(to recap: we'd bought the house, moved to France - now our pets, Gypsy the deerhound/crocodile cross and our two grey tabbies, Guinny and Gally, had to acclimatise ( Read more... )

(A new chapter, a new trial. And for the next few days it's cat stories. This one's about cats that fight, cats that shouldn't and owners that rush to the rescue ( Read more... )

(to recap: We'd bought the house, moved to France and were 42 hours into our first encounter with a French plumber ( Read more... )

(to recap: We'd bought the house, moved to France and were now 18 hours into our first encounter with a French plumber ( Read more... )

(to recap: we bought the house, we moved to France, now we had to fix the plumbing)

"Cavagnac! Cavagnac! Le voleur de la Montagne!"

I don't think he liked our vendor.

"La grande merde! Merde! Merde! Merde! Merde! Merde! MERDE!"

We waited. I didn't think there were any more merdes but there was a lot of muttering and, I suspect, some spitting, ( Read more... )

All gardeners know the constant battle against pests. We've fought toe to toe with moles, slugs, aphids and caterpillars. We've chased off chickens and turkeys. We even had to fence against wild boar. But last night a new pest arrived. Fences won't stop it. It's big, it's fast, it flies. And it's a peacock ( Read more... )

Time to call in the experts.

We'd seen a cheminée showroom on the outskirts of St. Gaudens. Perhaps they could help us. Or failing that, know where we could buy coal.

It was a large showroom, abounding with inserts, ranges and mock fireplaces of every description. Surely they had to have one like ours?

We checked them all, knelt down, opened them ( Read more... )