Let there be light inside ...

We've had a light fitting from one of the bedrooms rewired and put into the entrance hallway. For the past two winters we've stumbled in the dark when arriving back home after sundown. We are thrilled to have been able to re-use the fitting (kindly left by the previous owners) and to finally have light in the hallway.

At last, we also have a central light in our lounge, something simple in keeping with the 60s/70s features of the room. It's made such a huge difference we wonder how we've managed all this time without it.

Let there be light outside ...

The renovation of the gite and construction of the pool has gone very smoothly, except for two things. Both of which we didn't actually sight ourselves, but relied on our project managers to source the right thing. We've now learnt from this - always see what is recommended to be used. At least they weren't major things: one is the ceiling fans which are too big (and garish) for the space and the second was the outside lights. We had specifically said we did not want 'municipal lights' but unfortunately there seems to be a variation on what that constitutues. Here's what we ended up with - three of them to be exact:

This was the only thing in the project that reduced Jane to tears, having these ugly carbuncles on the facade of our lovely house. They lit up the garden like a football pitch, so it was inevitable we would eventually change them. We've recycled the lights into the cave/garage where, along with some new strip lighting, we can now clearly see every corner and therefore how much stuff we have ... and it's a lot. And here's the new, more-in-keeping, exterior lighting:

Fire

Towards the end of August and just before the vendange was about to start, we awoke at 2am to find a large fire blazing on the edge of the village. Having earlier seen news items on the devastation caused by fires throughout other parts of France, we were a bit alarmed. We watched through our window as the sapeur pompiers, out in force, managed to contain the flames after a couple of hours. Fortunately the wind blew the fire up the hill to the garrigue (scrubland) therefore taking away any danger to the village. There were a large number of fire engines etc, but no sirens were used, so most people in the village were unaware of there being a fire until the morning.

After weeks of no rain, the sapeur pompiers must have been delighted when the heavens opened at around 4.30am with a huge downpour which helped put out the fire. There is now a huge dark scar on the hillside, but it's rapidly turning green with new growth.

 

Autumn already ...

This summer has flown by and we've had a lot of visitors which has been fantastic. We love introducing people to this great area and the wonderful things to see and do here. The pool has been in much use as it's been a lovely, long, hot and sunny summer.

The vendange is in full force with both human and mechanical grape-pickers out early in the mornings and working through the heat of the day. The village is busy with tractors bringing trailors full of grapes to the caves, so it's not quite so peaceful at the moment. They often start around 4 in the morning! The weather has held with only some small showers of rain. From what we can gather the harvest is of better quality this year, but less quantity. Which seems to me to be a good thing. 

Ghost Town

It has been very, very hot the past week or so, with afternoon temperatures generally over 40C. Neither man nor beast can be seen anywhere in the village from about midday to around 5pm. Unusually we've also got some humidity which makes it almost impossible to do anything in the afternoon - even go swimming! Merv is in the Pyrenees this week with a walking trip and I am indoors accompanied by the cats, who just lie on the cool tiles all afternoon. The evenings are lovely though, so go for a swim around 7pm, water the garden, then another swim at about 10pm. Last year, this sort of heat lasted about 10 days so am hoping we are on the last stretch of it.

Grapevine

We've let one of our grapevine's grow over the new trellis. Mostly, because we didn't have time to plant climbers with a quick enough growth to cover it this year. It has gone crazy in the recent heat and is now beyond the length of the trellis. It's provided great cover, but very little fruit, and should be lovely in autumn too. In the meantime we also have a bougainvillea growing well which next year should provide colourful cover.

A sunny picture of the pool ...

Realised most photos on this blog have been taken in the evening, so here's one of the pool in the bright midday sun. As you can see the wisteria has gone crazy this year. 

The pool is pristine due to:

Pool Boy's cleaning!