We have made a lot of progress with the upstairs guest bedroom since my last blog post. Geoff has worked his socks off and has finished decorating the room. We have bought a bed and wardrobe and have hung curtains to block off the connecting door to our room and at the doorway between the double room and the single room. It all looks very nice. I have still to find bedside tables, lamps and other bits of finishing touches but it is almost ready now to start welcoming B&B visitors. We slept in the room the other night – still following our B&B guru’s advice – and found it very comfortable indeed! The downstairs room is next on the work schedule but the end is very much in sight now.
We have also cracked the bureaucracy surrounding our application to join the Cheques Vacances scheme and got the necessary bit of paper to say that we were signed up members. This is a scheme which lots of French employers adhere to and it enables their employees to get vouchers which they can use to pay for holiday accommodation or meals etc. We are now proudly displaying our membership sticker on the gite door!
We are also exploring the possibility of joining Gites de France. We went to a meeting in Clermont Ferrand the other night but it was mainly for people who wanted to apply for grants to do up their gites or chambres d`hotes and so we didn’t really get a lot out of it. Their rules and criteria for classification are very rigid so we need a lot more information and advice before we go down that road. At the moment the French advertising site we are using is getting us plenty of bookings for the gite, but we do need to review our possible advertising for the B&B.
I continue to be amazed and delighted by the wonderful variety of wild flowers we have here. At the moment the roadside verges are putting on a very colourful (and patriotic!) display of scarlet poppies, blue cornflowers and white marguerites. It is great to see all the wild flowers I remember from my childhood growing in such abundance – plus other flowers which I used to pay good money for in England! We are also still being amazed by how quickly stuff grows here. I suppose the climate is ideal for growing plants and crops but you can pass a field of wheat which is barely looking green one week and then literally watch it grow day by day. We have one such field opposite the turn off to Chabanol and in the space of a few weeks the wheat so high, you cannot see over it now. The plants in the garden too are flourishing. I have filled all the pots and planters with geraniums and other traditional bedding plants and they look really colourful. It is a bit of a pain having to water them all when it is dry but as we are having a spell of wet weather at the moment all is going (and growing)well! We also have three birds’ nests in the garden which is providing me with hours of delight as I watch the adult birds providing food for the chicks. Unfortunately Max is also delighted by the presence of the birds but for entirely different reasons! He is still spending a fair amount of time in his shed!
Much to Geoff’s dismay, it also seems to be the season for the vide greniers (literally translated as empty attics -or car boot sales) just now. There is at least one a week in the little villages around here. I love them but my enthusiasm is not shared by my dearly beloved! I am continually fascinated by the rubbish which these people hope to sell! Having said that we still have several boxes of “treasures” in our own grenier which I hope to sell at one of these events one day! I have also discovered (again much to Geoff’s dismay) a fantastic Aladdin’s cave of a shop in Issoire which has to be seen to be believed. It is full (and I mean full) of second hand furniture – some of which is really good stuff, crockery, glassware, carpets, jewellery, toys, games, - in fact you name it – it is there! I have really enjoyed my visits so far and have managed to find something “essential” to buy each time! I even found a badge from my home town of Sunderland the other day, which the guy gave me as a present! He obviously recognises me as being a regular customer in the future! Geoff is groaning as I write!!
At last we have seen the gite in true action! Our visitors had a fantastic time – even though their team lost the rugby match. The weather played a huge part as it was really hot and sunny every day that they were here. They enjoyed swimming in the nearby lake at Vernet la Varenne – although the French locals thought they were mad as they deemed it to be far too cold. They also liked the little bar in St Etienne sur Usson – so much so that Jean the proprietor ran out of beer! They took away lots of our business cards and fliers so we hope they will spread the word for us in Wales. So, all in all, the first real letting was a huge success. More importantly I now have some cash in my business account at last!
May 1st was a bank holiday here in France and traditionally people have bunches of muguet (lily of the valley). We were amused by an article in the local paper which said that there is a bye law in Issoire which allows anyone to sell muguet on the streets so long as you maintain a certain distance from the florist shops. Unfortunately the muguet bed in the garden is not big enough for me to make use of this bye law this year, but next year – well, you never know! I have, of course, got my own bunches of muguet in the house to bring us good luck.
Max, the cat, continues to flourish here at Chabanol, although he is really the naughtiest cat I have ever had. He has begun to hunt for real now and he is continually harassing the lizards and the mice in the garden. Before you all start e-mailing me, I know that cats always hunt and catch things, but I still don’t like to see them in action! Consequently I seem to be spending a lot of time chasing him and rescuing the little beasties he has caught! Max then has to spend time in “the house of correction” (the outhouse where he sleeps at night) with the door firmly shut to give the little creatures time to go and hide. When we go to let him out again, he is usually happily curled up in his basket and often just stays there staring at you through the open door as if to make the point that he knows he is in charge!
Geoff has now got his vegetable garden started. Our very kind “summer house” neighbour, Paul, rotovated the patch of garden Geoff had marked out for his "potager" and we bought some plants at the market last week. It soon turned out that French and English allotments are very similar, because as soon as Geoff started to put in the plants, the neighbours started to give advice! It would seem that we are a bit premature in planting out “as it could still snow/ freeze/hail yet” The neighbours also look in horror at the solar powered device I bought Geoff (as a joke I hasten to add) which gives off intermittent bleeps to keep the moles at bay! They obviously think that we are totally mad!
My husband has also been displaying other hidden talents this week, as we tried to help Brian finish off the bathroom work. Geoff was allowed (under supervision of course) to mix and lay the cement to finally close up the holes in the trenches round the house where the new drains have been installed. I have to say that Geoff looked very much the labourer with his cut off jeans complete with holes. He now reckons that he could become Brian’s new helper if ever he needs one! One of Geoff’s clients rang him whilst he was doing this job and there was a very surprised intake of breath on the other end of the phone when Geoff said he’d have to ring back as he had to get his cement laid before it began to set! The bathroom work is all complete and Brian has packed up ad left us now. We are extremely pleased with the bathrooms. They are just as we had imagined them to be and having four loos in the house gives a whole new meaning to the word “choice”. Now comes the decorating and furnishing of the guest bedrooms which should be fun. More of that next time.