Running a Gite in Brittany

APE moules frites soiree

Our APE soiree for 240 people has finished. Apart from the preparation, the work and the event has taken all weekend with it starting before lunch on Saturday to put out tables and chairs, decoration, crockery, cutlery glasses, coffee etc. and finally getting cleared up by late Sunday afternoon.

The soiree was held in the local village hall which is really geared up to hold big events. There is a very well equipped full catering kitchen with professional washing up machines to clear the debris. Two of the APE committee members, Olivier and Denis, worked as chefs in London hotels, so the food was terrific.

We had a Kir apéritif followed by morcels of pork on toasted bread & cheese. A leek and potato soup, moules frites, cheese, ice cream and coffee to finish. All the wine was supplied along with a disco and demonstrations of Breton dancing and African dancing. Elizabeth goes to Breton dancing classes so she was one of the participants.

With Caroline on the APE committee we were one of the last to leave at 4:30 after a superb but tiring evening. I volunteered to help wash-up after the main course, but didn't realise quite how much work it was loading and washing over 240 place settings, even with a giant dishwashing machine..

About 20 of us, committee members and helpers returned before lunch on Sunday to put away tables and chairs and clear up. However because there was quite a bit of food left over we all sat down again for another round of soup, moules frites, cheese and wine ! and more washing up. It does seem a little crazy replaying the evening again, but it gave everyone a chance to chat about the evening and is some reward for all the work.

Finished tidying the hall at 18:00 Sunday. Phew. But great fun and if you ever get the chance to go to a French village soiree I would really recommend it.

|   6:38:19 PM   APE moules frites soiree   

Spud bashing

Tomorrow there a large repas at the local village hall run by the parent teachers association (APE des Champs Geraux). There will be over 240 people (77 children!) attending. Caroline spent the afternoon peeling and chopping vegetables with her friends for the soup tomorrow night. If you ever need to make soup for 240 people you will need, 30 kg Potatoes, 15 kg Carrots, 15 kg Onions and 30 kg Leeks. Carolines hands looked a little sore this evening. The main course is Moules Frites, and for that they need 200 kg of Moules and 2.5kg of garlic !

This year Caroline has volunteered to help serve and I have volunteered to help with the washing up. Why ?

This afternoon I have been wielding my chainsaw copicing a very large hazel for firewood next year. As a little extra the builders left me three wooden pallets for firewood. So I had to smash them up into fire sized pieces. It all sounds very romantic and cosy having a real fire, but it's hard work and having a pile of old building waste stacked up next to the fireplace does take the edge of the romance.

 

|   7:54:27 PM   Spud bashing   

Scaffolding removed

The maçons tell me they will be finished on Monday lunchtime apart from pouring the concrete for the kitchen floor on Tuesday morning once I've tied in the electric cabling for the kitchen. Most of the afternoon was spent tidying up and removing scaffolding etc. They do work fast. We've had four blokes for the last couple of days, and the kitchen is finished. They only put in the foundations two days ago !

You can see from the picture the outside is almost finished. Some slate roofing on the kitchen (far left) and the two new lucarnes (same as the middle one), a bit of blockwork in the central opening to make two windows then some cream coloured enduit on the blockwork for the kitchen and in the middle.

It's difficult to see but under each window sill they have deliberately left out stonework from the center. There is just a void. The head maçon told me it was to stop the stone breaking if the supporting stone at each end dried at an uneven rate. For example if the right hand side sunk very slightly any central stonework could act as a fulcrum on a lever causing the stone to be bent and break. Once dry and any danger of settling has passed they plug the hole.

I've been very impressed with our French builders. We've used English builders in England, English builders in France and obviously French builders here. Our best experience has been with the local French builders. They are a little more expensive but the work is guaranteed for 10 years and because they specialise (there is a strict demarkation of trades) the quality of their work is superb.

|   7:54:01 PM   Scaffolding removed   

Wood and water

A profitable day and a stressful day.

First the profitable part,

With the granite lintel in place the maçons propped up the wall, window and floor above it so they could remove the two old oak lintels. For the first time I've actually seen them use steel girders for support instead of wood, so I guess there must be an awful lot more load this time. They also 'chocked' up the lucarne with zig-zag bits of wood, I assume to prevent collapse due to the lack of support. Once supported, the oak was chainsawed out in sections, ready for concrete and stone infill.

Of course, having two wood burning stoves in the house I pounced on the wood as if they were made of gold. A few hours chainsawing and splitting gave us a substaintial pile of wood for the winter. I got over 1 cubic meter of logs, which is not too bad. Based on last year we reckon that we need 8 or 9 m³ (3 cordes) to last the winter.

---

...and the stressful portion,

The digger man (and digger lady) arrived this morning to demolish the lean-to and dig the foundations ready to rebuild it into a kitchen for one of the gites. Those of you that have followed progress will know about the rising water main in the lean-to. It's a rigid plastic pipe sticking out the ground next to a wall that has the stopcock, water meter and pressure reducer attached with a supply pipe for our house and the three gites.

As you would expect, just before a man starts swinging around a 1 ton steel articulated hydralic arm, I pointed out this vunerable aspect of the demolition work. Be careful. Well the inevitable happened. The was a ring at the door "The pipes come off. What's the number for the water board ?" says a rather sheepish lady, "Where is the stopcock ?". I go out to turn off the stopcock on the pipe and then realise, that's the bit that's come off. There is water everywhere ! We can't find the main stopcock in the road or the verge, so whilst I divert gallons and gallons of water into a nearby ditch with old bits of rainwater pipe and guttering lashed together with sticky tape, the water board is called.

This has put a bit of a dampener on the day.

A very very grumpy water board man arrived and before even trying to turn off the water, started to complain about us having a water meter outside and it should be inside a building. Well 10 minutes ago it was inside a building and next week it will be back inside a building, but this didn't cut any ice. "It should be inside a building", he says. Arggg!! OK, armed with metal detector and stopcock key water man (WM) stomps up and down the verge looking for the main stopcock swearing under his breath.

In the meantime the bread lady arrives and informs us that the village upstream from us hasn't got any water. The problem is it's spewing out all over our building site and we pinched all the water pressure!

Finally WM locates the stockcock and turns it off. Nothing happens, apart from the village downstream having no water ! Digger man is hiding. WM decides to give up on the main stopcock and just fit a new one onto our rising main with the water still on. Water reconnected and normallity is restored. Apart from everyone being up to their knees in mud.

A quick discussion with WM and the builders and we decided the best thing was to position the water meter etc. outside the new building in a plastic box buried underground. It means that the WM can read the meter without bothering us. I go off shopping to get the necessary plumbing supplies to re-route the pipes on our side of the meter (the private side) and expect the WM to re-route his pipes (the public side).

By now the digger man has finished the foundations and the pair of them leave, sharpish.

I'm expecting to do a bit of plumbing in the afternoon, but now find out that the concrete mixer is en-route to fill the foundations ready for building. This is now getting stressful, water meters in the wrong place, no time for plumbing, and it all about to be covered over with tonnes of concrete.

Fortunately our trusty builders sort it out and put a conduit under the foundations before they are poured so I can thread a pipe and get water into the building from the proposed new meter position outside. Once the new meter is installed we will just cut off the old rising main pipe.

Voila. Beer time.

|   9:26:31 PM   Wood and water   

Positioning Lintel

The new granite lintel for the old barn door was placed in position today. You can just see in the photo the original oak lintel above with a metal runner for the door. The old plan was to directly replace the oak lintel with this granite version, but once you see things in the flesh they look quite different to on a plan. So in order to make the building look less like a barn and more like two gites, we have lowered the new lintel to align with the tops of the new doors then the old oak lintel will be removed and the space above infilled with stone. The large opening will then be 'hidden' and hopefully it should look less agricultural but still retain the charm and appeal of an old stone breton building.

The three maçons didn't seem that stressed by the whole operation, but we did notice them puffing away on several cigarettes beforehand and very quickly lit up another round of fags once the stone was safely in position. It's a big piece of stone to be swinging about on the end of a fork lift.

|   8:08:18 PM   Positioning Lintel   

Sugar free chauffeurs

I've commented on French driving before but after a few experiences recently I think I've worked out why it's really only at lunchtime that everyone drives badly. Quite simply they are rushing to get home for lunch after having eaten nothing since a croissant at the crack of dawn, their blood sugar levels are dangerously low as they race along the road, while thinking of steak frites. |   2:06:13 PM   Sugar free chauffeurs   

Lucarnes

The stonework for both the lucarnes is in position. Once the uprights have set hard, they will pop on the two lintels then it's over to the carpenter and roofer. Because the stones are 'free' standing they have actually drilled a hole in the tops and bottoms of the stones and passed and glued a metal bar between each pair to add strength. The top two smaller stones on each side are actually one piece with a groove cut around the middle to make it look like two stones. Once it's all pointed you would never know.

The digger man was meant to arrive today to demolish the lean-to (new kitchen) and dig the foundations for it's replacement. Originally we just expected to put a new roof on, but when they dug out to lay the new concrete floor in the barn they noticed that the lean-to had no foundations and was very fragile. Hence the extra work (and cost). He's hoping he arrives first thing Monday or else our builders will run out of work very soon.

|   8:42:46 PM   Lucarnes   

Poire gite has new stairs

The staircase has finally been installed in Poire. There is still a bit of finishing off with trim and skirting etc. but everything is in position and glued and screwed. The builders came and gave me a lift up to put the staircase in position. It's solid oak and very very heavy, there was alot of grunting and groaning for several minutes. I must of measured and re-measured a dozen times before asking for a lift up to ensure it fitted first time. I did learn a few new French words that were muttered under their breath when I asked them if we could lower it again to allow me to drill two fixing holes under the bottom step. I couldn't find the words in the dictionary so I've no idea what was said.

I was very grateful after they helped lift it into position for the second and final time (I suspect they were as well). It's a huge improvement over the old stairs. A much more comfortable angle and all the steps are even. It also makes the room alot bigger without the old partion wall.

|   8:41:56 PM   Poire gite has new stairs   

Started Lucarnes

The front doors are finished, as is the back window and side door. This morning they started on the new lucarnes, (dormer windows), but it threw up a problem. The A-Frame beams upstairs that support the roof would foul the proposed position of the windows. They architect had drawn them directly above the doors, and had not taken the beams into account. I think it was fairly obvious that he not been upstairs and just drawn them in the most aesthetically pleasing position.

The builders' have been really helpful, visiting the architect, getting a carpenter on-site within 10 minutes to see what options we open to us, getting the plans re-drawn and taking the time to explain everything. We had the option to invoke the architect's insurance to move the beams and put the windows in the original position, but being pragmatic and to save time, we decided to move both windows (the left one right and the right one left) to keep the symetery.

It's quite humbling living here in France, compared to what things were like in the UK, everyone has been really kind, generous and taken the time to be patient and help us enormously. The language is still a bit of a barrier for me and the cutural differences take some getting used to, but the fact that people seem to have more time (and space) for each other makes everything a whole lot better.

|   8:20:45 PM   Started Lucarnes   

Taxing Gites

A useful article on the tax implications of letting gites. Caveat actor

|   12:35:55 PM   Taxing Gites   

Reindeer, Yum Yum

Spent the day at the world famous Swedish home furnishing shop to replace some kitchen cupboard fronts that have developed a manufacturing fault over the last two years. The kitchen doors etc. are from the Duverum range (now discontinued, I wonder why) and the covering started cracking and letting any moisture in which made the wood underneath expand and balloon off the finish.

They are covered by a 10 year guarantee and IKEA have replaced all the external doors, trim, plinth etc. (even those unaffected) for free, without quibble, and without wanting to see the old Duverum. I suspect it's a known problem.

Anyway, the main reason for writing, rather than praise IKEA's customer service, was in the IKEA resturant they had a Christmas special menu of reindeer steak and chips. It was delicious, very lean and tender with a gamey; slightly liver like taste. Elizabeth wasn't that impressed when I told her I'd eaten a Reindeer for lunch.

|   8:34:21 PM   Reindeer, Yum Yum   

Recovering old stonework.

The maçons are back up to full speed this morning and the roofers arrived to remove the slates for the new lucarnes. At the end of last week there was a small hicupp and a change. A few weeks ago we had two pallet loads of granite corner stones delivered for the new window and door frames. Over time the number of stones has been reducing as the maçons have built the windows and doors. At the end of last week it dawned on us, and the maçons, that there were not enough stones to make the side door to one of the gites. Neither ourselves or the builders noticed that there was not an entry on the quote for the side door. It was on the architect plans but somehow got left off the quote.

In order to save time and money, (ordering and paying for more stones), the maçons have cannibalised the original barn door entrance by cutting out the back of the stones (which will be hidden by the window frame) and using them to build the side door. The new new 3.5m long granite lintel, replacing the current oak lintel, on the old barn entrance will also be lowered to the same height as the lintels on new doors each side of it. This frees up some more stones for the side door and it should all look more pleasing to the eye.

It sounds a bit confusing, but in the front-on pictures of the barn that have been published, the big gapping hole in the middle of the building was the original 3m by 3m entrance. This is where the stones have been 'recovered' from.

|   8:18:55 PM   Recovering old stonework.   

Spent the afternoon at Rochebonne plage, Parame, near St Malo playing on the rocks and watching the sand yachts racing up and down the beach. A slighty bizzare discovery was an English Fish and Chip shop on the sea front ! We decided to give it a miss and come home for roast beef and yorkshire pudding.

|   6:34:49 PM      

Chimney sweep

Swept both the chimneys this morning. We have just about run out of scrap softwood (door frames, old wooden step ladders, pallets, general waste offcuts etc) and are about to start using our stockpile of oak and ash logs. The softwood leaves quite a residue on the chimney liners and a sweep helps prevent any possible chimney fire and ensures the fires burn better. Once swept, the chimney has a draw on it strong enough to suck off your slippers. |   2:14:02 PM   Chimney sweep   

Eleven locks at Hede

Quite a hectic Saturday. Elizabeth (6) took her first trip to the hairdressers to have a bob cut. It is a big improvement over her previous style of long hair. With no time to rest it was straight off to Breton dancing classes. Caroline has to make a coiffe, 'lace' headress, for her costume. Every Breton village has it's own 'lace' style, so she needs to be taught the correct method. The Breton dance teacher told Caroline today that was much easier to fix the coiffe to long hair. Opps! Luckily I was on a mission to Rennes to Brico Depot to get more DIY supplies :-)

After lunch we all went to Hédé and to see the Les Onze Ecluses (11 locks) along the Canal D'Ille et Rance. Hédé is a pretty little village set on a hill by the canal, hence the need for all the locks. A leisurely stroll along the towpath, with Elizabeth proudly sporting her new hair-do, allowed us to take in about six or seven locks before we turned back. I'd guess that all eleven were spread over about 3 km.

|   8:20:06 PM   Eleven locks at Hede   

My friend Ian and I have spent a couple of days trying to finish Poire ready to take the stairs which were delivered on Tuesday. Just swapping the stairs has had a load of knock on jobs. Because a wall had to be moved, it meant the ceiling and floor needed fixing up. The ceiling was replaced (it was polystryene tiles) and the floor patched with more laminate flooring. The wall (and adjacent walls) have been plastered ready for papering and painting. Fortunately the previous owner left two rolls of paper that match.

Once all the mess is over I'll fix in the stairs.

A light frost Friday morning meant Caroline and I had to move all the geraniums from the window sills and patios into the potting shed. There was over thirty troughs.

The moles are back !

At the suggestion of the builder we have removed the tin roof from the lean-to that will be demolished and re-built. The corrogated iron will keep my logs dry, and the two 5m long oak beams have kept us warm for several days.

|   5:56:52 PM      

Doors almost finished

The workers have not been here for a few days as Thursday (Armistice Day) was a bank holiday and Friday is a pont.

They have finished the granite stonework for the doors at the front with new lintels and filled in most of the surround with stone ready for pointing. The new rear window has been framed with granite and is waiting for stone infill.

|   5:49:11 PM   Doors almost finished   

Doors in progress

The workers are coming along fantastically. The two doors at the front have all the granite blocks in place surrounding the door frame and are just waiting for the lintels to be placed on top when they have dried.

Behind the granite blocks is some shuttering (wooden boards in photo on left) which is infilled with concrete, stones, etc. to build up the depth of the wall and hold everything together. It just binds the existing wall and the new facing stones. The walls are over 60cm thick so need alot of material replacing. Existing doors and windows in older parts of the building have been back-filled and finished off with stone layer by layer, but concrete is cheaper, stronger and much faster. It all gets covered over with insulation and plasterboard, so it's never going to be seen. If was done in the traditional way with lime mortar and stone then it would take weeks, not days, and consequently cost much much more.

They have now started on the openings at the rear for the kitchen and access to the patio.

Next week the roofer and carpenter arrive to take off the slates and prepare the openings in the roof so they can start on the lucarnes at the front.

|   1:56:46 PM   Doors in progress   

Gite adverts

More free web advertising for the gites here, here and here.

|   7:01:23 PM   Gite adverts   

The computer has been playing up over the last week or so. It just suddenly reboots for no apparent reason. We've not installed any hardware or software for ages, so it was a bit of a mystery. Checking the event log showed a number of bugchecks or various error codes and addresses, nothing consistent. Surfing the web pointed to possible hardware failure, a disk or memory chip going bad. One entry mentioned in passing overheating caused by overclocking the CPU. I used to overclock the PC but tuned it down once the PC became critcal to the business. Out with the games in in with the accounts.

On a hunch I started monitoring the temperature, and it did seem to creep up and up to 55^oC+ It was a bit of a guess, but the PC is nearly three years old and taking the cover off revealed a mountain of caked on dust. Wrestling the Hoover out from under the stairs and on full suction I spring cleaned the boards, air inlets and cooling fans. I had to remove the fan from the CPU heatsink because all the fins on the heatsink where full of dust and needed brushing out.

The temperature has now stabilised at around 46^oC, and so far, no crashes since last Sunday. So if your computer is having a mid-life crisis it might be hot flushes causing the problem.

|   8:03:44 PM      

Independent travelling on the increase.

From yesterdays Times

Millions shun travel agents for getaways on the Internet By Valerie Elliott, Consumer Editor BRITONS are rejecting the traditional package holiday and spending more on do-it-yourself getaways. In the past six years the market has doubled and is now worth £11.7 billion. It is forecast that this sector could grow by 78 per cent within five years and reach a value of just over £21 billion as the public gain confidence about booking separately for flights and accommodation. ...

Read the rest of the article at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1345032,00.html

This article certainly tallies with our experiences over here. Quite a few people have reported to us that they have had a very bad summer this year, whereas this summer was our best yet, and next summer is almost fully booked already. We take about 90% of our bookings direct from the Internet rather than via package holiday companies. Other gite owners who advertise via ferry company brochures, for example, have had lower bookings this season than expected.

|   8:08:35 PM   Independent travelling on the increase.   

New gite doors

The builders are back in demolition mode. Two large holes for the new gite front doors. Not a bad days work, in fact we have both been very pleased with our French builders.

The large central opening will be bricked up to waist height and made into two windows. Once the doors and windows are finished they should be able to create the two new lucarnes (dormer windows) above the doors.

|   7:53:42 PM   New gite doors   

Three new Velux windows

Whilst the builders were working away downstairs my friend Ian and I have been beavering away upstairs fitting three Velux windows in the slate roof at the back of the gites. They are fairly straightforward to fit, but one word of advice, remove more slates than you think are necessary, especially at the top of the window. It's much easier to work and refit the slates when there is a larger gap to create more 'give'. Cutting through the beams to make the holes for the windows was a little nerve racking. The largest window (118cm by 114cm) leaves a big hole in the roof and you need to remove quite alot of the structure. I suspect we over engineered the replacement bracing and strenthening, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm a big fan of Velux windows as they let in so much light and really brighten up a room.

|   8:34:31 PM   Three new Velux windows   

Dividing gite wall built

The builders arrived yesterday with a huge cement mixer and a fork lift truck with a telescopic arm. The parpaing, concrete blocks, they were using were very very heavy (essential for good sound insulation between the gites) and without the fork lift I think it would have taken all day just the move the blocks let alone build a wall.

At the corners and ends of the wall (the wall has a kink in it to prevent building up the middle of an existing window) they knocked out a precast hole in some of the blocks in order to drop in strengthening metal rods from the top down to the floor. I didn't see it happen but I also think they drilled the foundation of the wall and inserted vertical metal rods which they then built the wall over. Once 2.5m high a special row of U shaped blocks was laid and a metal lattice placed horizontally in the U in and tied to the vertical metalwork. The U was filled with concrete/mortar and the vertical holes also filled. Apparently it's necessary for (free standing ?) walls over 2.5m to stop them toppling over. It's now finished and I wish I'd taken a photo of the wall part constructed.

 

|   8:33:19 PM   Dividing gite wall built   

French headlight experiment

In France we have just started a five month long experiment to drive our cars with our lights on during the day. The idea is to improve road safety by making cars more visible.

French news report & English translation.

Motorcyclists are not happy, because they used to stand out from the crowd with their lights on but now will just blend in. I do have some sympathy with their argument. I remember when high level brake lights arrived. When just a few cars had them people took notice, but now everyone has high level brake lights we are back to the status quo.

The experiment is just that, you don't have to turn your lights on (i.e. you won't get fined), but there are ad's on the radio asking people to do so. I have so say, I've not noticed that many vehicles with lights.

|   12:28:48 PM   French headlight experiment   

SpamAssassin

A friend of mine, Alistair McDonald, has been writing a book about Spam and SpamAssasin. We both worked together for a year or so at HP writing software for their middleware products some time back and have kept in touch. Alistair stayed in the software game and I escaped to France. I was pleased to be asked to be one of the reviewers of the book before publication, but realised how quickly the IT industry moves on. My knowledge of Mail Transport systems was already rusty in just a few years. The book was very readable and I enjoyed finding out what tricks the Spammers use and how to stop them.

The book, SpamAssassin, A practical guide to integration and configuration , has now been published by Packt after alot of hard work. Congratulations Alistair.

|   8:26:41 PM   SpamAssassin