Running a Gite in Brittany

Musee de Rail

Visitation - Lundi de Pentecôte

Did quite a bit of work on the fireplace, pictures when it's finished.

Caroline spent most of the day doing the accounts and paperwork. Paperwork is hard work at the best of times, let alone in French. I helped by taking Elizabeth and Hugh to see a Radio Controlled Model Car racing championship and the Railway Museum in Dinan. The car event seemed to be cancelled (I think it was 1/8 scale) due to the weather. Typical, we have had glorious weather for weeks then you stage an outdoor event and it rains all day. All was not lost, we still had the Musée de Rail in Dinan to visit. Lots of railway memorabilia, some lovely static models and several fairly large model train layouts. I quite liked the Dali SNCF posters, but the children preferred the models wizzing round the tracks. It took about one hour to visit.

|   7:25:54 PM   Musee de Rail   

New gite drawings

Added a section to "NewGite" with a portion of the architects drawings of the new gite.

Normal service has been resumed.
Schumi storms to home win. World champion Michael Schumacher cruises to victory at the European Grand Prix. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]

|   7:22:35 PM   New gite drawings   

B17 Memorial, May 29th 2004, Les Champs Geraux

Saint Aymar

Another three families arriving today in our gites. Two of the families we know from last year and we got on very well with them. All the children were about the same age as ours so they all played together really well.

This weeks guests left quite early this morning which meant we had time to attend the May 29th Memorial service in Les Champs Geraux. On May 29th 1943 a B17 bomber crashed on the outskirts of Les Champs Geraux with the loss of 11 American crewmen. Exactly one year ago the village held a service to dedicate a new memorial for the 60th anniversary of those lost that day. In attendance we had the American Ambassador to France, the local Mayor and various other dignitaries, along with three American families who had relatives or close connections with the crewmen.

The site http://www.b17-29mai.com/ explains in more detail the events of that day and each of the crew members. There are also photos of the event one year ago.

The three American families all stayed in our gites over the weekend and one of them was Ray Kaskey. His father was one of the crew and he is a famous American sculptor. During his stay he said he was working on a series of Bar Reliefs for the National WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. One of those reliefs depicted a B17 bomber and crew. Consequently he had a copy made and shipped to France and that now hangs in the town hall for the village.
Quite a number of people remarked on the similarity of the B17 Captain's surname, Hecox, to our own, Haycox.

According to the website http://www.wwiimemorial.com/ the National WWII Memorial, Washington, DC will dedicated today May 29th 2004 one year on from the Les Champs Geraux memorial and 61 years after the loss of the B17 and crew. Another spooky coincidence.

|   4:21:48 PM   B17 Memorial, May 29th 2004, Les Champs Geraux   

Fireplace revealed

Saint Germain

Nice weather again so a bit of strimming and weed and pest control to get the garden looking nice for the Summer. There was half-a-dozen mole hills in the croquet lawn this morning, so that has taken top priority.

I found out today from one of our guests where the Internet Cafe is in Dinan. It's a proper shop rather than the travelling WiFi commune thingy I mentioned yesterday. It's a little more expensive, 6€ per hour rather than 3€, but he said it was quiet and easy.

Finished tidying the hard standing area. It was really a by-product of my rock grading exercise for the fireplace. No more progress on the fireplace but now there is a pile of rocks in the lounge waiting for me to mix up some mortar. BTW using the door as a 'prop' from the wall didn't work out, as you can see, so I'll just stack 'em one row at a time.

Added a picture from the newspaper here, Ouest France 20th May 2004, regarding the school trip to Jersey last week. I've been a bit slow scanning the article cos I've got an old HP ScanJet 4s and I could only get drivers and software for Window 3.1 or 95. I ended up taking a digital photo on macro mode.

|   8:17:54 PM   Fireplace revealed   

Ice Skating

Saint Augustin de C.

Caroline was one of the parent helpers for another school trip today. Elizabeth's class and two others (63 children) all went to Rennes for the day. The primary reason was ice skating, but they also travelled on the Metro (underground, subway) and some buses and saw various sights around Rennes, including a cow poster exhibition. Caroline was very impressed with the Metro, which was only built a year ago, but then she had the London Underground to compare it against. Amusingly they got overtaken by a bus load of kids from Hugh's school on their way to a museum in Rennes. French school kids go on loads of excursions, which is fantastic for their education.

I've been catching up at home after spending a couple of days helping someone else. Spent two hours mowing, and most of the rest of the day laying stones for the new fireplace, after buying cement, doing the recycling run, checking out the local Internet Cafe in Evran, buying more petrol for the mower, and eating. There is a Cyber Commune around Evran with the Internet Cafe moving each evening to all the local villages, Saint Juvat, Saint Judoce, Tréfumel, Le Quiou, Les Champs Géraux and back to Evran. Quite a handy system, bit like the old fish and chip van we got in our village back in England.

I'm trying to build my stone wall using sand and cement mortar but not using any towards the front of the stones. Once it's dry I'll point it with traditional lime and sand mortar to match the rest of the house. The trouble with lime & sand is it goes off very very slowly, hence the cement. I watched a stone mason renovate an old house using stone and he made a temporary outer skin of plywood, placed the face of the stones against the plywood then back filled with mortar. I'm trying the same technique but with an old door. All will be revealed tomorrow.

|   7:35:07 PM   Ice Skating   

More french electrics

Saint Bérenger

Another day helping out a friend with some electrics. I fitted the last few lights and had to wire in a new circuit in the kitchen cos all the lighting wires and switches left by the previous owner were dead. A helping hand with some sink plumbing and to move a radiator in the middle of the kitchen (don't ask). At least the kitchen is operational and they can now see in the dark. It gives them a little breathing space to find a local tradesman. It's always difficult in a foreign country especially if you don't speak the language very well. I remember the massive list of jobs that needed doing to our place, but I'm very handy so I did most of it myself except we hired an electrician to safety check all the gites.

|   8:46:35 PM   More french electrics   

Emergency handyman

Saint Sophie

An emergency electrical job at a friend of a friends today. They recently brought and moved into a very nice house in Dinan, but the previous owners took everything, all the light fittings, even the kitchen sink. With just wires hanging out the walls ansd ceilings it wasn't very homely. The owners had tried to get tradesmen in but they are so busy and again the language barrier was a problem. So here comes the calvery, tools in hand, spending the day in Dinan wiring in lights general DIY work.

Didn't get anything done on the fireplace.

|   7:49:40 PM   Emergency handyman   

Rock grading

Saint Donatien

Stone grading today for the fireplace. I've been searching out appropriate rocks and pressure washing them in preparation for renovating the fireplace. Currently I've got most of them layed out on the floor in the rough pattern they will end up on the wall.

Lugging rocks about in the heat is hard work so I had a little siesta in the hammock for an hour or so in the orchard. I deserve it, and one of the joys of working for yourself.

Rennes 4, Montpellier 0 - 22,000 crowd, 10€ ticket, premier league team, better value than MUFC, peut-être.

 

|   7:45:45 PM   Rock grading   

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   Renovate stone chimney   

Un siècle de vapeur - Evran steam festival

Saint Émile

Trulli grabs maiden pole. Jarno Trulli edges out Jenson Button in Monaco qualifying to take his first F1 pole position. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]
I had every confidence (and a little luck) should see a sixth victory for MS.

Today and tomorrow is the «Un siècle de vapeur» on the Rance canal between Evran and Dinan. We went today and saw two old steam pleasure boats flying British ensigns at the lock in Evran. I overheard that they had come from Lake Windermere in the Lake District, UK. How they got here I've no idea. The exhibition hall was full of steam models of various sizes, some of which were radio controlled. Outside there were some stationary steam engines running machines to make 'sabot' and cut very large planks of wood and a pool for the model boats. Hugh liked the traction engine because it whistled. Every weekend there is something on in the area during the summer. Next week the beer festival at Lehon caught my eye :-)

Below is the clog cutting machine driven by a stationary steam engine. The dark wood (hardwood) in the foreground is a blank clog shaped pattern that rotates with a follower rubbing on the clog. The follower moves the cutter to make a copy from the block of wood (light coloured in the background) behind. The men to the left then use a similar technique with 'clog moulds' to moves cutters to make the hole for the foot. Quite a production line.

The English? steam boats

|   6:46:08 PM   Un siècle de vapeur - Evran steam festival   

Follow that car

Saint Constantin

Old houses and especially French houses seem to be lacking in electric sockets. For the last few months in our bedroom I've had my clock radio, usually tuned to Radio 5 MW or Radio 4 LW, plugged in via a long extension lead that trails around the bedroom. The last of the niggley finishing off jobs before I could start on my next major project was to put a new socket next to the bed for the radio. I went to the bricolage magasin to buy a new socket but came back with a new cordless drill as well. It's a monster 18V power machine, fantastic. I've already got a drill but it's seen so much action over the last 18 months it a bit tired and the batteries don't hold their charge very well. So I've now got the most expensive socket in the whole house next to my bed. Sleep tight.

The holiday season is really ramping up now. In the last few days we have had quite a few people call at our gites looking for Chambre d'Hôte. I've also noticed the number of cars that are not locals increase substantially. In France there are 96 départements (administrative regions) each with a name and number. We live in Côtes D'Armor (22) and our car number plate is suffixed with 22, so it's very easy to tell when someone is from out-of-town. It's particularly useful, for example, at a tricky road junction/intersection because you can give someone who is unfamiliar a bit of extra consideration. It reminds me of a time when we had a friend over to stay in the winter when nearly all cars have the suffix 22, or 35 (Ille-et-Vilaine is our neighbouring département) . We had to travel in convoy and as I was the lead car he remarked to his passenger in the following car 'I'll just follow the Peugeot with 22 on the license plate'.

|   8:47:34 PM   Follow that car   

Jour Ferie - Ascension

Saint Bernardin - Ascension

Jour Férié, Bank holiday, today so the children have not been at school. I took them cycling and round the local lake and they had a play on the made-man beach. Whilst we were cycling round Hugh was in front and we came up behind these two old people walking on the path. Hugh hollers in his best French voice attention (look out!) and the couple leapt to the side then smiled sweetly as this grinning 4 year old comes past peddling furiously.

Left Caroline painting three internal doors in two of the gites. Whilst we were on a roll we decided to knuckle down and finish all the painting jobs on the list and give ourselves more time in the Autumn to work on our own house. We haven't done alot in our house at all as the gites and public areas always take priority, however this Autumn I hope to put a in a new kitchen to replace the current rather tired model.

In preparation for starting the new kitchen I thought I better finish some of those niggley little jobs in our house that never quite got completed, fit an architrave around one door, fit a plinth and add replace some silicon sealant in the bathroom, tack in a bit of beading under a wardrobe, screw in some hooks for the net curtains. Just very minor jobs that seem to take all day.

No mowing today, I thought I'd have a day off :-)

Article from todays Ouest France. See if you can spot Caroline.

|   7:49:58 PM   Jour Ferie - Ascension   

Jersey Trip

Saint Yves

Caroline got back late from her enjoyable trip to Jersey with the 36, 8-10 year old children. As the principal/only translator she was exhausted. The children really enjoyed themselves and really wanted to spend their Pounds instead of the Euro. Most of the boys bought whoopee cushions and the girls bought ornaments ! They were all desperate to practise their English and so were saying hello to everyone as they walked down the promenade. It's normal for French children to say bonjour to everyone, but I think the people on Jersey found it a little overwhelming.

Fitted the Garde de Corps I made yesterday with the woodworking machines I inherited from my Father. Adds a bit of extra security. The window in the picture was replaced in the winter because the old one did not open, so now it needs a safety barrier for small children.

Opps, Mistake with my entry from yesterday about Permis de Construire. Caroline read it with her better French and it actually said there was a delay from the normal limit of 2 months, to 3 months. Bad translation !

Lovely weather today, so we spent the afternoon with the kids at a beach between St. Malo and Cancale. Considering tomorrow is a bank holiday (Ascension), with the likelihood that most people with take a pont on Friday, it was very quiet. I think quite a few people might be going away for a long weekend.

In a past life, before escaping the UK to run gites, I was an I.T. Consultant. A colleague of mine who I spent many happy hours programming with, is in the process of writing a book about Spam, and more specifically the product Spam Assassin. I have been sent the chapters as they are completed as one of the reviewers of the book. It's been a pleasure to review and from what I have seen so far it is an excellent book. It's also nice to keep in touch with I.T. You can read more about The Spam Assassin Book here.

|   9:08:52 PM   Jersey Trip   

Permis de Construire

Saint Eric

We received a letter from the planning office about our Permis de Construire for the renovation of the barn into two gites. Judging from the translation it says that we will definitely receive a decision by the 23 July 2004, there is a statutory limit of 3 months for the process, and if we don't receive a decision by that date we get permission by default. Well at least that's what I think it says. Much better than the planning system in England, as that can drag on for years sometimes. It is excellent for a public body to make a commitment.

La Poste, the French post office, delivers only once a day round here and to a box at the end of the drive. I think it's very similar to the American system but we don't have a little flag. Everyone has their own little box, although in small communes you often see 4 or 6 boxes joined together, and the facteur (or facteurese?) has a master key which opens all the box fronts on one hinge. They also must have a master key for our solitary box because I'd found packages from Amazon inside that are bigger than the slot!

Caroline left at 06:45 this morning to spend the day in Jersey, part of the channel islands, with a couple of classes of children from our village school. She was the only parent that went with three other teachers. She was very honoured to be asked, even if it was mostly for her translation abilities (they speak mainly English in Jersey even though it is much closer geographically to France than England). We must be bien intégré (well integrated) into the French community, which is very pleasing.
She should be back about 21:00 local time, hot (it's 25°C again), exhausted and hungry.

|   8:12:38 PM   Permis de Construire   

New staircase for gite

Saint Pascal

Caroline planted up 10 trays of geraniums to go on the window sills of the house and gites. They grew to a reasonable size and the weather has really warmed up so we put them out about a week ago to harden off. A few days ago we noticed some of the plants had died or were doing very badly. Couldn't work it out (too high for slugs, soil OK, water, light, no sign of disease) until this morning. A Pied Wagtail was pecking out the little shots and killing the plants ! The larger plants are OK so I guess we will have to put them under cover for a few days.

The old spiral staircase has finally gone. I chopped it up with an angle grinder and took it to the déchetterie (recycling depot). It was a shame to dump it because a lot of time and effort had gone in to hand crafting and welding it specially. It was a one off. However, some people are put off by spiral staircases and they are difficult with suitcases, so we replaced with something a little less industrial and more 'cottage' like::

|   8:00:17 PM   New staircase for gite   

Sixty Million Frenchmen can't be Wrong

Saint Honoré

Started reading Sixty Million Frenchmen can't be Wrong last night. Part of the synopsis reads:

The French drink, smoke and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet they live longer and have fewer heart problems than the English and the Americans. They work 35-hour weeks and take seven weeks' paid holiday each year, yet they are the world's fourth-biggest economic power. So how do they do it?

I only read the introduction and the first chapter but it already answers a few questions about the French culture. I'm absolutely sure I'm going to learn alot from this book. Something which never occurred to me before moving over was the cultural differences. I appreciated that the language barrier would be hard, but the cultural barrier is even harder. There are years/centuries of habits, reasons and methods of doing things in France. We've got a lot to learn, but I'm hoping this book may provide a few pointers.

We had some guests arrive today, it little later than expected. They were due in the gite yesterday, but they got the dates and days a little muddled up. Ah well, the weather is better today :-) The temperature hit a high of 25°C (77°F) today so was very pleasant indeed. The May trees are in full bloom and with the warmer evenings the crickets are back.

This morning we all went for a family bicycle ride along the disused railway line at Le Quoi (near to Evran). It's easy for the children because, like the canal, it's almost flat. By the time we got back the local bar next to the old railway station was doing a good trade with traditional accordion music floating out of the windows and doors. Very French.

|   8:00:09 PM   Sixty Million Frenchmen can't be Wrong   

Saint Denise

Finished reading Life of Pi, Yann Martel last night. I won't write a review (there are loads already) but surfice to say I really enjoyed the book.

Fairly straightforward change-over day. The guests left a loverly comment in the guest book saying it was the best holiday they had ever had ! Makes it all worthwhile.

Caroline has finished painting all the external windows and doors to two of the gites. They look much much better than before.

We had a roofer come round to provide a devis (quote) to replace the slate roof on the barn down in the field. Unfortunately it has been neglected and was completely covered in ivy and the roof was leaking in quite a few places. Last autumn I cut through the ivy at ground level to make it die off. The roof really needs doing otherwise there is going to be water damage to the walls and it could comprimise the structure of the building. It would be a shame to leave it to deteroriate, you see too many old barns falling down in the countryside.

Cleared out loads of general rubbish from the garage.

No mowing today. Hurrah.

|   4:59:27 PM      

Saint Matthias

Finished sanding 14 windows and doors, unfortunately Caroline is still painting. Two gites finished. The other gite we will have to leave until September because it's fully booked from now until then. During the summer I think we are going to tackle our house windows. I can really see the attraction of uPVC.

Outside of the summer season (when we haven't got guests' children staying) the chickens and the goose roam all over the grounds foraging for food. During the summer they are confined to their enclosure because some of the younger children are nervous of the animals. They love helping Caroline feed them each morning but we keep them out of the 'public' areas in the summer. Last year they munched through all the grass in the chicken pen, so this year I've added a bit of fencing to double the size. It's partitioned so we can move them between pens to allow the grass to recover in each idle pen.

Ate our first lettuce from the vegetable garden. I forgot to take a picture so I took a picture of the new chicken fence to wet your appetite instead.

Oh Yep, still mowing :-)

|   7:43:16 PM      

Saint Rolande

Still sanding and painting windows and doors. Three more windows finished, just another 2 to go. Hopefully we should be finished by the end of the week if the weather holds out.

Last French lesson in Dinan today until October. Dinan is noticeably busier now the holiday season is getting into gear. Dinan doesn't close down like some town in the winter, but it definitely picks up in the summer. There are fetes and activities all the time in the surrounding areas. This year is the Fête des Remparts (24, 25 July 2004) in Dinan. Every two years they hold a medieval festival within the castle and on the walls of the town. Most of the townspeople dress up in costume and the jousting tournament is one of the highlights.

Did I mention mowing :-)

Added the story What is a Gite ? for reference.

|   7:59:52 PM      

Saint Achille

It's Wednesday so Lizzie and Hugh don't go to school today. The weather for the last few days has been glorious so we decided to have a day out and go to the beach. After a couple of quick jobs round the house the four of us went to St Malo to have lunch then on to the beach at Rotheneuf. Just down the coast a few minutes from St Malo. A really nice relaxing day.

Of course it can't be all fun and no work, so Caroline put another coat of paint on the doors and windows whilst I have a quick run around with the mower. I made the mistake of putting the grass collectors on, and spent most of the time backways and forwards to the compost heap. The key is to cut a little and often then you don't have to collect the grass.

We had a phone message from ITV (the television company) saying they were making a TV series about peoples holidays and they are interested in a self-catering gite holiday. Very flattering, but I'm not too sure. I've seen some of these programs on TV and they usually only highlight the bad things for ratings. Need to call back for more details. If anyone else has experience of being involved in a TV reality show, press the comment button below (or mail me) and let me know.

|   8:45:23 PM      

Saint Estelle,

Spent most of the day rubbing down the external windows and doors for two of the gites with Caroline chasing behind with a paintbrush. After sanding 4 windows and a large door the skin on my fingers definitely feels thinner. Maybe I'm using the paper the wrong way round :-) Most of the windows and doors face south so they take a real pounding and I expect it's going to be one of those constant jobs, like painting the forth bridge. Only another 6 windows to go !

The last few days have been warm and sunny so the grass is growing real fast. More mowing. I think we are spending more on petrol for the mower than diesel in the car at the moment.

Put a different pump on the rain water butts. First time I used the old pump from the fish pond and submerged it into one of the butts, however it didn't have enough head to drive a decent flow once we had 50 meters of hose connected. The new pump has an 8m head and delivers plenty of water.

Caroline cleaned out the fish pond with a swimming pool hoover. In Carrefour they had a load of swimming pool accessories on special offer. We bought a mini suction cleaner for 6 euros. Connect it up to the pump and hey presto it sucks up all the sediment in the pond. Bargin. The pond water is still clear, even after all this sun, so the filters were a good investment.

|   8:20:36 PM      

Saint Solange

When Caroline takes the children into school she always looks at the menu and translates it for the children so they know what they are going to be eating for lunch. Today it said 'gésiers' ? Caroline didn't know what the English for 'gésiers' was so she asked the teachers. Apparently there was alot of hand waving, pointing, talk about chickens, but she couldn't work it out. In they end they all marched into the canteen, and pointed at the Gizzards !

This week Caroline and I are re-painting the external windows and doors for two of the gites. The third is occupied. It's my job to sand the old paint off, and Caroline does the painting. She hates sanding. I once complained about her standard of painting, and got told to 'do it yourself'. I did. It was worse :-) So now Caroline does all the painting and I do the preparation. I think I got the best job cos you only prepare once and usually paint at least 2 or 3 coats.

However, before I could start, one of the guests mentioned that their sink was not flowing away very fast. Well a bit of searching and rodding and I found the culprit. I love unblocking drains! The problem was a build upof fat and grease that blocked the pipe. For some reason there was no grease trap, (French plumbing), which meant a slight delay to sanding as I built a grease trap from some bits of piping and an old plastic tub with a tight fitting lid. Works a treat. Covered it over with gravel and a very large slate and you'd never know it was there. In the winter I might go buy a special grease trap and replace it, but at the moment it works fine and the guests water runs away. Often you just have to fix things there and then, you can't ask people to hang-on for a few days while I order a new part or get a man in.

So a lightly interrupted morning, but I still managed to sand down two doors and windows and Caroline got a coat of Bondex on each. They look miles better.

|   9:15:46 PM      

Fête Jeanne d'Arc

Not very busy today. It is a beautiful sunny Sunday after all. Football and trampolining with the children. Helped Caroline plant a few plants to fill the borders. Watched,

Spanish joy for Schumacher. Michael Schumacher makes it five straight victories by winning the Spanish Grand Prix. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]

sail to another victory.

Put the 'enduit' (french cream coloured render) on the filter housing. Finally finished. I think I might enduit the whole pond, it was fairly easy and looks much better than the crazy paving slates.

|   6:11:30 PM      

Saint Désiré - Anniversaire 1945

Moved a trailer load of slates from the hard-standing area. Thats the last of the mess and another job off the ToDo list. I would have finished more jobs (honest I would) if it wasn't for the 'quick' unscheduled pond cleaning session last week. The pond has mushroomed into new fish, new pump and filters, plumbing work, bricklaying, and planting. So much for a quick clean! Caroline did her weekly clean out of the chicken house which help provide some good manure for the compost heap. The kids love helping even though they get very messy.
The chickens are back to producing 7 eggs a day. I guess they must have just stopped laying for the last week. We thought they were laying somewhere else but we never found the eggs.

Schumacher grabs pole again. Michael Schumacher leaves the field trailing in his wake as he takes pole position for the Spanish GP. [BBC Sport | Motorsport | UK Edition]
Watched qualifiying. No suprises, but I looks like Michael has started the psyhcological games against Button and indirectly against Montoya.

Major weeding and strimming session this afternoon. It's been a bit windy but fairly warm and sunny. The garden is a full time job at the moment. It seems like constant mowing, weeding, cutting, etc. but the garden is looking lovely and the lawns are in superb condition (apart from a few persistent moles).

New guests arrived today. The weather forecast is warmer and sunny for the next week which will be nice.

Started work on one, possibly two, new stories regarding our move to France and the first year setting up the business. It's been interesting going through the photos and getting a timeline. Funny how the memory distorts time.

|   7:06:29 PM      

Staint Gisele

We went shopping this morning for the correct sized pipe for the pond filter. Came away with a lily and 10 new goldfish. They look really small compared to the 5 Koi. Hopefully they should grow. With luck the 2 old and 1 new lily should flourish now Caroline has repotted them and provide a bit of shade to stop the pond going green. Along with the new filters we should be in for a clear summer.

Cows arrived in the back field today. They came about this time last year, ate all the grass in about 4 weeks then got moved on to another pasture.

The main start of the season begins tomorrow. We got at least one gite occupied from now until September so I've been around and checked all the electrical equipment, fire extinguishers in the gites and put new batteries in the smoke alarms. Most of the other items get checked every Saturday during the changeover.

|   8:25:57 PM      

Saint Prudence

Because today is Saint Prudence I thought I would exercise a little prudence and not apply the 'Enduit' to the filter house today as it has rained on and off all day. I'll wait until the blockwork is dry and start at the weekend.

Caroline and I visited the Pays De Touristique de Dinan this morning about the renovation of our two new gites. We talked, well Caroline spoke in French with the lady and I listened, for about an hour. It was very useful and will help us get the renovation up and running to the correct standard and regulations. The French have alot of administration.

French lesson this afternoon in Dinan. It's just a conversation group but it helps to improve my French and I learn a little every time.

Had to use some of next years firewood on the fire tonight ! Arrg ! It's been a bit cold the last few days but the forecast is warmer next week. Last year we used the electric heating in the house for warmth, until we got the bill. This year we haven't turned on the heating at all and just used the two fires downstairs. These old stone houses are designed to be heated with a proper fire and chimeneys . Once it's warm (it takes about 3 or 4 days) the house acts like a huge storage radiator and just keeps warm

Made a few changes to the website for our gite business by going through the guest books. The comments people leave in the book make you feel good and realise that you provided a great holiday for a family. It's been a tough job getting the website to rank well on Google, especially as they seem to keep changing the rules and there is now loads of competition from other gite owners. It has involved a lot of research and trial and error, but it's very pleasing to DIY your SEO and get on page 1 of Google with some fairly good search terms.

|   8:22:17 PM      

Saint Judith

Nearly finished moving the ugly black box from the pond. Built a small brickwork container next to the pond to house the bio filter and UV. Made the structure using breeze block and with the skills learnt from putting in 5 Velux windows a slate roof. However I'm really annoyed with Laguna, who made the filter box. The exit pipe from the filter is a different size to the inlet pipe and the supplied pipework doesn't fit ! This now means an extra trip to the shop to buy a small length of 3cm tubing to run the return flow back through the hole in the pond side wall to whence it came.

The photos show the before and during construction pictures. The outside of the breeze block, and maybe the rest of the pond wall is going to rendered with 'enduit'. A cream rough exterior covering. A first time for everything.

Had some friends and thier children over for tea. The kids don't go to school on Wednesday so we often have a family day. It's a nice mid-week break. They hadn't been to La Lohuas before so Caroline showed them the gites and grounds. It's really good to show people around because you forget what you have achieved in such a short space of time. We started in Jan 2003 with a couple of Chambre D'Hotes rooms, a gite in need of major refurbishment and an empty shell of a building. Within 4 months we had transformed the place to create three gites, with full summer bookings from a new web site. It was really tough, both of us 12 to 14+ hours every day. The whole experience warrants recording in a story. If anyone is interested, drop me a note !

|   8:58:23 PM      

Saint Sylvain

This morning started building a small pump house next to the Koi pond. The new filter and UV lamp are sat on stones in the pond and it doesn't look very elegant, so I'm building a small waterproof box next to the pond to hold each of the units and it also provides extra protection for the electrics. Cutting a hole in the pond wall was a fairly time consuming job because I couldn't find anywhere that sold a diamond core cutter for concrete. I ended up using a long SDS drill bit and a hammer and chisel. Fish aren't keen on vibrations so it was a slow job.

Caroline and I put most of the windows boxes with geraniums on the house and gites. When they come into flower it really brightens the place up. The other boxes are lined up against a south facing wall ready to replace the pansies when they are over. Moving and planting up 30 window boxes takes a fair while.

|   7:50:49 PM      

Saint Philippe, Jacques

The lady from Brittany Ferries came to visit today to look at our gites. We went to an open day a while back and expressed an interest in being included in Brittany Ferries holiday brochure. They provide package holidays in a gite with a ferry crossing. The deal is they want 5 high season weeks with exclusive access to one or more gites. They advertise and handle the booking and then tell us. However, to provide this service they take a fairly large percent cut of the gite price. We hoped that a bit of extra advertising may give us some low season business. For the last couple of years we have advertised almost exclusively on the web via www.brittany-holiday-gites.com and got about 90% of our guests through the web site. This year we filled July and August before most of the printed brochures were published.

Caroline showed the Brittany Ferries lady around the three gites, play area, and the rest of the grounds. She was very complementary and impressed by our attention to detail, especially the play area. It was obvious to her that we have worked very hard to get the gites to their current high standard. We are pondering what to do, but considering how many high season weeks we would have to give away, just for a few potential low season weeks, it's most probably not worth it for us.

Mow mow mow. New super improved mower has worked hard today. I finished gravelling around the washing lines and laundry room. Another tick on the ToDo list. Mowed like crazy today. The goats field, front lawn, grotto, orchard, slope by laundry room and washing lines, strip behind fencing for children's play area. Large lawn in front of the play barn. Phew. In case your thinking, goats do not eat everything. The goats field needs mowing to top the nettles and thistles and stop them growing and give the grass a chance. Minor problem, the goat escaped into the garden and ate some of the new lonicera hedge and some irises. We were not very happy with polly the goat.

|   7:17:41 PM      

Saint Boris

Yesterday evening we tried to mow the play field without alot of success. It had been mown a week ago but the recent spell of growing weather had made the grass shoot up. In fact everything is growing like the clappers. We seem to spend all out time trying to keep on top of the gardening. The ride-on mower struggled to make a decent cut and kept clogging up so badly that it stalled the engine several times. Halfway through the clutch that engages/disengages the blades was getting very hot and smoky. We decided to quit whilst we were behind and have another look today.

So this morning I tried to find the problem. During the winter I completely serviced the mower. New oil & filter, tune-up, clean, adjust and lubricate etc. I also removed teach of the three blades and sharpened and balanced them. That was my mistake. I failed to spot the diagram laying out the position of each of the blades relative to each other. By repositioning the blades correctly it staggers the cut for each blade and cuts much better, it also ejects the cut grass more thoroughly. Stops the blockages. Hurrah. RTFM.

The four of us went for our first cycle ride as a family around Betineuc lake. Now the children can ride thier own bikes it's much less tiring. They both did really well and only crashed once each (minor scrapes on knees) on the 3km ride.

Put the hammock up between the walnut trees in the orchard. Nice 40 winks after lunch.

It might be my imagination, but the pond seems clearer!

|   3:56:13 PM      

Saint Jeremie

Today is May bank holiday, Fête du Travail, in France. Unlike in England the holiday is on the actual day rather than move it forward to the first Monday. This year is a bit of bad luck cos it's on a Saturday. However when it falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday it is fantastic because many people take a pont, (a bridging day), i.e. they don't go to work on a Monday or a Friday because 'there is no point' :-) Pont's happen all year round, not just May 1st, so you never know what or when anything is open or closed. It adds a bit of variety and uncertainty to spice up your day ! Caroline's friend told her that on a Fête du Travail nobody is allowed to work except the emergency services. Due to bad planning and not completely getting the hang of the French way of life we ran out of bread. Caroline popped out and found a boulangerie open. It doesn't suprise me that a boulangerie is classed as an emergency service :-)

After digging out the flower bed with the pergolas I decided to start work building a pump house for the new pond filter and UV unit. Trouble is the pond seems to be strong enough to withstand a nuclear attack. Abandonned work and will need to buy a concrete core cutter to make a hole for the electric and water pipes. Note - The Fête du Travail does not apply to me !

Moved more gravel. Is it ever going to end. Note to self, buy a Bobcat.

Still haven't found the chicken eggs ! Maybe they are on strike or taking May 1st as a holiday.

|   7:50:06 PM