Renovation | Aussie in France

With the kitchen and bedroom more or less completed, except for the decorative elements, the next room on the list was the living room starring the Henri II buffet I mentioned in a previous post. For transport purposes, it had to be separated in two so Relationnel and I were able to wheel each half down the road from our “little house” next door (which he will be renovating after his retirement) on two little trolley affairs that can each take 200 kg and are very practical. You just have to strap them onto each end of the furniture properly so they don’t escape when you go over the rough bits.

Relationnel then repaired all the bits and pieces that had gradually come loose over the years. We decided where it would go (very easy because there is only one wall wide enough) then put the lower half in place. That was the easy bit. The top half (which is excessively heavy solid oak I might add) sits on top of a backboard and two little columns. I put my lumbar belt on and some anti-skid gloves and we hoisted it up onto the edge of the bottom part. Then we started lifting it up on top of the columns which promptly fell over (of course). We quickly realised however that there was not actually enough ceiling height under the beams. Back down onto the floor.

So Relationnel said we’d take the top curlicue bit off. Even then there was not enough room to raise the upper half high enough to slide it onto the columns. There seemed to be no solution until I suddenly had a brilliant idea. If we turned the whole thing lengthways and used the space between the beams to lift it high enough, we could then turn it the right way afterwards. I got a « bravo » for that! However I then didn’t have enough strength to lift the top half high enough to get it on top of the columns. But Relationnel managed to hoist his side up and while I steadied it, he came and lifted my side.

Now that it’s there, I can tell you, it won’t be going any further and I’m sure I can turn the curlicue into something very decorative.

On our third night in Blois, we finally had a barbecue with our Barbecook, which is a story in itself. When we were married nearly 14 years ago, it was a second marriage for both of us and we each had two children so finding an appropriate date was not easy, let alone having a honeymoon as well! We did manage an overnight stay in Honfleur though and visited Bayeux next day. And we found our barbecue! Not very romantic you might say, but it’s a wonderful barbecue (and don’t forget I’m Australian). It operates on a really neat system. You put newspaper in the cyclindrical part, then the charcoal on the fire grille, on top of which there is another grill for the meat. You light the barbecue with a match through a hole near the red knob halfway down the cylinder which is used to adjust the air flow (and therefore the heat). It’s really very clever and you don’t need any « starters ». Even I can light it (not that I ever do!).

You may remember that to send my last post, we intended to go to Le Penalty, which turned out to be closed on Mondays as luck would have it. But Relationnel had the wonderful idea of parking outside and seeing if there was a connection. It worked! Unfortunately, Le Penalty is located on one side of a roundabout where you obviously aren’t supposed to park so he had to keep a watch-out for the police. Then of course, my battery was running low but Relationnel has a transformer in the car so I was able to recharge the laptop provided we kept the engine running. Not very environment-friendly I’m afraid.

But apart from the Internet connection, we are slowly getting things up and running. The kitchen furniture is all in place and part of the decoration is finished. When we have breakfast, we can watch all the birds that come to eat the seeds left by the previous owners. I’m a newcomer to bird feeding/watching. It seems you should only put out seeds and fat during the cold months. Otherwise the birds get lazy. There is a pair of blue tits who have built a nest in the tree just outside the window that we love watching.

The next room that is almost finished is the downstairs bedroom where we’re sleeping at the moment because we haven’t attacked the fireplace in the upstairs bedroom yet. I thought I had found a miracle product but unfortunately it doesn’t work. Relationnel put up the wardrobe today but initially found he couldn’t finish it because the hinge things were missing. Fortunately he realised later that he just wasn’t familiar with the system. We also cleaned the rug. Obviously one spray can was not enough so I had to go back to Carrefour and get some more.

I didn’t really mind because, although it’s about 6 km away, you drive through a lovely forest mysteriously called Route du Rain de la Forêt to get there. The leaves are all tender green. And the people in Carrefour are unbelievably friendly. While I was waiting for the butcher to come, the fishmonger came and asked me if I was being served then went off and found the butcher. When I was searching the shelves for the carpet shampoo, a shelf stacker actually asked me if he could help! At the checkout, when I said I hadn’t found the nutcrackers, the lady went and looked for them. They didn’t have any after all, but she came back with a smile. This is definitely not the service I’m used to in Monoprix on avenue de l’Opéra.