Renovate stone chimney

Saint Didier

This week we have three different nationalities staying in the gites, one Irish, one Austrailan and one Belgium. Quite a mixture.

Now it's warmer I have removed our wood burning stove which was only plumbed in temporarily. Last Autumn we had a French stonemason come to partly renovate the chimney in our main room downstairs. He replaced the granite mantlepiece and restored the structure of the chimney. It was a heft job cos that piece of granite is 2.2m long and 1.7m off the ground. Because of time and money constraints, I am going to face the back of the fireplace with stone and lime mortar to match the surround and build a hearth for the wood burner.

Hopefully it should look something like this once I've finished, but with a woodburner instead of ornaments.

Tonight Caroline has gone with Yves and Celine to her first football match to watch Rennes vs Montpellier. The last game of the season apparently. I prefer Formula One,

Trulli grabs maiden triumph. Michael Schumacher's winning run ends as Jarno Trulli claims victory at the Monaco GP. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]

exciting race but a shame MS stuffed it in the tunnel. I'm an MS fan, but I reckon he made a mistake and Montoya just got caught up in it. I was really looking forward to the rest of the race after the first pit stops as Schumacher put in some stunning driving to be in with a good chance of winning.

|   7:37:19 PM