A day out - The Chateau Carrouges

One of the great pleasures of living in Normandie is having places like this on your doorstep

Started in the 14th century as a fortified castle and then added to up to the 17th century. 

Surrounded by a fantastic moat

And with a fab courtyard

Kitchens to die for

And somewhere to entertain

Relax

and look out over the gardens

Even a quiet place to read

Unusually constructed from brick. This staircase was restored in the 1960's

A great place to spend and afternoon. If your ever in France look it up. 

Spring Tiles

At last I can get some tiles down in the kitchen

Underfloor Heating all plumbed in

Boiler installed

The sun is out and Julia has even cut the grass

March Snow

Taken in the fading light at about 6pm (hence the grey cast to the pictures) here is a little taste of the recent snowfall hear in northern France.

Shed and garden covered. The garden had about 25cm of snow while the lane had drifts of about a metre deep. Bizarrely only a few days earlier the weather was so nice Julia had been digging over the potager.

The car went from a coupe to a hatch

and the chickens really didn't know what to make of it all

Esse 700 - First Fire

No need for further comment:

 

Don't try this at home kids

Well phase one of the chimney capping off didn't go quite as planned; in that every time it rained and the wind was blowing from the north, rain came down the chimney. I originally got up to the chimney by cutting a hole in the barn roof and poking ladders up from there. Having repaired the roof this was now not an option. So a different and I suspect unconventional approach was called for. Inspired by the Gibson flying V guitar (not really) I constructed a V base for one of my ladders so it would sit on the ridge of the roof. This is a bolted oak construction re-enforced with steel box section screwed to the oak and clamped to the ladder with exhaust clamps. It truly is a Heath Robinson construction but having jumped up and down on it for a while I determined it would be safe, if a little unconventional. Next the issue of getting up to the barn roof. Last time I did this my neighbour lent me his long ladders, but since he had another use for them I had to construct staging with my alu scaffolding to make my ladders reach. Anyway it was all roped and screwed and wedged so as safe as I could make it. Have a look:

You can see the scaffolding and ladder construct

This really is how steep the roof is!

The chimney capping in place, hopefully with a good run off this time

A view of chez Alison from the roof

 

Low angle ridge shot

And another

My able assistant without whom this would have been a whole lot more difficult

Doesn't the shed look small

The garden

And getting arty

Finally the chimney covered in layers of the stuff you put on plants to stop them freezing while the mortar goes off.

I should say at this point I did use a frost inhibitor when I mixed the mortar and used cement not lime to try and get the quickest set time given the time of year. Tomorrow I will go inspect the damage.

P.S. As a note: As I get vertigo and generally hate heights of any description this is not something I would do out of choice. I did go as far as getting a man to come and quote for the job. He took one look at the chimney and never came back with a quote! So needs must. I have to say each time you go up it does get a little easier as long as you don't look down!!! The other thing in this case which makes it doubly scary is that I've made my own ladder support to sit on the ridge of the barn. You have to be really really sure it's safe because you're life does depend on it. It's one of those "shit or bust" kind of scenarios!

P.P.S Looking back, in the UK, I would never have even entertained going up on the roof let alone the chimney. I guess after 3 years in France a bit of the "Frontier Mentality" has worn off on me..

The Naked Esse

Just a quick taster of things to come; the stripped down esse 700 in place on the hearth. When I have more time I will do a full "How to convert your boiler version esse 700 to a standard stove" super blog post. But for now here is the stove chassis in place:

Fortunately the bare chassis of the esse 700 is not that heavy and can easily be lifted into position by two people, but ONLY after taking of all the bits. This includes: doors, side panels, top cover, boiler, grate and cast liner panels. Top tip, whilst is takes 30 minutes to strip the esse 700 down carefully, this time is well spent. Just think of the 2 months in traction if you try to lift it complete!!

Oh yes and for the past two days the sun has been shining.

Endurance

Its all about sticking at it! It's done nothing but rain for 6 months, its cold and its dark. This is now the third winter "renovating" and its taking its toll. The ground is water logged and we are bogged down in the soft mud of Normandy. But there has been progress.....

Slabs bought for the hearth

Sub structure laid to support the granite slabs

The esse 700

The esse Ironheart in action is a fine thing