The day started overcast so Breezy and I set to filling the last of the large gaps in the walls of the outhouse with stones. The theory being that we have loads of stones and we have to pay for lime, cement and sand. True Yorkshire!

Then to playing with lime mortar, slow to start with until we got the hang of it; a mixture of pointing trowels, fingers and throwing blobs into awkward gaps and joints. Once in the joints you leave until starting to go hard, trowel off anything you don’t want and smooth with a wet brush (stiff brush with a handle). This smoothes the mortar and fills any small holes. The whole lot drys white. The later you leave the mortar before brushing the coarser the finish. Be warned it wears out brushes quickly.

Lee showed up just before lunch as we were finishing a mix of lime. Great to catch up and arranged to go for a walk in the next week or so. Lee is a mine of information about the area as he gets out and has explored loads. Looking forward to chatting when I don’t have lime everywhere.

In the afternoon the sky cleared and it was really hot; we made a bench from some of the wood the AFP cut down when massacring the hedge by the piste, and installed it in front of the out house. We cleared a route along the terrace to get to where we started playing with a tree platform just as Alison and Peter dropped in with their two girls. Tea and beer and an invite to a picnic tomorrow.

Finished off the day concreting around the pipes we put through the walls of the out building ready to do the joints (pointing).

Roast chicken dinner, mmm.

The Start of The Pointing…..

It took most of the morning for me to get all the supplies up to the barn while Al sorted the pipe-work for the outbuilding. John and Shirley we think of you each time we use the Muck truck it is invaluable and gets so much use, life without it would be much harder.

Al carried on filling walls with rocks whilst I collected ladders from Freddy to fix the vent and chimneys.

A very productive afternoon we made 2 stools to sit on with some of the larger pieces of wood, made a kitchen drainer out of old manger rungs which is FAB!!!, mended the vent for the toilet, put slates back on the chimney pots to stop the rain getting in.

We got Ken’s fire going at night which again is getting loads of use and we think of you lots Ken as we are sitting by it with a glass of wine or two at night!!! Will get it going when you visit in September.

We had an easy pasta supper before walking it off up to the nearest Cascade Leziou, which is at the moment incredible with the harsh winter they have had and the warm weather we are now getting it is in full force and really impressive.

Don’t think I would ever say this but it was far too hot to sleep, pulling the layers off the bed, unlike October when we could not get enough layers to keep warm!!!

On a “Me note” I am really loving being up at the Bergerie, the weather has helped being so warm and mainly sunny but the peace aprt from the roar of the river is just wonderful and makes nus both realise how lucky we were to find such an amazing place to be. Call it rough camping or roughing it but for me it is just brilliant. Will leave Al to add his comments later!!!!!

First Piece of Furniture  Happy to Have something to Sit on… I have seen this pose before

Another glorious day weather wise, so we set to with the door we had reclaimed from the skip to make it fit the outbuilding, a lot easier than building a door from scratch. We now have quite a reasonable door just a bit of tweaking to do to get it to fit 100%.

We also constructed a tripod shower stand for the back terrace so we can shower a bit more privately, which I think the passers by will thank us for!!! Started on the wood pile getting some smaller logs cut to fit in the wood burner before heading to St Girons which is always quite hard work trying to get as much done as possible.

A trip to the usual DIY shop and got cement, lime, and flus for the chimney for the wood burning stove. On to the sabliere to collect a load of sand and then on to Intermarche and Bricolage to get a food stock for at least a week and finally a trip to Maccy D’s for the free internet access!!!

Just got back to the barn about 8pm and Annie turned up for a glass of wine, good to see her before her trip to Basque and then we had fresh trout and cous cous and veggies for dinner as it was nice and quick and easy.

We woke up to low cloud but this soon cleared to be a lovely day weather wise.

The morning we spent in the outbuilding, cleaning the walls and de vegging the place it looked a bit like a very neglected green house.

We also managed to make 3 easy holes in the 60cms thick walls which was a real bonus. These will be to take water into the building, water out of the building and a vent for the wood burning stove which we hope to install to keep us cosy.

Henri (the mayor) came by to see us and see what we were up to. He seemed on good form and had no problems with our work, always a relief.

Lovely roast chuck butties in the sun before afternoon duties!!!

Finished the walls which was great, had a visit from Lou Lou who is our closest neighbour and got some strimming done to make access around the barn easier and less wet on the feet first thing in the morning.

When we popped in to see Annie the other day she had said we could borrow the cement mixer so we made another trip down to Annie and across the little bridge which consists of 3 telegraph poles tied together carrying a cement mixer over a fast flowing river….always very happy to be across the river safely rather than in it with the cement mixer!!!

Had quite a social trip while collecting the cement mixer as managed to catch up with Freddy for a quick wine at the bar, Clive as he was working on Raymond’s place and Cecile who was en route to open up one of the gites.

Back for a lovely shower…you may well think how is that possible….well Al bought me a lovely little shower bag for Christmas, which you hang up in the sun during the day and lo and behold at night once the sun has heated it up we have a hot shower, wonderful I can tell you. Just managed to have the showers before the Mayor passed by to collect a load of wood from opposite, 2 minutes earlier and he would have had a bit of a shock!!!

Scrabble and sausage casserole for supps.

Tree Felling and Open Vista 

Made the use of the hot shower before heading off in overcast weather but dry. We made a couple of stops on the way through to the barn to say hello to a few people. We popped in to see Scottish Annie and all her dogs, then on to Salau and caught up with Freddy and Daniella at the Auberge.

We had a little bit of a shock driving up to the barn as the commune seems to be on massive deforestation up the piste and so the area infront of the barn looks a bit different now, a bit too much felling for our liking but I am sure things will grow back very quickly.

A part from that the barn looked pretty good, the outbuilding roof was still on and dry inside after a harsh winter, the chimney slates had disappeared probably with the weight of the snow and the violent winds they had had and the vent pipe for the toilet had gone 90 degrees as one of the brackets had broken.

We spent the day getting organised firstly with the bedroom getting it clean lilo blown up bedding out etc

We then sorted a kitchen area with our bargain 50 euro gas oven which has been invaluable and a work surface area for prepping fodder.

Al got the generator out of the box and sorted out all the ins and outs and how it works etc. Thanks a million Dad for that it will get plenty of use and make life a great deal easier especially for using power tools etc.

We had a look at the inside of the out building as we wish to point the walls in there before we move in as such, so it will be bug free.

Since it is now dry inside all the ferns that were in the walls were mainly dead but we need to get all of the ferns out and joints cleaned ready to start the prep work on pointing. So we spent a good few hours attacking that.

We had our first evening at the barn enjoying roast chicken, roast potatoes and veggies, upmarket camping as such!!! It was drizzling so we sat inside.

Our aim today was to get to just south of Perpignan and meet Nigel who deals with solar products and said he would set up a work shop for us to help us get started.

We arrived there for 11am thinking it would take an hour or so but we did not actually get away until 3pm after having chicken and salad and strawberries with them for lunch.

Nigel was a fund of information and again it was well worth the small detour to learn from him. He is putting together a quote for us to get some lights into the putbuilding in due course.

From there we decided to head cross country and what a good choice. We had a really spectacular drive through some incredible countryside, vineyards, farm land and finally through a spectacular gorge. It was lovely to be off the autoroute and seeing a different part of the world.

Stopped at a largish supermarket to stock up on provisions and bottled gas as we were not sure what would be open tomorrow.

We decided we would stop at a cheap place to stay and have a cheapo meal as we did not really fancy arriving at the barn at 830pm and then having to unload etc in the dark.

 A cheap and cheerful place for a few roses in the sun a quick bite to eat and to bed.

http://www.mysolarshop.co.uk

After a morning of sorting the apartment and paying bills in Chamonix, we headed south around midday. We were planning to stay with John another Chamonix connection who has a place just off the autoroute near Bezier so we thought it would be a good plan to stip en route and break the journey. A fab little place in beautiful wine area so quite a stunning drive to his place. Well worth a visit, John has a very similar attitude to running a chalet/gite as I do. Extremely laid back, plenty of good food and wine and we felt relaxed as soon as we walked in. Had a very good meal at the gite shared with a nice retired German couple who were there to sample the wines.

If anyone is passing that area it is a great stop over place all the details are here. Thanks John for a short but enjoyable stay.

www.guesthouseinlanguedoc.com

www.berloup.com