Holland is celebrating the Day of the Queen - a good reason to go to France. We have planned a three weeks' stay and hope to see the carpenter and the major.

Our newly bought trailer is fully loaded and after some problems (we driver over a burst tyre of a bus) we arrive at our French house.

It's very warm. Nature has done its best; weeds are more than 30 cm high. We can hardly find our new planting. We push our way through the weeds to the caravan, that is just sticking out.

 

We easily get acquainted with one of our French neighbours who borrows us his grass mover. I manage to get it through our bush. It does not have a traction, so I really have to push hard. But I get results from the hard work.

After a few hours an two times refuelling we find can again see our future trees and roses.

We decide that we need to buy one ourselves! 

It's time for a drink with a temperature over 30^oC.

A few days later we also meet the farmer who owns the field next to our terrain. He promises to cut the rest of the grass at a next occasion. A good idea, because it took me three hours to cut  500 out of 4,600m².

 

We start working on the kitchen. at Brico Depôt, a giant store, we fill the trailer with laths, cable and any other material we may need. Two walls will have laths. After that we have to start painting.

We also look for tiles. We need to buy them now, because the new floor will be laid after our stay.
We also have to buy a refrigerator. They appear to be quite expensive in France, especially the energy-friendly models. For service reasons we decide to buy one in France anyhow.

And of course the lawn mower. We go for a well-known brand. These are all required purchases, because we do not have a mower and we cannot take the fridge from Holland.

We visit France Telecom, because we want to have a telephone connection. After some research (using the name of the previous resident) everything will be taken care of. They will pass by to check the cabling. It even looks like we can have ADSL, although the speed will be low.

Meanwhile there is a lot of progress in the garden.
We cannot yet plant anything where the carpenter will be working - he might damage some of the plants.

We put roses, chestnut and several lavender plants.

 

In the town hall (or village hall) the secretary just licks a few stamps. The mayor is not present, but she will try to arrange a visit for next week Thursday at four.
She writes the time on a small piece of paper and sticks it to calling card that we leave behind.

Next week will be the week:

• the refrigerator will be delivered
• the car will go for a repair
• the phone will be connected
• the carpenter should come
• we go to the mayor

The refrigerator arrives timely, the garage has the spare parts and the France Telecom technician arrives at the agreed time...
Is this France?
Yes indeed, because the carpenter does not show up!

When we call he is quite surprised that we did not receive his voice mail message: the windows and doors have not yet arrived! It is a big disappointment because many of our activities depend of his work. He will come as soon as they have arrived, is his vague promise.

When we call him again on Friday, he promises to be there on Wednesday, because the goods should arrive on Tuesday.

 

After the disappointment that same day we have to go to the mayor. We change clothes and head for the mairie.
When we enter the building we find the secretary behind the counter; she finished licking stamps. She recognizes us and informs us that Monsieur Le Maire is expecting us in the room next door!  

When we enter the room he is sitting behind his desk shifting some piles of paper. He is friendly, impressed by our presentation and in high spirits by the Dutch gifts: a bottle of Dutch gin and treacle wafers. Our plans are "pas de problème", no problem, but when we ask him what to do next, he calls the secretary.

 

We quickly see who is running this village. The mayor is for formalities only. She takes a form and starts filling it in for us. Then she asks me to sign. We have to report our plans and it will take about three weeks before we receive the confirmation./p> I hear my wife think: "how fortunate that the carpenter did not start yet".

 

The mayor thanks us for the gifts. Probably we should also bring some gifts for the secretary next time. It might be more useful!

We gave each other a new bike. It's a kind of mountain bike, very useful on the country roads. In France they call these bikes a VTT (Vélo Touts Terrains). In the evenings we make some little tours in the neighbourhood.

On Friday our daughter and friend come to visit us; they will be our first camp site visitors. They are pretty tired after a wedding party the night before, but they quickly discover what relaxation the environment brings.

On Saturday they wake up after more than 12 hours' sleep, the work is waiting.
 

 

After some coffee, croissants and a Miche (a large spherical bread) they start. They remove the strange bump in front of the house. Fortunately most of it is sand and soil, but it's a tough job.

And when you are in the good mood, you just go ahead with the barn. It is full of gravel and we use it to make a temporary path through the garden up to the caravan. We also discover that the barn partially has a concrete floor!

Finally the mess is burned.