The little streets of Clermont

Clermont-Ferrand is a surprisingly beautiful town. I say surprising because it has an out-dated reputation for being a sprawling industrial town. Yes it is the home to Michelin and so there are some mighty big tyre factories on the edges and yes it is huge and covers a large area of land. However, it's centre is easy to access and it has a hidden old quarter that Em and I never knew existed.
At the end of the Giat weekend my mum and Em were both going back on the train but sadly their flight times from Paris didn't match up so my mum had to get an earlier train. There was no point in going back to the chateau in between and so Em and I decided to explore Clermont by foot. This was long overdue for both of us and we had a great day together discovering this pretty city centre. We had planned to take photos of the brand new central square that has taken the last 2 years to completely redevelop. Sadly the weather wasn't great when we were there so we didn't bother, but it is a really succesful redevelopment and the square is a huge expansive space with beautiful fountains and places to sit out and watch the world go by. We were walking up the square and we noticed lots of little streets going up a hill. So we went and explored. We had happened across the old quarter that we never knew was there. It is a totally pedestrianised area full of lots of interconnecting cobbled streets. By this time the weather had improved too and so out came the camera!!

The most beautiful aspect of these streets is that nearly all of them line up with the Puy de Dome so that when you look back you always have a view of this incredible volcano in the distance.

The streets have lots of hidden courtyards with Antique shops in them.

There are classic French bars to be relax at.

And there are modern funky ones too

LeSiSiSi is our new favourite hangout, we just need a bit of time to hang out there now!

There are little cafes or tea shops hidden away in every possible space.

An antique shop with a very strange dog that is actually half sitting down on his hind legs but standing on his front legs.

There were quite a few "modern" antique shops too i.e. selling funky stuff from the late 20th century.As you walked up the streets you felt as though you were being led somewhere....



And then it appears. At the very highest point in Clermont the Cathedral sits totally surrounded on one side by the little streets so it really takes you by surprise.

Because it is so close to the little streets its impact as impressive. It towers above everything around it, however it makes it very difficult to get a good photo of it!

Then, you get round the other side and there is a big open square

With yet more cafes of course!

This is an odd photo - it is the back of the Town hall that presumably at one time was a very boring brick wall until someone decided to paint a picture of an old building on it.

Our last night at the village bar

After the day out in Giat we decided to go for a meal at the local bar, just a 5 minute walk from the chateau. All night long, Rosie and Noah learnt how to use my digital camera. As you can see it took them a while to work it out and frame the photo correctly.
Could have been such a sweet photo of Rosie and me, instead you got just me....sadly!

Noah wasn't quite ready for Rosie to take this one, much to everyone else's amusement.

Not sure what is going on here!

At last Rosie manages a perfectly framed photo of use all. Shame Noah is no where to be seen!

A good photo of the bar too. Sadly, this may have been the last time we see the bar as the owners have decided to close up after some financial problems. It must be difficult making a living from a bar in a village of less than 100 people.

James and Noah played all night with the bar dog, Ardy.

This is Ardy's house.

And this is Ardy - he's a bit camera shy hence me having to restrain him. (BTW - sorry about the HomeChoice T-shirt, I wear it to remind me of all my old friends who I miss a lot)

The walk back to the chateau - the only photo I took all night! Well done Rosie and Noah!

Giat Farmer's Market

Ok, so this happened quite a while back, but I need to start somewhere to catch up with the zillions of photos I have to show you!
We went to Giat on the 15th April. It was when my sister - Katie, Simon, Rosie and Noah were staying and helping with the painting. Dad, Jacqueline and James were also here and of course those wonderful people that organised the whole day for us - Claudie, Eddy and their daughters - Sophie and Amandine.
Giat is no ordinary farmer's market - it is a market for farmers i.e. there is stuff on sale for the public but there is also lots of livestock that farmers come for (though there were a few animals that were trying to soften up some of our party for a new home with us!). Giat is only 20mins north of Savennes and is a pretty town with a huge central square - perfect for the market. It is quite famous in the region because it has a weekly market however there are 2 really big markets ever year for the selling of livestock so people come from towns all over the region - like we did! When this happens the whole place is totally crammed with stalls and there is loads to see. Here is just a small selection of what we saw that day:
These were the first animals we saw and Eddy was immediately captivated. He loves cows and dreams of keeping them on his farm in Savennes one day. I think he wanted to take them home today because we spent ages at this stall while Eddy chatted away with the owner, patted the cows and even helped move them down the line.
Most of the animals seemed to be very well looked after but it was all a bit chaotic from our English perspective with animals just out in the open and not penned-in in any way.

As you would expect the produce stalls were excellent and there was loads of Asparagus on sale.

Every imagineable type of Asparagus too. These ones were huge!

The children were of course drawn to the donkeys.
And the shetland ponies.

But it wasn't just the children who were interested in the ponies....

Emily and I spent a long time looking at this beauty discussing the pros and cons of taking him away with us today. Of course it would have been totally the wrong time but Em was in love by now and I wasn't making any sense...well not in her mind anyway. Luckily there were others there to help her see the light. She did get away with the owner's phone number though and so I think we will be paying him a visit in the not too distant future.

James eventually worked out that this wasn't a hand puppet!

Pigs are very lazy animals, not unlike Joe - I think they would get on very well together if I brought some home. However, I was reminded about the pony Em couldn't take home so I wasn't allowed either.

I don't know why I like them so much but one day we will have some. Between, Eddy, Em and I we'll have a proper farmyard in Savennes!

There is always some old lady spying on you from a high window!

Once you had seen everything living you then carried on through the market to see everything dead and roasting on a spit!

This stall was very impressive. At the end he is making Auvergne's most famous dish - Truffade.

And here they have done something with those poor little piggies' feet.

We had a great day and I am really looking forward to coming again next year.

Too busy to blog

Apologies to those of you who are missing my blog. As I am sure you have guessed I am little busy at the moment with less than 2 weeks before our practice week and 3 weeks tomorrow before our first guests arrive. Things are going well though and I expect to finish in time - though I have had to call in the cavalary to help! Emily's parents are coming on Saturday and my Mum is coming on Sunday. Between us we'll get it all done.
So I hope to blog again towards the end of next week when I expect to have the majority of the heavy work done. I am sure there will be lots of bits and pieces still to do but all of the floor sanding and decorating will be done by then. So look forward to next Friday - I certainly am!

Boys and their Toys

I know I have a bad reputation for spending money on gadgets and toys, however luckily Emily agreed that a Sit-on Lawn Mower was an absolute necessity for the chateau gardens which are huge – over 3 acres! Also, we got a lot of advice about buying something decent that will last and can be easily serviced. So, having used my friend Mike Wood’s awesome John Deere Sit-on around Fontley, I looked around for a French equivalent in a nearby town. Fortunately our neighbouring village of Messeix has a specialist shop that only seems to sell Mowers and Chainsaws – it’s an Aladdin’s Cave! And they are all Viking or Stihl which, I am told, are excellent makes. So with the help of my father I bought the 2^nd best in the range – a Viking MT585.

I can’t tell you how long I have dreamed of owning such a machine.

As you can see the grass was in severe danger of being cut for hay by the local farmers so my first cut was long overdue (which reminds me, I need to find a French Barber!)

It looks much better now and after a further cut this weekend it should start to get its stripes back. The bit in the middle that hasn’t been cut is where Mr Martin has planted some tulips and daffodils. They look pretty but it was a very odd place to put them and I still haven’t worked out what to do about it.

Everything else is starting to grow now and all the bulbs Mr Martin planted at the front are really colourful.

The Virginia Creeper on the wall is a bit slow though, but there are a few buds that are breaking out here and there so within a week it should look very different.

Quick Progress Report

Apologies for not blogging for a while. This is a quick progress report so you can see what has happened in the last couple of weeks then I will add another blog later today to tell you about a great day with the Brocard-Saidi's at Giat agricultural Easter market, a fun meal with all the family at the local bar and a nice day out that Em and I had in Clermont Ferrand after Easter.
Ok, so I'll start at the top of the house and work my way down. Captions are below the photos:

This is Suite 4 Bathroom which Mr Gayton is working on. If you flick down to an earlier post you will see that this had nothing in it before. It is now tiled and half painted.

This is Suite 3 bedroom that my sister, Katie, stencilled and hand painted over Easter. It is easily the most impressive room in the house at the moment. (Wrong bed mind!)

This is Suite 2 which is now completely finished. However as you can see the decorators are using it as there store room so it was tricky to get some nice photos.

Beleive me though, it looks stunning.

You can't quite make it out but our decision to put the wallpaper above the sink and bath was a good one. It looks much better now.

This is a detail shot of the wallpaper so you can see how it reflects the light.

At first I thought the staircase colours were a bit boring - French grey below the dado and off white with a hint of green above.

However, now that the white wood work has been done they look really smart and grown up!

They are using a massive scaffolding structure to paint it.

This is the floor in Suite 1 Bathroom that has now been fully sanded and is about to be varnished. However, you may remember there was some nasty white filler between some of the floor boards. Well it is still there, however it has been given a paint effect by Simon to make it look like wood - incredible! Also, the old green bath is now a nice cream colour thanks to Simon and Emily who did a coat each.

The floor in Suite 1 bedroom has been sanded too.

And so has the sitting room.

The hallway in suite 1 was in a dreadful state.

God knows why I decided to take it on instead of letting Mr Laine do it.

I have to do the loo as well.

Well I have started and it is coming along nicely. This it with its first coat of primer.

And another view.

In the big living room over Easter Richard hung all 5 new chandeliers.

And Emily and Betty hung all of the crystals on them.

I finished painting the whole room at long last. I filled all of the cracks and gaps in the beams and have given all the woodwork a final coat of white satin. It is now looking the part.

And the fruits of Mum's Easter labour are now on display. Her wonderful curtains!

It has been very difficult living without the kitchen these past 2 weeks but this room probably has the most work to be done out of all of them.

They started by pulling down the old foam tiled ceiling.

And taking off all the wall shelves

They are going to put 2 brand new walls up on either side of the fireplace.

The old ceiling was now exposed in all of it ugly glory.

A really bad botch job was done around the top of the chimney

As can be seen more clearly here

A new wall is going up on either side of the window too so there was a lot of demolition to be done. Mr Laine saved the old sink next to the big sink in the window though!

The little window on the same wall as the big window.

A mess of ugly piping and wiring that had clearly just been chucked up was now exposed.

Mr Faye, the electrician had a job just working out what half of it used to do as most of it was now redundant.

The old spot lights were really badly hung.

On the commercial side of the kitchen it was a similar story

Though worse. That is a big metal beam holding up the wooden beam in the middle that is wrotten at the end.

Needless to say we are covering it all up again but this time with a nice plastered ceiling. Which went up really quickly.

All new electrics too and much more uprated with sockets on every wall.

Mr Faye is doing a real pro job. He is bringing all the electrics over to this one point in the commercial side and he is going to install a fuse board with an emergency cut off button - hopefully big and red!

Mr Laine quickly spoiled our fun and covered it all up!

Within 4 days the ceiling and all of its hidden electrics was complete.

The frames for the new walls is now going up (photo taken today)