The long holiday is over! After weeks of preparation, cleaning, scrubbing, ironing etc we are now re-open again for 2008. We try to make some improvements to the house every year and this year it was the turn to have the chimney rebuilt in tuffeau stone. Good job too the other one was about to crumble away after all the wind and rain we have had this winter.
Next up new oak double glazed windows for the Master Room and the Mezzanine Room. We found a real craftsman to make these as we wanted to keep them in ‘patrimoine’ with the house. A couple of coats of lasure (that’s a type of french varnish) and they are looking great. This is the all new sparkling Master room window!
...and the Mezzanine Window - exciting eh! We had to shelve the woodburner project for the halll though just as they were about to knock the first hole through the roof we discovered the pipes they wanted to installed were twice the size we had expected and aluminium and not the black we had ordered. We couldn’t bear to have the hall looking like a factory so the woodburner had to be hoisted back onto the lorry and sent back from whence it came. Our first opportunity to get really angry in French! Merde alors!
Easter Friday saw the arrival of our first guests Ianthe and Nadia all the way from Tasmania with their 9 month old daughter Saskia, lovely return visitors from London and new guests from the Netherlands. Here is Humble welcoming Saskia from Australia.
Dinner was a great success we tasted four different wines from a sweet Coteaux du Layon 2005 from Mihoudy, Anjou 2006 from Chateau de Passavant, Eolithe 2005 from Fosse Seche and a Sparkling Red Rubis from Bouvet Ladubay with the chocolate mousse! HIC....
The long holiday is over! After weeks of preparation, cleaning, scrubbing, ironing etc we are now re-open again for 2008. We try to make some improvements to the house every year and this year it was the turn to have the chimney rebuilt in tuffeau stone. Good job too the other one was about to crumble away after all the wind and rain we have had this winter.
Next up new oak double glazed windows for the Master Room and the Mezzanine Room. We found a real craftsman to make these as we wanted to keep them in ‘patrimoine’ with the house. A couple of coats of lasure (that’s a type of french varnish) and they are looking great. This is the all new sparkling Master room window!
...and the Mezzanine Window - exciting eh! We had to shelve the woodburner project for the halll though just as they were about to knock the first hole through the roof we discovered the pipes they wanted to installed were twice the size we had expected and aluminium and not the black we had ordered. We couldn’t bear to have the hall looking like a factory so the woodburner had to be hoisted back onto the lorry and sent back from whence it came. Our first opportunity to get really angry in French! Merde alors!
Easter Friday saw the arrival of our first guests Ianthe and Nadia all the way from Tasmania with their 9 month old daughter Saskia, lovely return visitors from London and new guests from the Netherlands. Here is Humble welcoming Saskia from Australia.
Dinner was a great success we tasted four different wines from a sweet Coteaux du Layon 2005 from Mihoudy, Anjou 2006 from Chateau de Passavant, Eolithe 2005 from Fosse Seche and a Sparkling Red Rubis from Bouvet Ladubay with the chocolate mousse! HIC....