Cross Channel Adventures

Here it is - the Normandy Farmhouse.

A photo taken on our first visit as owners back in January. How cold it was! No heating because we needed a new boiler and a delivery of propane gas. But we learnt how to light the woodburner and knuckled down to some of the many things that needed doing.

 Firstly, inside, we applied some much needed neutral paint colour to the previously blood-red chimney breast and adjacent wall. The house had been empty for 3 years - well, empty of human beings but not empty of clutter and junk. It was like the Mary Celeste inside, with drawers full of damp linen and toiletries upstairs and cupboards full of foodstuffs downstairs. Although the sale had included the furniture we didn't expect it to include old packets of Birds Custard Powder and a bottle of Cinzano Bianco that looked like a urine sample. So a lot of that first 4-day visit was spent on a massive clear-out, to create the blank canvas we needed before we could start making the place our own.

Outside we spent a cold, bright day up ladders pulling ivy and an old grape vine off the stone walls. Pretty as they may have been (and the vine had looked gorgeous when we first saw the house back in June) there was evidence of them interfering with the pointing. Although the house looks a bit naked with them gone, it will be for the best.

On our very first day there we had a visit from the census lady, who spoke no English but had an English crib sheet. With that, and our rather self-conscious French, we managed to complete the form. But we both thought it amazing that, whereas in the UK you get sent a census form and you post it back, in France they pay people to drive around the countryside to stand over you whilst you do it. It was a perfect illustration of why we love the place.

We have been once since this first visit, which involved yet more painting, the christening of the new boiler, and a scary meeting with a couple of amazing builders, who will be doing the fundamental remedial work that the house needs. We love this place and I can't tell you how much we want to return it to full health and nurtured it in the years to come. We go back again at the end of this month, when we are hoping for fine weather and a chance to explore - this DIY stuff is all very well, but there needs to be more to our visits than painting.