Running a Gite in Brittany

Free winter fuel

A while ago there was a large party in the village with a number of BBQ's. The BBQ fuel was supplied as a container load of offcuts from a local staircase factory. Not all the wood was used so half of the left over wood was delivered. There was nearly two cubic meters of oak and exotic hardwood. With alot of help from Carolines parents it's now all safely stacked in the wood shed for future BBQs and winter heat. Shifting all the wood took about day, but as they say - you don't get something for nothing.

It seems a little ironic that we are having two new staircases fitted and stacking the offcuts from someone elses job.

 wood |   4:57:16 PM   Free winter fuel   

Staircase arrived

Early this morning our two made-to-measure staircases arrived flatpack along with two men to fit them in the gites. They had to be custom built because of the high ceilings in the gites. A few weeks later than we hoped but here at last.

The two workers have been beavering away all day and have erected the framework and about half the steps. It should take about a week to do both staircases in the gites.
It will be a relief once they are finally installed, not just because we are fed up with ladders, but the gites are now starting to look habitable, especially with Caroline starting to fit the first kitchen and my friend Ian fitting the santitaryware in the two bathrooms.
A little visible progress lifts the spirts somewhat after alot of hum-drum preparation work.
 brittany gites |   6:19:14 PM   Staircase arrived   

Fete De La Musique

On June 21, the longest day of the year and the date of the summer solstice France celebrates the festival of music. There are free concerts and music in just about every city and town in France. It's free because the government pays.

So after a hard day at the office - still filling - I'm going into Dinan to sample the various bands and musicians tonight. Programme of Events in Dinan

brittany |   6:55:18 PM   Fete De La Musique   

Filling

This is really starting to be a major chore, taping and jointing and filling all the small gaps, especially round the beams etc. It's very tempting to get some textured paint and cover over everything. The problem with 'flat' paint is it shows all the blemishes too easily, hence extra sanding down and more careful filling.
The good news is I have almost finished both the large downstairs rooms in each gite and broken the back of the kitchen in the left hand gite.
brittany gites |   5:11:54 PM   Filling   

Baby chicks hatched

Just over three weeks ago one of our chickens went broody, so Caroline got 12 'fertilised' eggs from a neighbour and slipped them under the mother to be.
This evening two of the eggs have hatched, young black chickens, and hopefully the rest should shortly follow.
Once the proud 'mother' has settled down a little I'll try to get some photos.

Update: 15th June 2005, Six of the chicks hatched OK, click on the photo for a larger image.
|   7:52:40 PM   Baby chicks hatched   

Breton festival

Elizabeth takes Breton Dance classes in Les Champs Geraux and today there was a Breton festival in Rennes in which her group was one of the participants in the displays.

Caroline, Hugh and I along with the group dressed in traditional costume drove, out to the outskirts and Rennes and we took the Metro, underground train, into the center of town. There was various displays and activites, learning to speak Breton, traditional games played with palets - small metal discs thrown onto various wooden boards, Breton music and lots of Breton Dancing.

	Breton dancing in Rennes
	Place du Parlement, Rennes
	Traditional Breton palet games,

The games above from left to right are:

• Les Palets a case - The largest opening scores 1 and the smallest 5
• Botez-Koad - A clog to launch your palet into
• Kheops - Triangular wooden board. The smaller the area the bigger the score
• La Chambranlou - A board on a spring
• Les Pertous - I think the object was to get into one of the holes
• Le Trou d'Souris - No idea ?

The palets are heavy round metal discs that are thrown at the targets.

brittany |   9:23:57 PM   Breton festival   

Hay Bales

The weather has been glorious for the last week so our local farmer has been to make hay on our front field. He came on Tuesday to cut the grass then turned it over to help it dry out a few days later. Today he came with the baler and left us with plenty of hay for our goats. Driving around the countryside you can see lots of activity in the fields, it's usually a good indication of good weather for several days, especially when hay making. Predicting the weather must be one of the most hit and miss parts about farming.

 brittany |   7:29:27 PM   Hay Bales   

Svahn

Went out last night with some friends to see a French band in Plousane. Svahn described themselves as, 100% nervous urban folk music, and consisted of Thierry Svahn (accordionist/mouth organ), plus a bass guitarist and drummer. You can hear a small snippet.

Other numbers they played had a touch of a reggae/scar sound to them. The music was OK but I did not have a clue what he was singing about ! Not a bad evening out for just a few euros.

 brittany |   12:10:11 PM   Svahn   

Taping and Jointing

The last week has seen me covered in fine white dust, dried out lumps of filler and decorators caulk. I've been Taping and Jointing the remaining bathrooms for Caroline to tile. The process involves applying several coats of filler over all the screw holes in the plasterboard and filling the joints between plasterboard sheets.

The screw holes are simple, just swipe a little jointing compound over the hole ensuring no filler is left proud. Once dry and quick rub with some fine glasspaper and then apply a little more over any screw holes or blemishes that have sunk.

The joints and corners are a little more complicated. The external corners have a thin metal right angle piece screwed to the edge and then filler is applied over the metal strip and blended into the faces of the plasterboard. It's mush easier if the chamfered edges of the plasterboard are on the external corner. Again apply jointing compound, a light sand down and a final smoothing coat. Internal corners I arrange so that there is a snug fit without the chamfered edge and it's just a matter of running a bead of decorators caulk (acrylic mastic) down the edge.

The joints on the walls and ceilings have a self adhesive glass fibre tape stuck between the two bits of plasterboard. As long as the two chamfered edges of the board meet there is a 'well' between the boards. Apply a coat of jointing compound into the joint pushing it through the woven tape and almost flush with the face of the plasterboard. I've got a couple of spatulas, approx. 10cm wide and 25cm wide that you run over the joints to ensure no filler is proud. Once dry apply the second coat liberally then run the wide spatula over the joint removing the excess and leaving a smooth 'invisible' seam. I've found it is essential to keep the edges of the spatulas clean because the slightest piece of dried compound leaves a score mark down the joint.

It's quite a fiddly time consuming job, and there is still loads left to do, but I can't plaster and once you get proficient at taping and joiting  I don't think it's much slower in actual time, just that the operation is pread over several days waiting for filler to dry. I think it works out a bit cheaper as well.

 brittany gites |   5:40:17 PM   Taping and Jointing