Another productive week on a number of projects and, thankfully, some long outstanding tasks completed as we continue to work our way through the, ever lengthening, to-do list (I thought they were supposed to get shorter as you did things …)
The task list we generated at the end of last year included a number of items that we have wanted to complete since we made our initial refurbishments of the gîtes. For example, in Granary, when we bought and put up the curtains in the dining room downstairs we bought enough fabric and poles to have curtains in the kitchen and family bathroom windows but we didn’t have time to do it then and had never got around to putting them up. That changed this week.
Having also found a very nice little cabinet more recently that we though would look great in the bathroom we took a half day to put up everything up and they look great.
The other outstanding item for Granary was some window shutters. When we arrived there were all the fittings on the downstairs windows to have exterior shutters but there were no shutters – so we had some made quite early on.
However, having had them made, they required painting and putting up which, as the curtains, never quite got to the top of our ‘to-do’ list. What have we been doing all this time?? We have wanted to do this for a longer time as we have needed to update the photo of Granary on our website for some time however, to make sure that we get the best picture we wanted to make sure that everything was done including all the hedges being cut. Again, we managed to achieve all of that last week so we will be able to update our picture next week when the sun is shining – for now this picture will do and you can compare with what is still on the website with the old yellow door!
Our builder was also with us for 3 days during the week when, as opposed to continuing with the Grange roof, we asked him to continue with the dwarf walls behind Priory so that I can rebuild the fences in a couple of weeks. The first thing we asked him to do was render the walls – something that I have never done and thought it best to leave it to someone more experienced –as asking him to build them in the first place, it was the right decision. Only need painting and the fence building now …
Thankfully, we did manage to move back to Grange and finished the volige on the back (I know I said we had in last week’s blog but we still had the ladder gaps to fill) and we managed to chalk it so we will definitely be able to get slate on the back tomorrow – especially after Dave and I lifted half of the 4.5 tonnes of slate tiles, just short of 3500 tiles, onto the scaffolding today! That should be most of the activity for the coming week.
This week we have also welcomed a father and son, who have been fishing with Philippe Dolivet over the weekend, who have been our first guests on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis which has meant David has been working hard to create some of his amazing meals – and has been serving some amazing dishes.
I mentioned in last week’s blog about the Fête du Bourg which is taking place in Saint Cadou in 27 / 28 May and this week we received the commune’s bulletin which has the dates of other activities taking place which would be other great reasons to take a trip to us – if the reference we have received in The Telegraph isn’t enough to entice you. Honestly, the journalist we hosted in February has written an article for The Telegraph’s travel section under the title ’13 Reasons why Brittany is better than Cornwall’. We couldn’t possibly comment on the sentiment!
On 20 / 21 May is the biennial Grand Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Sizun which is a celebration of classic motoring – a sort of Sizun version of Goodwood’s Revival Festival – we think! The last, held in 2015, was when we were in the middle of refurbishment so were not able to attend so we have not seen it, however we understand that it is a great event and we will certainly plan to attend this year.
A little further ahead on 24 June is the village Tantad – our annual village bonfire to celebrate the Fête de St Jean which is also one of the annual Fests Noz. Looking back at last year’s blog when it occurred interestingly it was the same week that I rebuilt the fence behind Priory originally – how things change …
Finally, the annual Tribreizh triathlon focussed around the Lac du Drennec is on Sunday 25th June – always a great event – to watch!
À bientôt.