The French Connexion

First I would like to direct your attention to a charitable event; Vanessa Ford, a good friend of ours has decided to go for it and try and raise some money for a local hospice (Willen) that we all have some experience of in this area, they are wonderful, and I have never heard anyone say anything bad about them. Vanessa will be doing the Andean Lares Tail in Peru and climbing to 14400 feet (Machu Picchu); or tying to. The highest I have ever climbed is slightly over 12000 feet and it’s hard to breath at that height. For me it felt like I wanted to yawn all the time’ it seemed hard to catch your breath; maybe that’s a way of getting more oxygen into your lungs. Anyway, have a look at the link on our site and sponsor her; even if it’s only a small amount. “Every little helps”. At least follow this link and read about the event, please! http://www.justgiving.com/Vanessa-Ford/

Another friend of ours, Steve Lawn emailed me a while ago and asked me to have a look at his brand new website which advertises his Gite in Brittany France. If you follow our blog you will know that Claire and I went to stay with Steve and Sue last year in their main house while they were renovating the old 17th century water mill into a Gite. If you haven’t been following this blog you can find it starting at our entry called “Tour De France” on 6th July 2008. Can’t seem to put a link here.

Steve and Sue sold up and went out to France a couple of years ago buying a house that needed renovating and also had lots of land and a very run down water mill that was built in the 17th century. As the water mill used water from a stream they also have lots of land in a thin long strip that follows this stream for probably about 1km. It has lots of fish in it as nobody seems to have the time or inclination to fish that part of the river / stream. When we stayed there the main house was finished to an incredible standard and they had started on the grounds and water mill. Sue had lifted tonnes of stones single handed into sensible places so that the gardens could be made nice while Steve did all the renovation on the old mill. Having said that, Sue also did the plastering which she became very accomplished at. She had even mastered the art of curved walls by the time we were there. Steve, an engineer, like me, used to design and working metal, seemed to have made the switch to wood like a duck to water. They had lots of oak from an old barn that they dismantled so he split and sawed it down to make the staircase by hand. This is real art; having said that he does like “boys toys”; Steve seems to have every available electric power tool available to man. The area is lovely, a great reflection of rural France and there are some unbelievable restaurants in the area. Luckily, Steve knows me and took us to several of them but Sue is a very accomplished chef; they owned Olney Brassier in Bedfordshire before they sold up and bought a guest house in Devon.

While we were there we were lucky enough to have the “Tour De France” go right past their house during our stay there. In fact, it went past twice, two days consecutively. This is a perfect place to get away with the whole family together; especially at Christmas when you don’t know which set of parents to go to on Christmas day. We don’t have that problem as we normally go away on our own over the Christmas holidays but I know most people do. This is a link to their website; take a look, especially at the photos. This was a mammoth renovation that has been very skilfully perfected. It makes ours look like Childs play. http://www.moulin-de-guermeur.com/

The actual water wheel itself had completely disintegrated but there were enough remains to know exactly the form it took and Steve is now in the process of making a new one, also from the local old oak that he has available, for free; he is almost as tight as me.

Happy Birthday Jimmy! Hope you are having a great trip in Egypt.