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It’s big and it’s shiny!

November 22, 2020November 23, 2020 by Chantal Chaney

Certainly cold last night, we had our first frost!

Both got a bit of a lie in which was nice. Meant that Matt didn’t really make the most of the list of jobs that I gave him to do in the morning though, he was only just out the shower when I got up. I swear he spends the best part of an hour in there though – I can’t say I blame him, it is hot hot hot!

By the time I got out the shower Matt had been looking at cars again and was insistent that we went to go look at a car. They hadn’t responded to his email so I had to call them to ensure that it was open. They are open till 4 so that’s our afternoon taken up.

Next up, finish getting this wood sorted. Usually you have to wait around 3 weeks for delivery but as we need it urgently I managed to agree that we can get a delivery next week. Going to be quite a job stacking it all up once it arrives as we have ordered 8 steres [roughly 8 cubic meters].

Off to see the car and a perfect opportunity for me to get some practice in at driving in France. Oh, didn’t realise that it was going to include tolls and motorway driving, this may be a stretch.

Finally at the car dealers. The car is clearly on the forecourt which is a good start at least. Looks pretty good – but I know sod all about cars. Matt confidently looked around at various things which I concentrated on the somewhat poor condition of the upholstery on the front seats and minor scratches (all to be expected in a 2007 car).

Managed to ask for a test drive easily enough. He pulled the car off the 25cm plinth it was on (bloody glad I didn’t have to do that) and just handed us told us to go. No checks that we had a driving licence, no deposit or scanning of docs, just ‘ok’.

Off we go. Matt driving of course, we don’t want me to crash the right hand side into the barriers on the way out, which was quite a possibility considering the angle. We had a little jaunt up the road. Stopped in a car park of sorts to push all the buttons. It has electric seats and other stuff. Sunroof doesn’t work. Drove to a bigger car park with lots of space and no cars at all. Matt did some testing of the turning circle, accelleration and stopping (all slightly concerning) but the car seemed good and surprisingly small turning circle. Looked like a pretty safe space so I had a go and seemed easy enough to drive. Last time i drove this high up was the Mitsubishi back at the farm.

Back to the showroom. Matt has another check and seems happy. Time to talk nuts and bolts. FYI, if you check the log book for the last service details don’t then take a picture of it to explain your question, they get very upset. We got past it though and I raised a number of minor issues. He vehemently assured me that all of the check and Controle Techinque (CT) would be done if we agreed to buy it and the cost of any work to fix it would be up to him not us. There would be 0 problems once we got it.

Discussed it again with Matt and he was happy that for the price there was nothing else we could get that would come close to what we want. He has been searching the UK, France, Spain and even a couple in Belgium and Germany. It wasn’t as new as we’d like but that had to be balanced with another 5-7k EUR outlay. Sod it, let’s do it!

1,000 Eur deposit. He will now take it for its CT and fix any problems. It could be done in a few days but we can’t collect for a few weeks so he will keep it there and we pay the remaining 2-3 days before collection so that the funds have cleared in his account. It’s in my name – as most things are – it’s easier if they have to call with any questions but does seem to confuse the French who expect everything to be in the man’s name. [The penny only just dropped writing this why he was asking if the house was bought in both our names and the services – you can only buy a car in France if you live here and can’t prove it without those docs.]

Job done. I have just bought my first car! All other cars were bought for me (many thanks my lovely parents and indeed grandparents, who I think may have even bought me two cars; after that I have just driven my mum’s little beauty and company cars).

Next stop, Lidl (no sewing machines); Bricodepot, bought some lighting bits.

Lunch – McDonalds (there really isn’t a lot open at the moment). We stopped to see if we could order inside (nope) but then Matt offered to do the drive through, he quickly reneged as he realised he’d have to order. Lunch in the car park again!

Bricomarche, fail to find what we want; Super U, stack of slow burning logs to get through until the wood is delivered.

Matt’s going to drive the last bit so we can get home quicker. 100-200m out of Super U and the Gendamerie indicate us to pull over.

A generic picture as we weren’t bold enough to ask for a real one

3 (very lovely) Gendarmes standing in the cold. We have to produce all our documents; attestation, rental car documentation and Matt’s driving licence. Matt had to get out to find the car rental docs (glad he knew where they might be as I didn’t have a clue). I could hear quite a number of questions about whether we had been to Spain and what we were doing there. He muddled through valiantly before eventually directing them to me. Gave a few details about my job role, where I worked, explained that we had just bought the house and moved in on Monday and that we would be buying a car (he wanted us to explain why we had it rented for a month). Anyway, all fine, cordial goodbyes and we were off again.

Back home and we’ve missed the Rugby (that Tonia, Vicky and other had been commentating on all the way home). I bought in the wood while Matt took care of the tech. Matt has nipped to Intermarche to see if they have any ice and to get some more wine (all shops are closed tomorrow so can’t take that type of risk).

I’ve tested the chimney with a piece of paper, seems to be working ok, so fire is lit. Time for me to watch the rugby and start on today’s blog.

Matt is super keen to get the light in Room 2 working. He’s off upstairs to go measure up. Of course as a small (and in my opinion, somewhat ugly) chandelier it needs the floorboard removing above to fix it. Dutifully I arrive with tape and pens so we can mark in the room above where we need to open up the floorboards. Fingers crossed he go the right place. Anyway, the alarm has just gone so sounds like the pizza will be ready soon and time for a break.

Missed it. No signs of electrical cables but we have found out where the joists are and how big they are in that space. Time for me and my amazing spacial reasoning (we all know that idea that boys are better at this than girls is a lie). Time for a second floorboard to come up…

Joy! Bang on, thank you, I’m here all week! We can see the plastered in electrical cable, the original cables and the plaster that is is quite easy to remove. Apparently, this is progress and tomorrow we attack it from below. I suspect I will be on ladder holding duty. I will also check that the electricity is off so I’m not calling the paramedics!