Last Autumn visit it was so wet that ground water was coming through the wall of the Ping Pong Barn and up through the floor of the Cave…….this trip could not have been more different, clear blue skies each day, sometimes preceded by a little autumn mist, but each day in excess of 20°C
Just as well, as my only job on this trip was to scale the scaffold tower and repoint and render the front of the house. My aim to complete to the ridge on the left hand side.
I now have the method perfected and am quicker than when I started but it still took five days to reach the apex. It’s hard work lifting the buckets of lime to the higher level but once up the tower it is not unpleasant work in the glorious sunshine.
The garden is looking good now its mature. The Autumn colour and flowers this year were especially spectacular made even better by the low level sunlight and clear skies.
The only other jobs carried out were routine seasonal garden work. Pollarding the Mulberries and a little lawn maintenance.
This was a very pleasant trip, achieving my aims but does not make for a very interesting blog post! So here are some more images!
This is a story of two limes. Tilia europaea and Chaux de Saint Aster.
The former the lime tree at the front of the house and the other the constituent of the mortar required to repoint and render the front of the house after removing the render in February.
The tree at the front provides welcome midday shade for lunch, but has become too large for the space and was touching the house. It had also become damaged in the storm of 2022. I had been contemplating its pruning for several years but the imminent rendering of the front spurred me in to action. Harry recommended a tree surgeon. We he arrived, James, yes Brown! convinced me reduction of the crown was better than pollarding, so I left and in my absence he carried out the work.
An odd shaped tree
I had seen images sent by James and had paid him for the work, but when I arrived with Aneesa at Easter we were unconvinced. Needing professional reassurance I called Harry. Almost immediately, he came around, took one look at the tree and pronounced “I don’t like it!”. His reaction was so instant, I suspect he had been around to look at it previously (Harry calls around to check on my house and I have no doubt to admire my garden!, when I am away).
Was it coincidence that in the back of his pick-up was his pole chainsaw, just the tool to remove all the branches ready for pollarding!
After an afternoon of heavy pruning, the Lime was little more that the main stem, pollarded to where I had contemplated for all those years.*
Aneesa working on the wall and the pollarded Lime. Morris looks on!
Hydrated lime is nasty stuff. Not as nasty as quick lime that reacts violently to water releasing heat, but it still dries out your skin and makes large volumes of dust covering every surface.
The render that was removed was made with cement. This concrete is brittle, leading to cracks as the old house moves and flexes and is impervious to water vapour leading to damp inside as the walls cannot breath. Lime render is flexible and breathable and the colour is more natural matching the limestone stones from which it is made.
In my last post from February, I had started to expose the stones the same way as the ‘pierre apparente’, walls inside, by raking out the semi cured mortar from around the stones with a piece of timber. Looking at the images in the UK I had become unconvinced this wall was regular enough to carry this off. I consulted YouTube.
A renovation of a similar house showed a different method more suited to this kind of wall.
Seeing the house on my next visit it definitely needed a new approach, so I cautiously tried this method of rendering almost completely over the stones, “just in front of” as described in the video! As the lime mix cures it is wirebrushed in varying directions to expose the stones, giving and pleasing textured finish and taking up (disguising) to variation in the stone work.
The process is laborious and slow. Raking out the old joints, repairing cracks and holes with new stones and pieces of roof tile and repointing, then rendering and finally wire brushing. At the end of this visit about the half the front was done.
Oh, I also cleaned the pool and the house ready for our holiday in two weeks….no work on that trip!
* I have to add that James carried out the work to a high standard. Unfortunately his vision for the tree was different to mine. Designers eh!
The new render and a recovering Lime treeSo enclosed now
This trip we embarked on removing the concrete render from the front of the house, once again creating large volumes of dust! This time thankfully outside, but still everywhere, on all surfaces, plants, skin, hair and clothes!
Removal of the render and the recreation of the Pierre Apparente walls to the exterior of the house was something I had wanted to do since the purchase all those years ago but other more essential work took precedence, such as running water, electricity, heat and a comfortable interior.
Then just as I though all was done and I could start on my pet project, the roof of the cave began to fall in, sparking a four year, Covid interrupted, additional project!
Now in 2024, I am ready to embark on this ‘Gros Travail’ as described by Robert the farmer when he stopped to see what was going on!
Enlightened to the perils of this work by watching many French Youtubers removing their render and armed SDS Hammer chisels and picks, I headed down with my son Percy to help. The plan was to start at the bottom removing the render and gradually working up to the ridge. On YouTube some render came off easily and others took quite an effort with progress slow. Luckily ours fell into the former category with the exception of the plinth at the bottom. By the end of day one we had reached the top of the door. Setting targets for each day, we worked steadily upwards until a few hours into day four we had removed all the render from the front of the building.
Beneath the render, the stone walls were dry, a little cracked and were held together with little more than clay. The biggest surprise was the lack of dressed stone blocks at the quoin. These being of large flat boulders. It should have been no surprise, as the corners of the building are curved and slope inwards at quite an angle!
The last day was spent raking out the joints in preparation for the application of a lime mortar. This was then applied by hand, filling larger holes with chalk stones and smaller cracks with fragments of broken roof tiles.
At this time of year lime mortar is slow to cure so the morning of departure was spent raking back the lime to expose the stone……..hence Pierre Apparente.
With the render off and all unknowns removed, my work for the rest of the summer is now set!
A few weeks before every trip, I start to look at the Acuweather.com for a long range forecast for Ribérac. This October was no different. Three weeks before my trip I was saying “good job I’m not going that week!” referring to week before I was to arrive, as it was wet all week. My week was fine and sunny and low twenties as it usually is!
…….but as we moved closer, the wet week slipped a few days at a time, until it was the week I was to stay. Stilll not perturbed and buoyed by my friend Harry’s comment that the weather is often better than forecast (Harry lives in LePort), I travelled down.
It rained on the journey but was dry when I arrived. The next morning when I woke up however, it was raining heavily. And so it did every day with the exception of Tuesday and Saturday and when I say rain I mean 30mm each day, constant heavy rain!
The autumn trip is now part of the garden maintenance routine. Prune the mulberries, scarify the grass and over seed and prune the late flowering shrubs….not all of this was going to get done! Luckily, now the barn roof is complete there are plenty of internal jobs that could be completed instead.
Pruning the mulberries has to be carried out in October, so that took up most Tuesday along with cutting the grass. I also managed to cast the foundations for a step into the Ping Pong barn made from very heavy chalk blocks. Wednesday was due to start raining at 11.00, so I worked to complete the step. Sure enough at 11.00…..
The rest of the day I wired in the light in the barn and when it got so wet it was unpleasant just to step out of the barn to get tools, I called it a day and drove to Perigeux to get parts to put a light in the cave (not a job I had planned this trip but it is inside).
As an indication of how wet it was, Friday started with light rain so I worked on the pointing of the stone walls in the barn. By the afternoon, there was rain of Biblical proportions and the ground water started to come through the rear wall of the barn (the barn is cut into the hillside). When I say come in, I mean pour in like a water fall!
Saturday was damp but not raining so I abandoned scarifying and just over seeded the lawn, cut down the wildflower bank, tidied the house and packed the van ready for depart Sunday morning.
Supper with my English friends down the lane was a very nice way to complete the week!
Did I mention that water was coming UP through the floor in the cave!
After an overnight stay in Paris to take in Californian punk ska band The Interrupters at the Ellysée in Monmartre, I drove down for flying visit to Le Port ten days before our family holiday at Frelon Cottage.
I usually make this trip at this time of year to clean the pool and set up the house for our summer visit. This time it included the culmination of the barn project, concreting the floor.
After much deliberation about the best process to complete the floor, I decided to order ‘Self levelling concrete’ (SCC). All concrete self levels to a certain extent, but then requires tamping, screeding and finally trowelling to a smooth finish. This method requires timber or metal formwork and is usually carried out in sections, prolonging the work. SCC contains polymers allowing it to flow at a viscosity that would weaken conventional concrete. The SCC mix levels and with a slight agitation, compacts itself to a smooth finish….in theory! I have never specified or used this material professionally so it was an unknown.
Dead on 10.00 Friday, a huge commercial concrete truck appeared at the crossroads in the hamlet. The driver strode up the hill, shook hands (as is customary in France even with delivery drivers), then looked concerningly at the opening of our entrance leading to the barn. Seemingly reading his mind I asked if his truck was fitted with a conveyor, a tapis (literally a carpet) as this is what I thought I had ordered and paid for…… ‘Non’ was the reply.
After much toing and froing, verge stamping and very tight manoeuvring, the driver managed to squeeze his trucking into my driveway only wiping out a very small corner of my flower bed.
The concrete pour and the levelling of the SCC mix was as easy as the website and youtube had described taking less time than it took to get the truck into position. Pour complete the driver jumped into his cab and was off, without time for me to thank him for his efforts.
By next morning the concrete was hard enough to walk on. I set up our drinks fridge and freezer on the new surface and plugged them into the newly wired socket.
Ten days later we were back. The ping pong table was wheeled from the Big Barn and joined by a small pool table and a dart board.
After all these years, the Ping Pong Barn was now a reality not just a name given to a derelict shell!
The difference (apart from classification) is that I want orchids and the kittens are an unwanted addition to Pierre’s woodstack.
Three years ago I gave up on trying to keep lawn grass alive on the south facing bank and sowed a limestone soil wildflower mix. This area has now established and looks at its best in May. The ultimate aim is create a habitat for orchids. This year I discovered my first! Not the most stunning, a Goat Orchid, quite rare in the UK but shows the habitat is good for their establishment. I will now await the arrival of more colourful species!
The lady down the lane has several semi feral cats. One has produced two kittens and is raising them beneath Pierre’s wood pile, which incidentally is a good dry place as it is beneath my new roof! This has caused much interest and distraction, as the neighbours keep coming out to discuss what to do about them and whether Sam or I want them!
Distractions aside, my main reason for this visit is to prepare the floor of the Ping Pong Barn for concreting. As the dirt floor slopes 500mm front to rear and the back is in solid chalk, this means building a retaining wall along the front opening, blocking this barn off to vehicles (in the long term we will create vehicular access to the big barn). The retaining wall is being built from large chalk blocks, picked up from the quarry in February and backed with concrete blocks and steel reinforced concrete in the cavity.
With the wall built over two days in 30 degree heat, Thursday Sam arrived to help me break up the concrete base of an old walnut press and fill behind the wall with the rubble and broken tiles from the roof rebuild. This was then ‘blinded off’ with a tonne of combined aggregate and compacted with a vibrating plant compactor ready for concreting in July.
Thankfully, due to meticulous planning, CAD and computer models, we have not made many errors on the renovation of Frelon Cottage. The biggest mistake however, was a spur of the moment decision inspired by our Belgian neighbours, to abandon pale green windows, doors and shutters and paint all in Provençale Blue.
This trip I am finally able to eliminate this out of character blue and paint the last remaining window in the much more suitable Farrow and Ball Cooking Apple Green.
Travelling by ferry on this trip and leaving early Sunday morning, Saturday is spent finishing off outside, cleaning the house and taking some time to watch the FA Cup Final.
I am writing this on the ferry after an easy journey up and should be home in Cambridge by 17.00 (update before posting; never underestimate congestion on UK roads. I actually arrived back a 18.40!). Back in the UK for four weeks to earn some money then returning to Frelon Cottage in July for the concrete pour.
The February visit is a long time coming. Almost thirteen weeks without a trip to the cottage, expectation and anticipation are always high and this visit did not disappoint.
Sometimes in February arrival is a little anticlimactic as the property has been left untended for all that time, the weather is often bad and it can look a little uncared for. This time the grass was green, the sun was setting and all looked calm and peaceful. The log burner was quickly prepared with the kindling and logs cut before leaving last time and I settled down in the warm kitchen.
Next morning it was extremely frosty but it had that look in the sky that it was going to be glorious, as indeed it was forecast to be all week.
My neighbour, Pierre came around early to say hello and to update me on all things Le Port and also to discuss the new gutter I was installing over his entrance. We have what is known as a ‘Flying Freehold’ on our barn with the new roof. The left hand part known as The Cave has an upstairs but below part of this is Pierre’s land. He conveniently uses my new roof to keep his logs dry and the old gutter is not large enough to handle the increased capacity caused by a new less porous roof!
New road signs have been installed throughout the commune. When I say new, I mean not just in the physical sense but that each road, lane, track, however small has now be given a name. Our track is called ‘Impasse Guy de Larigaudie’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_de_Larigaudie. Each house has also been assigned a number. We are number three. This costly and time consuming exercise has been made necessary as it is no longer just La Poste delivering to rural communities. Up until now each house in the commune had the same address and it was down to La Poste to know who lived in each house. Amazon et al don’t have this knowledge.
Marie Anne, Pierre’s wife is councillor at the mairie, so we knew in advance of the official announcement what our road was called and our number. So I was perplexed when Pierre said she would come around with our number later in the day. Little did I realise that the commune was supplying each house with enamelled numbers in the same colour scheme as the road signs! These signs would cost around £15 in the UK! ……..Vive La France!
Installation of the gutters was not trouble free! As we had to rebuild the roof on existing 100 year old walls and beams, nothing is level or flat. In two sections the eaves sloped in the opposite direction to the fall of the gutter toward the downpipe. This created a strange optical illusion and caused some head scratching but once solved the zinc gutters looked very nice and will help keep the inside of the barn dry as well as Pierre’s logs.
Over the winter I employed some French gardeners to clear a patch of scrub, elder and brambles at the rear of the house by the Big Barn. This was not a job I fancied. This area is now clear and will be a compost and storage area, so on this visit I have brought some Hornbeam hedging to plant to screen the compost heaps from sight when in the garden. This planted and some other replanting of the front flowerbed, cutting back and pruning and a lawn cut and the house again looks very loved!
Off now to overnight in Calais, then early Eurotunnel.
We are back at 3 Impasse Guy de Larigaudie at Easter!
The Autumn trip to Frelon Cottage is always a visit with mixed emotions.
A feeling of sadness as it is time to put the house to bed again for the winter and I will not be returning for at least three months and a feeling of contentment at having spent many summer weeks here and as the autumn starts to signal the march toward winter in the UK, in south western France it is usually still pleasantly warm. This year it is even more so. Temperatures of up to 27 degrees are forecast.
Mulberries pruned for another year
The tasks on this visit are also seasonally driven. The mulberries, pollarded last year, need to be pruned annually in the winter (a handy tip: prune just before leaf fall as this will safe having to pick up the leaves later!) and the lawn, scorched in the 40 degree summer heat needs to be scarified and overseeded.
Also, now the barn roof is complete we need to focus on the inside. On this trip I intend to clean out the years of detritus and move all building materials to the newly dry Cave and prepare the Ping Pong Barn for concreting in the Spring.
The Cave
Both barns have been dumping grounds and have accumulated nine years worth of stuff ‘that will be handy if you need something like that’ otherwise known as rubbish. So armed with my new smart card (allowing me access to the Dechetterie in Riberac) I started to load the van.
The first load, I overcame the urge to keep the old rafters from the roof, and cut them up, adding the offcuts from the vollege boards to totally fill the van with old timber. Approaching the barrier with trepidation (a large part of this this visits work depends on this smart card working!*), I offered up the card to the reader and immediately the screen read ‘Bonjour Monsieur Dracott’ and the barrier opened!
* I am from the UK where very little works or is right first time.
Ping Pong barn almost clear
Four more trips to the Dechetterie, and the barn is clear. This whole experience has been like unearthing the house renovation sediments of history. The deeper I get, the further back in time I go, until right at the bottom of the back corner I find the large beam on which I rested the house marten’s nest on that first visit.
All horticultural tasks complete and the barn cleared and ready to be prepared for concreting, I once again move the furniture away from the walls, place the bedding in plastic boxes, set the mouse traps and head back to the UK for winter.
Overseeded lawn and the now established wildflower bankMulberries, the new roof and an almost clear barn
Three days before my flying five day trip to the house, I received an email from my neighbours telling me of a serious storm affecting our region of France. Further investigation finds shocking images and video clips of high winds, huge hale and much damage to houses and cars.
So it is with trepidation that I approach my house in my hired Clio. I arrive to find my Mulberries battered and the majority of their leaves on the ground but the house and part finished barn roof look ok. I open the house expecting to find leaks and water damage but again all is ok. Looks like we have been lucky.
We have indeed been lucky, as the following days I see fifty or more houses with tarpaulins over their roof and in Riberac itself Les Pompiers are still installing others over damaged roofs. Fields of sunflower are tripped to the stems and cars are driving around looking like they have been hit hundreds of times with a hammer.
La Grêle
One third of the barns roof remains incomplete and on this visit we hope to finish it. This impromptu visit has been arranged around the cheapest flights with completing the roof before the summer holidays the main aim. If I can clean the pool and get the house ready for our visit in late July it will be a bonus.
The first three days are fine and dry with the last day forecast to rain all day, so there is the motivation to complete it quickly.
The first day, is a garden tidy as Sam is not available until tomorrow and the garden is a mess after the storm.
The next day we start to tile. This last section is the most difficult as neither eaves or verges are parallel or perpendicular and also we are ‘painting ourselves in a corner’ and there is nowhere to store materials. We battle on and and at the end of day one there is about two square metres left to tile. After an early morning visit to the builders merchants to buy a sheet of zinc, we started on the last push.
The last push
This was a difficult day as we had to protect the end of the roof with zinc and ensure where it joins my neighbours roof was water tight, it was also extremely hot!
After 8 hours in the sun, the roof was complete. Nearly three years of on and off work it seemed a bit of an anticlimax. A quick tidy and into the pool to cool down.
zinc and awkward cuts
The final day, as forecast it rained heavily. This gave me the opportunity to paint the remaining blue windows and doors back to Cooking Apple Green, tidy the house and stock up on provisions from the supermarket.
This has been a successful trip and now the roof is complete I can now start to plan the interiors of both barns.
This is a renovation that will never be complete, but I like it like that!
Four seasons in one week is very much the theme of our easter trip this year.
We know the weather can be variable in April but on this visit we have had frost, rain (lots of rain!), fog and glorious sunshine. None of this is a problem now as the house is warm when it’s cold, dry when when it rains (leaks around the chimney have long since been repaired) and when it’s sunny and the warm the garden is now complete for relaxation and sun bathing….so variety is the spice of life!
Le Port, the hamlet of seven houses where Frelon Cottage is located is now gloriously coming back to life. When we found our house, derelict and un cared for, it was not alone. Le Port was run down. Two derelict barns, one abandoned house falling down and an elderly population. We were not the first to start this process as Arnaud and his wife had started to renovate the house above ours.
New post box and neighbour’s hedge removal
Now, both barns are being renovated, the tumbledown house has been repaired and now contains a young family and Arnaud has sold his house to another young family. They are now busy terracing the garden and extending the house as they have recently had twins! Below us is another holiday home owned by two lovely Belgians, they have also started to renovate their garden taking down over grown trees and hedges and opening up views.
The result of all of this new activity is a tidy looking little community……
This trip was not earmarked for any major works to Frelon Cottage. Sam was not available to work on the roof other than one day and I needed a rest. So the aim of this visit was to relax and do little jobs passed over for larger projects…..hanging pictures, putting up coat hooks and the like.
Le Moulon a vent at La Tour Blanche…picnic No 3
On the sunny days picnics, usually containing goats cheese! were packed and visits made to places often crowded in the summer but peaceful and quiet at this time of year.
This trip was exactly what I had in mind on all all the frantic renovation trips……. now its time to draw on that investment and relax in our comfortable French house!
Brantome….picnic No 1Uninterrupted views in all directions
Frelon Cottage 