A touch of elegance

Glam. We have another rill.

This one snakes down the side of the house and out the road. Granite setts, black concrete, some elegant curves and there you have it.

Bebere and Etienne have been dodging rain showers to get the granite placed.

Luckily they had already excavated the area and laid the first layer of drainage that leads from the roof gutter down the road.

But the setts really completes the picture.

Or as Jean Daniel said when he drove up. It’s too chic for the Ardeche.

So that’s the local seal of approval.

And then he said was how annoying it is to have an example on hand his wife Daniele will want him to emulate in their courtyard. So that’s a double seal of approval.

It’s not quite finished: there is a bit more mortaring to do on the setts.

But I must confess to have distracted Etienne (master carpenter) with the next possible projects.

It’s a very difficult time for builders in our area at the moment. And these two incredibly talented men deserve a bit of our help now that times are tough.

They have been building bits of these farmhouses and outbuildings for almost twenty years now.

First up is the small matter of a surrounding box for our composting loo in the basement bathroom. It has to have compartments for buckets and sawdust and be easy enough to move things about without being cramped. Luckily Bebere and his family have been using the same system since they built their home two years ago.

Easier to grasp for me was the shelves for the stables.

Everything takes time here when you plod down to the stables; but then think of the spare window that is lurking under the potting shed and could also fit in the wall.

But you have to check the dimensions and whether the window has a frame. That’s the deal breaker.  But Etienne thought it was a fine double glazed two metre long window that might fit snugly in the space.

But then it was down to the rabbit shed on the lower terrace to check on our supply of off-cut wood. He didn’t find anything long enough to do for the job in the stable shelves. But at least I tried to recycle.

All that was left was to fill in the gaps where the massive hornets nest had been built in the guest house wall and their day was complete.