Almost finished …

Yes, we know it has been a long time between posts, but we have been busy over the summer! 

The Preau extension is completed at last!

...as always, click on the photos to enlarge...

Nicolas the stone cutter carefully sets the supports for the 

traditional arched doorway to the workshop

and places the keystone for the arched doorway.

Anibal places the final stone in his superb stone wall

The workers take a break with a little ride in the country.

Our new roses are beginning to bloom.

Girl on a swing at Montsegur. 

Part of an interesting display of scarecrows in a village vegie patch.

Big preau bedroom – before


and after – with Dylan's handmade beds.

The preau bathroom with its stone wall cleaned ready for pointing

and the final product after tiling and painting.
_________________________

Action in the workshop crafting the kitchen beam.

Michael and Dylan installing the kitchen beam.

Relaxing at our local watering hole:
Paul and his Brasserie du Quercorb in Puivert.

Dylan cleaning cement off old terracotta tiles for the hallway.

Deb and Michael doing it too (over 200 tiles and several days).

and the tiles in place, thanks to Paul the tiler.

Deb makes good use of the borrowed Kartcher,

cleaning one of a number of our 'new' old bikes.

Dylan puts his cement-removal skills to good use on the hallway walls …

with Deb lending a hand.

Mirepoix market with a medieval twist.

Finally adding some decoration at the front of the house.

Dinner in the garden before walking to watch the Puivert fireworks.

A long-distance graffiti birthday card
for our missing team member – Jess.

Summer in full swing
_________________________________

We visit our friend Nicolas in Brittany

for the inauguration of his recycled woodworking shed …

a large soup made from BYO vegetables 

and great Bretagne music and dancing until the wee hours.

We visited picturesque Uzerche on the way home.

____________________

Sue visited for a few days, bringing laughter and joy and ...

an interest in the local food and markets (great apricot jam Sue!).

Ben drops in from London for a weekend …

 and a ride to the 'Aussie' chateau

– a renovation project to dwarf ours.

______________

We drive to the top of the Plateau de Beille for a preview of

the finish for our local stage of the Tour de France …

and a few weeks later we ride there (almost to the top)

for a barbecue with Paul and Ciel

and a well-timed thunderstorm, with hail

to welcome the riders.

After Deb and Michael spend a week cycling around Albi in early August,
Michael rounds off the summer with a short ride from Paris to Brest and back.

____________

Back to the renovations and things are moving quickly … 

with some jerry rigged railings to the scaffold 

to reach the final section of pointing for the year.

The kitchen progressing – we finally have a cooktop, oven and bench.

Deb head's off on a cruise on the Danube with her mum Ann,
uncle John and cousin Penny while ...

while Michael quickly turns the dirt yard into a lawn  in preparation for the visitors.

It's a full house with Ann, John  Penny, and Jess and James arriving 

so an expanded table is prepared for dinner with the Puivert Aussies.

James lends a hand as we break down some big oak slabs 

into useful pieces of timber for future furniture projects.

The intrepid explorers find the 'harp' tree in the

Nebias labyrinth. 

_________________________

Our neighbours Alain and Adele instruct us in
the fine art of preserving tomatoes  ...

first there is the picking (30kg)

then the preserving.

Penny and Duncan make a flying visit.

____________________

A party for the workers.

We throw a wee 'thank you' barbecue for the workers,

the people who've helped on the house and their families.

And the kitchen a few weeks later.  Well done boys!

As autumn draws in it is time to migrate to warmer climes  

so we lock the car in the garage (behind the doors finished just in time)

and say au revoir to Campgast for another season.