Friday 22nd May 1998

Sue, Rick, Jennifer, Jessica Bradshaw, Donald and Helen

We departed for the 12:30 ferry from Poole to Cherbourg with a trailer piled high with the kitchen table, bed settee, kitchen chairs, carpets, linen and two bikes. Rick was fiddling with the radio and we very nearly didn't make it to the ferry.

The ferry journey was uneventful, the boat was quite a bit smaller than we were used to. It took 2.5 hours to drive from Cherbourg. We called into a supermarket on the way to get us started. We couldn't wait to get the table set up. It looked really good, we had to raise the legs a little but it has made the kitchen look lived in.

Saturday 23rd May 1998

Jessie was helping Jennifer revise from time to time. The girls painted a kitchen chair each, one yellow and another green. Sue filled in the kitchen walls and rubbed down. Helen took off some of the kitchen doors and started to paint them. She also painted the inner panels of the front door green. Donald and Rick tiled the worktop.

We were getting quite concerned as we hadn't seen anything of Martine or Daniel. Helen said she had a terrible feeling that Daniel was ill. Moments later Martine came over and told us that Daniel was in hospital with liver and heart trouble. Her mother was also in hospital with a heart attack. Daniel wasn't allowed visitors for 10 days - not even his wife, Martine was writing to him. Martine was busy decorating as her son was getting married the first weekend in July.

About 5 o'clock we set off to the shops in Alencon. Jennifer bought two pairs of sandels, Jessie one pair and Sue one pair. Rick and Donald bought loads of beer and wine. On the way back we stopped to pick some wild flowers to put on the kitchen table.

We invited Martine to eat with us in Carrouges. It only cost 590F for a three course meal. Most of us had mussel's and Donald had Steak Tartar for the first time. When we got back to the house Martine got a bottle of champagne from her cellar..

Sunday 24th May

Helen continued working very hard with the doors. Sue put a coat of paint on the kitchen walls. The girls carried on painting the chairs and an old table. Donald and Rick grouted the worktop. It was a messy job and took them a lot longer than they expected but it looks brilliant.

Sue & Rick tried to have a bike ride around the village but it was too hilly and gave up. Sue cooked a roast and we had our supper around the table.

Donald managed to lift the stone slab off the hole by the pump to reveal the underground tunnel We had no torch so Don went down with a candle to find that it leads to a well full of water. Jessie was dying to explore this.

Sue and Rick had to say goodbye to Donald and Helen and head for the ferry. Donald and Helen stayed behind to wait for Martin and Brenda who arrived around 11:30p.m.

Monday until Friday

Amongst the time spent consuming vast quantities of Martine's specialties at the restaurant we did manage to achieve some work on the house.

Kick boards cut to size in situ around the kitchen units. Kitchen window ledge reshaped and tiled with a beading edge.
Kitchen architrave's sanded, painted, wire wooled and varnished. Ceiling painted.
Water meter changed over from next door to us. Some general weeding.
Explored the well- approximately 20foot deep and full of water.

We visited Monet's garden at Giverny which is approximately a two hour drive from the house and well worth a visit.

Martine invited us to a barbecue on Thursday evening before we returned to L'Angleterre but due to inclement weather we ended up cooking on the fire in the house. We were joined by Martine's daughter Carole, Daniel's mother Madam Jeanette and a chap we had met before named Geoff (an English guy who is a teacher and who has a holiday home in the next village) who is about 20 stone and eats and drinks like a pig.

Geoff speaks fluent French and was able to translate for us. Martine proudly provided us with a 10 year old bottle of red wine which went down well with cheese and biscuits. N.B. Carole was particularly impressed by the biscuits we in England serve with cheese, as of course they normally eat bread with everything! We devoured so much that day that by 11:30 p.m. we began to flag but Geoff was in full flight and after several bottles of wine and various spirits was encouraged to depart at 3:30 p.m. Donald stopped offering drinks to him believing he would never go. However, an enjoyable evening.