Because I'm feeling bad because I've neglected you I thought I'd treat you to a picture of the kitchen floor. The tiles are 20cmx20cm. They are a type of tile called Carreaux de Ciment. I don't think I would ever have chosen them, but I've come to love them. I've based the kitchen decoration on them and soon I'll share some kitchen pictures.
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Oh dear I haven't posted for a while...so sorry, I've been being busy and getting on with it. I've started painting the new shower room...Sometimes I try to calculate how much white paint I have got through it's got to be well over 100L! So yet another space gets the white paint treatment. This shower room has been sitting in a sorry state for over a year whilst I got the first room up and running...I started painting it and then realised I was about to forget the 'before' pictures. Below another view...showing the loo don't I treat you to visual delights! In the grenier (attic) of this house is a beam that has some graffiti from 1879, it say something like 'the good abbe renewed this roof in 1879' I've wanted to leave my mark too. I finally found a spot where my graffiti could exist and it's behind where the shower cubicle will be...You'll have to wait...I'll get a picture of 'my mark' when I give you the 'after' pictures
It happens every where in France on the Quatorze...So it happened here! When you live in the center you get to be in the middle of everything and as La Fonciere is right in the center I didn't have to go far to take these photos...I was trying to get an early night but there is early and early...I got to bed at 1.30am...sort of early!...Not making excuses (really) I'm not a brilliant photographer but the fireworks were amazing...Coming this weekend is our 'proper' fete...three days of fun and dancing and food and wine...I am going to try to get early nights but my dancing toes are twitching...
I know you were, so here is your reward...The highlight of your weekend I'm sure! I mentioned the old wallpaper and here it is, the newspaper that backed it dated from the early 1800's somebody in the past had already stripped most of it. This bit was, it appears too tricky to remove so it was left...I'm not going to argue with all those years of history so I've decided to make a 'feature' of it. The borders and red bits are 'flock'... oh I love it because it reminds me so much of the 70's...Enjoy :-)
Back home and ready to crack on! So, I've got one room functioning as a chambre d'hote room...But that's not the end is it?...oh no...the goal is to eventually have five rooms so it's back to the 'doing of it all' This will be the second room. I've already done quite a lot of work on it but this is what I started with: In this room, as I stripped it out I found the oldest wallpaper and newspaper lining I've found anywhere in the house. It dates from the early 1800's...I've tried to preserve what bits I could. If you're good and keep reading I'll show you in my next post. I think this room will have a very different feel to the first one I've done, It's on the 'other side' of the house which does have a different 'feel' It's very quiet as it doesn't look over the market place but over a very sedate little road.
I know I've been quiet and it is because I have been on holiday. I had my second set of guests (you know who you are!). They were absolutely lovely and decided to stay an extra night, they even braved my food. Half an hour after they left on the Saturday morning I was in the car with the teenagers heading south to the beach for a week of...um...beach. Here's a picture of a lovely flower I saw growing not far from the beach. I don't know what it is but I thought it was really pretty. We went to Port Barcares and stayed on a lovely and friendly campsite called La Bahia Club. I'd never visited that bit of coast before, I'm glad I did. The beaches were beautiful with views of the Pyrenees as a backdrop. Some days there was a strong wind, we loved watching the waves. Here are the teenagers feeling the wind in their hair. I'd spotted a restaurant that claimed to be built of old soft drink cans...I had to visit so we had lunch there before heading home. It was called Mex-i-Can...get it! It was built out of cans, very beautifully. They used 20,000 cans and it took them 3000 man/woman hours to build it. It was right on the beach, the food was of course Mexican...Now I've never been to Mexico but if that is what they are eating there I might have to go and live there. It was lovely food, the people running it were very friendly and it had great sea views. If you're ever in the area I so recommend it...Just don't tell me because I'll be so jealous!
Hello dear blog readers! I am pleased to report that La Fonciere, the mythical chambre d'hote is now officially a 'real live' chambre d'hote. We, my house and I hosted our first guest last weekend and we, my house and I are now the proud and happy recipients of a POSITIVE review. He was a lovely guest and my house and I were on our best behaviour. I didn't swear about anything and the house didn't leak. I know I still have a lot of tweaking to do but I'll keep tweaking until it is all tweaked! Today I got another booking for the day after tomorrow...um I sort of forgot that running a chambre d'hote isn't a one off...So now I have to crack on with even more cleaning, ready to welcome my next guests...All of this means I'm not renovating so I don't have too much to share with you. But, I do remember saying that I would introduce you to the 'other front door...so here it is: I love this door! I'm sure some would look at it and think it needs a coat of paint but I love it just the way it is...so I'm not planning on painting it. If you look above the door there is a green metal plaque...It hasn't photographed very well but it says 'La Fonciere' :-) I didn't make up a name for my house it already had one! A close up...I love the crackly texture of the paint.
Dear devoted blog readers, as you know I'm completely freaked out about my up coming first booking, Heck I've been cleaning, and cleaning and um cleaning...Do you really want more pictures of a mop? No of course you don't. I don't even know if my guest will notice all my mopping and polishing...probably not! So, my plan B is to 'give him good jam' I have promised a 'light continental breakfast'. I looked in the supermarket this morning and there is loads of jam, from economy to high end. I buy my honey from 'honey guy' his name is Andre...I just love his honey, I have a spoonful in my green tea every afternoon. It is just so good. I read somewhere that bees have a 4km radius to collect the pollen. Well, Andre makes honey 4km's (ish) from me so in my tiny brain those bees of his are happily collecting pollen from my plant....So it's my honey! I don't know if there is any truth in my idea but it is the best honey ever. I always buy my eggs from 'egg woman' they are the best eggs ever (honest they are so good) they don't say 'free range' or 'organic' well not anywhere I've ever seen...I don't know how they get to be so good, perhaps she gives her hens ayurvedic massage, 5 star hen house, hen laboubtins...I don't know what it is, but what I do know is that I eat a lot of eggs...and that hers are superior...She also makes jam and I was torn for type of jam but In the end I went for 4 fruits jam....What is in her jam? Easy, just fruits and sugar! Her name is Nathalie, but she will always be 'egg woman' to me! Now I'm just hoping my guest will enjoy his 'light continental' thanks to 'honey guy' and 'egg woman'...I haven't mentioned 'bread people'' but I will also be buying bread from 'bread people'
Hello dear blog readers! Oh dear I've only gone and done it, after a few too many glasses of rouge a couple of weeks ago I listed the mythical chambre d'hote on airbnb...I mean, really, I didn't think anybody would actually book...Well blow me down with a feather SOMEBODY did. Most inconvenient really, I could have carried on with my fantasy idea of a b&b for at least a couple more years. Maybe airbnb should consider having a fantasy bnb area where you can list your property but nobody can book. However and thanks to wine I do now have my first booking, and I'm terrified. I'm frantically cleaning windows, floors, surfaces and tut tutting about how not ready it all is, which is why I haven't been boring you all with new jobs on the house...lucky you! But knowing how you are all just waiting for my next blog post, I can't leave you too long while I mop. So here's a photo for you to enjoy, whilst you laugh about the fact I got a booking and now I have to honour it. This vandalism is found on the outside of the salon window. When I first saw it I tutted a bit (see above, tutting is something I am good at) some oik had damaged the beautiful marble window sill maybe in the 1950's. Looking at the history of the house I discovered that this graffiti dates from 1789...he's still an oik but a very old oik and I think for me it says that oiks are an important part of the future...I love that we always want to leave our 'mark'...To imagine this person scratching away, was he just so happy to live in this home as I am. I doubt if I'll engrave my name in the marble, but I will leave a mark somewhere and hopefully in another 200+ years someone will find it and imagine my life and know that I was just a simple oik who loved a home.
I hope you're not bored with stairs yet! Because there are more. After pampering what I will refer to as the 'red stairs' I decided to not forget the 'brown stairs. These look completely different as they are stone and lead down to the bottom proper of the house. So after a clean and a polish, with the risers repainted, this is what they look like now. Don't moan I missed a bit of paint at the bottom. I'm standing outside the 'other front door' if the hall floor looks a bit patchy it is because the polish I used on it is not quite dry yet. It will mellow over the next few days. It's all still quite rustic but just a few weeks ago it looked ruined so I'm happy with where I've got to. I've got a blister on my knee from...well...kneeling...And, I have been dreaming about stairs. Maybe I'll go out tonight and try not to fall up or down the stairs afterwards but if I do fall then at least I won't embarrassed when SAMU come to scoop me off my oh so pretty stairs :-)
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