and explained that this kitchen (room) once served the whole Chateaux.
Makes sense. Farm produce, in livestock or vegetable form gets processed here en-route to the Chateaux table.
She says she’s got a photograph of the small house 80 years ago and will look it out.
The roof tile formed slots in the barn are there for the hirondelles (swallows) apparently.
They've ignored those for a while, preferring the stable below. I’ve counted five nests and in August 2016 when we first viewed, the hirondelles were in and out through the open door. On Thursday one was swooping around weighing up what was going on. The horsebox is blocking last year’s flight path, there are fluorescent lights now and Wilson made it clear he doesn’t like being poo’d on. I haven’t seen the bird since.
Mosaic floor tiles are now on my ‘never again’ list. Hats off to the guys who put in the perfect originals that we wanted to preserve. I don’t know how you did it but I wish I could reach anywhere close to your standard.
Refitted the under-stairs cupboard door that we found in the stable being used to divide the horse stalls. Needed new hinges, it’s missing a handle but once the wood gets some love should look good again. Don’t know what the wood is but it’s very heavy.
Weather has turned for the better so today is domestic chores day- two loads through the washing machine, St Fraigne house vacuumed, kitchen cleaned and BMW and van given a wash. Uno is nicely taking on the colour of local fields, so it didn't see the sponge.