I'm not quite sure where to begin in recounting the events of this week. As I'm writing this the resonant sounds of a brass band are blasting up from the main street near us. The Cherry Festival started today and the town has been awash with cherries, people, market stalls, bands, 'refreshments' and sun all day. And things are still heating up. No pun intended. The weather did start fairly iffy but the sun has won out and it's looking good for the open-air meal we are booked in for tonight. Everything has turned 'cherry', including window displays, banners, costumes, beer and a huge variety of baking at the numerous stalls. Our hope was to have a 'quiet' weekend this Saturday and Sunday after a very busy week.
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| One of the many cherry stalls |
Monday saw two electricians taking up residence in our new apartment and soon installing all manner of cabling for our two air conditioning units. They were soon joined by two more electricians who installed a fuse box and wove what seemed like oceans of conduit in every room. We had prepared an electrical plan to give them, but John and I spent from 8am until 5.30pm on-site, marking the specific locations we wanted the power points and light fittings. No pressure, right.
The next day we had to tell them where the dishwasher, oven and other appliances for the kitchen were going. Being only two weeks into 'the build' at this stage we hadn't quite expected to have to have our kitchen planned. We were up to midnight that night rearranging the little squares of paper trying to confirm the best position for everything. Came up with a plan and hope it works out. We now have to book an appointment with the kitchen people in Leroy Merlin (where we plan to buy our kitchen units) to make sure it will all work. Fingers crossed. As a part of a build in France, it is compulsory here to have a fancy ventilation system that runs 24 hours a day ventilating the kitchen, bathroom and toilet. We are hoping to sneak it in the gaps between the old and new walls but it's quite complicated.
To cut a long story short, by the end of Wednesday, all the wiring was virtually complete. I think we've mentioned before that France has a staggering number of public holidays. They've already had two Thursdays off in May (and therefore typically take the Friday as well as a 'pont' or bridge). The same thing happened this week, but this time we were very happy because it's given us time for a little breather.
With no workers on-site John and I skipped our computer work and got stuck into some real work on the apartment. I've been worried that at the rate the builders are going, they'll be finishing off the internal walls and reinstating the window frames very soon. I wanted to get as much prep work done on the frames while they were out (and we could lay them flat). Hence, I spent most of Friday scraping off paint and then sanding the backs of the three main window frames that will face onto the main square. John helped towards the end of the day, after concentrating his efforts on finishing up on the exposed rock wall. Exhausted but happy at 5pm we dragged ourselves home.
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| Work begins on scraping the old paint off the first window frame. |
A quick shower and a plan to get more undercoat and a new paint scraper for our next effort on Monday. If we were to have any chance of finding a car park again we had to head off to the local bricolage because thousands come to Céret for the cherry festival. So, a quick trip before 7pm and we had our goodies. Next, straight out the door to a gathering at a friend's house (along with 10 others) for a convivial evening of food, wine and good company. Sitting down to a table that seats 12 was quite amazing. By the time we left at midnight I was just about falling asleep.
This morning was very hard work getting up, either because of the effects of last night, the aching muscles from the hard labour yesterday, but probably a combination of both. The town was heaving by mid-morning and it proved a real struggle to find our favourite vege, olive and baking stalls because there were so many extra stalls set up. Finally managed to find grab some chairs with mates for a coffee at Bar Pablo, accompanied by one of the bands in full swing immediately next to us. All good fun.
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| Bar Pablo with friends, one a Kiwi, bands in full voice opposite. |
I've forgotten to mention two things. One is the signing of our sale documents and the other is an apéro with a man who would have liked to buy our apartment. First, we met up with our purchaser (a very nice Swedish woman) at the notaire's office on Wednesday morning and signed all the appropriate papers. A copy of these will now be sent out by the notaire and, once received, will start the seven day pull-out period. After that both parties are bound by the contract However, we have no doubts she is keen to stick with it. We sealed the deal with coffee after the signing and then she came back to our place to confirm which pieces of furniture she wants to buy from us. All extremely satisfactory from both sides.
That night saw us driving up our valley at 6pm to have apéro with an Englishman (80 years plus) who had viewed our apartment earlier and, though very taken it, conceded it wasn't large enough for himself and his 500+ books. We hit it off with each other at the time and hence the invitation to chat at his place over a drink and nibbles. He's an interesting man, widowed for many years, with grown-up children spread around the world, including a daughter running a restaurant in Governor's Bay, Canterbury. He's lived in NZ for a number of years and has fond memories of it. Anyway, we spent a very pleasant few hours with him and are keen to invite him back for a meal sometime, possibly with Liz, an English woman whose company we really enjoy.
However, the highlight of the week has to be the cherry festival, and since it is now Sunday, I can report on the antics of the open-air meal last night. It is probably easiest to sum it up with the video below. We had a group of 20, with the total number of diners being probably around 400. The meal was wonderful (charcuterie for entrée, leg of duck and mushroom sauce for main, with cherry clafoutis for dessert. Wine, coffee and bread included, all the for grand sum of €20 (about NZ$32). The band playing was enthusiastic to say the least, with plenty of people clapping and dancing away on their chairs (moi included). Great fun and a late night.
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| Open-dinner kicks off quite sedately. |
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| But gets into the swing of things as night falls. |
Today the major spectacle were the 'castellers', who build human pyramids. This traditionally represents solidarity within the community. They climb up to be four layers high, with the little girls at the very top (wearing crash helmets!). It's pretty impressive.
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| The castellers - about 20 people provide the base level support |
