In my last post I mentioned that Danny had started to paint the walls in the lounge. I neglected to say that while he cracked on with that, I started work on making the curtains. I'd like to be able to tell you that both jobs are now finished but I'm afraid that's not the case. The painting itself is a massive job; a coat of undercoat and then two topcoats of paint on walls the size of ours is no quick or easy task. Plus, as he finished each wall, Danny did all the work to install new electric sockets on them. You always imagine these are going to be straightforward jobs but somehow there's nearly always a hitch!
As I write, I have now finished making the third of four pairs of curtains. As each one is lined and 2.5 metres long, making them is quite a job! If nothing else, they have been a challenge and I'm learning a lot as I go along. I've got to admit that one thing I have learned is that I should have found a professional to do them!!!
But the real reason that these jobs are unfinished is that we had more visitors and we made the conscious decision to stop what we were doing so that we could get the house ready for them. This included changing our sofa covers to the new ones we'd been saving to match the new colour scheme and putting down a new rug. I'm going to leave you all in suspense and contrary to what I normally do, i.e. post pictures of how it's coming along, I'm going to wait until I can show you pretty much the complete transformation of our lounge!
And so to our visitors! Tony, my "little" brother, celebrated his 60th birthday on 8th August and he chose to come to France with his wife, Alyth, his two sons, Martin and Richard and Richard's partner Adam so we could all be together on his special day. (Unfortunately Martin's partner, Joanne, wasn't able to make it but we're hoping they'll come another time).
Tony is a good photographer so he took most of the photos while they were all here. I don't think I can do any better than show you a selection of those photos which I think capture the whole holiday...
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| Water polo (I think) |
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| The boys went out and bought a selection of meats and cheeses for lunch one day. And they bought a bunch of flowers for me! |
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| Alyth relaxing in the pool |
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| Barbecue night |
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| Afternoon tea....cake selection for Tony's birthday |
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| The boys did an amazing job of cutting down an unwanted hedge for us |
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| Look no hands? |
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| Martin & Liam....and a sneak preview of the new colour scheme in the lounge! |
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| Martin having his turn on the mower |
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| Believe it or not, this was us having pastries for breakfast! |
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| Fab pic of Richard and Adam |
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| Serious business this sit-on mower |
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| One night the boys cooked a three-course dinner for us |
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A surprise birthday treat at the restaurant |
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| Birthday dinner at the Vue du Chateau restaurant with the birthday boy at the head of the table! |
So, another visit sadly came to an end. But it won't be long till the next ones arrive....next week! We must get on with that lounge!!!
Before I go, I want to share these few photos with you. Tony took them while he was here and they're ones I never would have thought of taking. Yet I think they capture some of the spirit of our life here. The first is the main street of the town of Moncoutant, which is our nearest town, about 3 kilometres from our house.
It was taken on a Sunday but even so, it's not a lot busier than this at the best of times!
The next two were taken inside our favourite
boulangerie. There are actually three in the town but this is the best one in our opinion. It's the one we always take our visitors to and we've yet to have a visitor who didn't like it!
Here's the other end of the shop...the cake end!
The worst bit is having to choose!!
On that note, I'll say goodbye until the next time! (Hopefully with photos of a painted lounge and finished curtains!)
À bientôt!
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