At the end of last week’s blog, I said that Finistère was only on Amber alert for heat but it was due to get warmer – and it did so it wasn’t the most productive week (again!)
Like the whole of western Europe last week we endured our second heat wave of the year as a heat dome sat over the continent. As elsewhere, many local temperature records were broken including a nearby commune. Brennilis, which reached 38.7oC. Our own commune, Sizun, peaked out at 38 oC, a record for June but less than the 38.9 oC achieved in July 2022, the year of the huge fires in the Monts D’Arrée.
While these temperatures are extreme for us, and very uncomfortable to do anything physical, we can only imagine that it is even worse in other parts of France which makes us happy we didn’t move further south.
In the last couple of seasons we’ve had a number of guests stay with us who mentioned that previously they would have holidayed in areas like the Dordogne or Provence but, as the summers there get far too hot, they have made the decision to come to Brittany – and we would (obviously!) say we are the perfect destination for climate refugees.
The blog also said that I had one task that had to be completed in the week, no matter how unpleasant it would be in the heat, and that was to replace the staircase leading up to the games room in Grange.
At this time of year, when schools haven’t yet broken up, our guests are predominantly adults who don’t use the games room frequently and not needing to change gites over early in the week meant I had a couple of days when I could remove the old staircase with minimal risk of us needing access to the first floor if things didn’t go as planned!
We have known for quite some time that we needed a new staircase and we started to look for a company who could manufacture one in January. We prefer to use local firms for projects and we were given the details of 2, one in Landivisiau the other in Pleyber Christ who we approached for an estimate.
At the same time we did some online searching to make a comparison. Without giving the price we had to pay, online we found a Belgian firm who could design, manufacture and deliver an aluminium staircase for a price we were willing to pay. Another, based in eastern France, practically in Switzerland, could do the same for about the same price but a little more.
Disappointingly the 2 local companies were closer to 3 times the price (albeit they both included installation in their quotes) so we chose the Belgian firm who also had the shortest lead time to manufacture.
Their design and manufacture teams proved to be better communicators than their logistics department. Having approved their design in early March, the next phonecall we received was in April telling us the staircase would be delivered the following day. However, the following day we had another commitment that there was no way we could change.
In that phonecall it became clear that the lorry carrying the staircase was already on the road (we weren’t sure where it was en route between us and Belgium) but there was no way we could be home to take delivery or arrange a team to unload it from the lorry having been told it would require 4 people. So the lorry was turned around.
When the delivery was re-arranged for a date we could be here with a couple of friends to assist, it turned out that David and I were able to easily unload it ourselves! At least we had it.
Having built a concrete plinth last week I started dismantling the old staircase last Monday which, despite it being so rickety, it put up a bit of a fight. Once down, installation of the new one was helped as David came home early from work, his gym classes having been cancelled due to the heat in the gym, and he was able to help me carry it into position.
A friend came on Tuesday to show me how to rivet the steps in place as I’d not rivetted before and, once done, I was able to give the balustrade on the top platform a bit of TLC which has made the whole staircase stronger than it had been for some time.
We’re really pleased this job has been completed and I can now show guests into the games room without having to say ‘mind the Xth step as it’s a bit loose’ and, when wet, ‘take it slowly as the wooden steps can get very slippery’.
To escape the heat in the week we decided to go back to the Fonds Leclerc gallery in Landerneau for the first time in a few years as we knew it would be air conditioned!
The gallery is on the site of the original E. Leclerc supermarket which opened in 1949. Leclerc is now one of the larger supermarket chains in France and the site of the original store has become an art gallery back by a foundation set up in Leclerc’s name.
In our early years here the galley attracted big name exhibitions such as Chagall, Giacometti, Picasso and Henry Moore. For no particular reason, we haven’t been to any of their exhibitions since Covid but their current one caught our eye – Andy Warhol.
It is an interesting exhibition, although we felt there were fewer artworks than other exhibitions we’d been to there, but we would certainly recommend visiting and is open until late January next year.
The heat has abated here as the dome has moved eastwards, so next week should be considerably more productive and focus will shift back to the garden and hedging.
Kenavo.