What a month! We have been so busy – hence the lack of a blog for well over a month. In that time – since leaving our boat in the Leros boatyard – we have been back in England, celebrated a special birthday for Cate, moved home, and arrived in France to find a building site where our house should be!
Taking a step back… the first significant event was a fabulous birthday party to celebrate Cate’s 60th birthday. Her actual birthday is later in December, but we decided to throw a party with a lavish dinner at La Trompette – a Michelin starred restaurant in Chiswick. It was terrific to celebrate and catch up with so many of Cate’s close friends; not to mention the fine food and wine that flowed all evening.
For the last three years much of our cherished possessions from our home in Cornwall have been in storage. Now that we have bought a bigger place out in the Alps, the time has come to move our stuff out of storage and bring it to our new home. Unfortunately, the quotes for international removals were astronomically high, so we decided to hire a van – the biggest possible with a standard driving licence – and do the move ourselves. So, in the week before Cate’s party we made a trip down to Cornwall to prepare for the event, and it also became another great chance to catch up with friends. Jono even managed a squash game (his first for three years) with an old squash partner. The result was a predictable defeat!
Returning to Cornwall after the party we picked up the van and filled it with our things. We then began the long drive to France. Taking it slowly, we stopped at Jono’s Dad’s for a night, then a second night in a little hotel off the A road in the middle of France. We finally arrived at our chalet on the 16th of November. It is hard to describe our emotions! Building work was well underway, and on the one hand we could see that we would have a lovely home. On the other hand, the work was far from completed and the house was clearly not habitable. So, we dropped our things off in the garage (there was no way we could put things inside!), then had to make the long drive all the way back to Cornwall to return the hired van, pick up our car, then drive back out a week later – still with the house in an uninhabitable state.
We thought we had been busy up to that point: now we were to discover that our work had only just begun. Friends are due to join us early in December, so we have had just a couple of weeks to get the house ready. Martyn (the builder), his mates Paul and Al, Paul (electrician), Mark (plumber) and Jonny (plasterer) have put in sterling work to finish the walls, lay a new floor, fit heating, lights and sockets, plaster, and so on and so forth. We have repainted the entire chalet (almost!), moved in furniture, fitted woodwork, hung pictures, set up the telly, cleaned endlessly, and stopped only for much needed cups of tea! Cate has worked so hard, it seems she has been in several places at once, as the following video proves…
Amazingly, we are almost finished! Martyn has promised to come tomorrow to finish the last major bit of building work – fitting a connecting walkway to the two sides of the chalet on the first floor (we are managing at the moment with a plank suspended across the open stairwell, which won’t be ideal for our guests!). On our part, we have a bit more painting and decorating, but we should have enough time to head to the slopes for a bit of skiing by early next week. The snow has already begun to fall in earnest, so we are keen for the skiing to begin..