France – A Few Quirkes

The removal beast

We are in London in a new flat.

The journey in a high sided van was a little uncomfortable through northern France as the remnants of the storm included strong winds and lots of rain.

🥶 Well Cold

So yesterday’s snow remains and it was cold overnight- I think minus 4 Celsius. So shutter motor was frozen and water pipes too.

Fire on in the salon.

Warming up now late morning so hopefully everything will be working normally soon.

The Snow Returns

Predicted snow but more than I expected.

Luckily we were out and about this morning.

Clear sky on Boxing Day

Sunset with some colours in the sky and an early phase moon.

A Christmas Classic

So we awoke with a snow lined vista. It is chilly and the heat pump is doing its job.

Early opening of the Santa stockings for very large children and then out for a walk.

A lively chat with Joe last night. A beautiful warm sunny day for him in contrast.

Travelling to Marseille

We arrived at Saint Brieuc in good time but unfortunately the train did not. Due to either signaling failure or hitting an animal on the line, or both, the train was an hour late.

We missed our connection to Marseille by three minutes despite a rush through the metro. So we have spent a little more time at Gare de Lyon.

The wall is done

So now the re-pointing is finished. The mud between the stones has been replaced by beautiful lime mortar.

It took us 4 weeks each of work. So quite a substantial effort and a learning experience along the way as we learned and adapted the techniques for applying the mortar. The stones needed a good clean at the end and it was clear the applying and smoothing of the mortar improved as experience was gained.

Now will be the time to turn it into a better entertainment area and zone space. We will see.