Bits and Pieces...

As Val mentioned in her recent "business" blog, we hadn’t written for a while after getting back from the States because we had been rushed off our feet buying a car, getting car insurance (l’assurance auto) and car title (la carte grise), then closing on the apartment, and getting house and contents insurance, electricity, gas, telephone, TV, and internet organized.  

Meanwhile, we had been working hard on designing modifications to the apartment before we moved in. In typical French fashion, even though it is a 3 bed apartment, there is only one, separate, WC (which has no hand basin), and one bathroom (i.e. a bath and washbasin, no toilet).  So we have been brainstorming (une remue-meninges) ways to get a second bathroom with a second WC. Additionally, we want to open up the kitchen where currently there is not much light. This will make it more open plan, add a breakfast bar, and provide easier access to the dining room for carrying dishes back and forth.

Kells Round Tower

We have found a local Irish builder who is doing the basic work for us (cutting through 4 inches of concrete for wastepipes!). Coincidentally, he went to school in Kells, a little market town some way north of Dublin where I worked for a couple of years. The town, also called Ceannanas Mór, is most famous for its Books of Kells, a beautifully illuminated manuscript book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament. It was created by Celtic monks around 800 AD. Kells also has a round tower dating from the 10th century. One story goes that when the Viking raiders arrived the locals would run up a ladder to a high door in the tower and then pull the ladder up behind them. They would have provisions in the tower and simply wait out the rape and pillage going on below! If you want to know more about Kells see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kells,_County_Meath .

Kitchen walls propped up

Coming back to the work on the apartment (revenons à nos moutons), we intend to completely strip out what remains of the existing kitchen cupboards and fittings, and redo them to our taste (à notre gout).  To plan all this we have been drawing and redrawing possible layouts, then going the rounds of furniture stores such as Conforama and Ikea, and building stores such as Leroy-Merlin and Castorama (similar to Home Depot in the USA or Homebase in the UK), viewing, reviewing and finally selecting what we think will work.

Of course we collide with a lot of specialist vocabulary along the way… most of which I am sure will be transient and be shortly forgotten! Here’s a simple example of wishing to buy a drill. Does monsieur want une perceuse sans fil, un perforateur burineur ou une perceuse à percussion ? Ou peut-être une visseuse à chocs, ou un marteau-piqueur (livré, bien sûr, avec un burin plat) ? And does monsieur want a drill bit with that (un foret and not une forêt, or does monsieur want une mèche) ?

AAGP Play reading group

To complement or counter all this hard work, we continue to enjoy social activities here – helped by weather that continues to be beautiful, with each morning a joy as we open the shutters and see a bright blue sky shining over the tops of adjacent buildings and trees.

Gorges du Caramy

About a dozen of us participate in the AAGP (Anglo-American Group of Provence) monthly English play-reading group, and this time we read Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. It was sublime. Afterwards, we played a portion of the renowned 1960s BBC audio recording of Richard Burton reading it – a humbling experience.

We also enjoyed an AAGP ramble and picnic, with about 20 adults, 5 children and as many dogs. This time it was a walk along the Gorges du Caramy, about 45 minutes’ drive east of Aix en Provence.

© 2012 Trevor and Valerie White