Matt and the car are not playing well together today. It seems that despite the early fix it hasn’t done the job as is likely to be a lot more expensive when we take it back in. As I understand it, there is a second hydraulic thing somewhere deep in the engine which may also have to be replaced. Nothing much we can do right now but Matt is not happy.

Today is a tour of places recommended by our new friend and ally, Tim. [He and his family moved here at the end of December and we got chatting via Facebook, we now regularly share experiences and tips – no doubt he will be reading this at some point, so, ‘Hi Tim!’]

Now, how to describe Noz… I guess it’s a bit like a Cash and Carry, combined with some of those weird American corner shops, mixed with an Aldi. I’m sure that means nothing to most of you. But, if you have a confused look on your face and image in your head of a weird mash up with a small warehouse with an entirely random collection of items for sale that looks a bit like a junkyard, you’ve just about got the image right. The best thing we found was pint cans of Kronenbourg for the same price as the half sized ones, so we went back in to get another 3 packs – it was worth the mocking from the checkout lady for some proper sized cans of beer.

Next stop, Action. I guess it’s a bit like a Wilko. Clearly Tim has a penchant and skill for finding the French sh*t shops – they’re no Poundland but they have their place and are certainly some of the cheapest shops we have been to so far, a factor I particularly prize. There were a number of gems here, the best by far however was the price of the seeds. Anywhere else I have seen seeds they have been €4 minimum, these guys have them at €0.35!!! I basically bought one of almost everything!

Next stop, the Hutchinson’s. Ok, so, in London (unless I had responded to a rental advert) I wouldn’t dream of just dropping round to someone’s house that I had never met before for a cup of tea and to have a look around their house. This however is France and while I am keen to integrate into the local community. Covid rather precludes making and meeting a lot of new friends. I also reassured myself of the validity of the invite by reflecting on whether I would truly like someone to drop in on us, the answer was a resounding ‘yes!’

Tim, Elvina and the family moved to St Gaudens only about a month after us and we met on the Renovating in France group. Their house has quite literally the most amazing, panoramic views (I’m sure that Tim will grace us with one in the comments); it’s literally breathtaking. Really interesting mix of jobs and stages of development. Tim also seems to be pretty good at plumbing and Matt’s obviously good at electrics – I’m hoping for a blossoming bromance!

After a lovely cup of tea and tour of the house we head down to Emmaus. We don’t have a lot of time as we have to get to Super U and there’s the 6pm curfew. It’s basically a big charity shop. We didn’t really have time to dig into it (and it looks like it needs some digging) but I can see a future here, particularly for some of the larger bedroom furniture, but we’re not quite ready for that yet.

Did an incredibly quick shop at Super-U and back home with 1 minute to spare at 5:59pm. Having had a late McDonalds lunch I managed to convince Matt that we should make some progress on the kitchen. Boy did we make progress.

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I cut so many of the hanging rods that the saw broke with just 1.5 left to cut (out of the 104 total).

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Eventually I conceded that I should get some dinner on before he lost the will to live. Just potato things, veg and reheated chicken nuggets. I’m sorry to say that I may have still managed to cock it up. I forgot to reheat the nuggets – microwave to the rescue. While Matt finished it off I took to the little tiny handsaw to finish the last of the rods. There’s no sense of accomplishment from being that close but not actually finishing the job.

Dinner rescued and eaten and we are back to work in kitchen.

Not a bad evening’s work and some good moral support from Vicky while we were working. Time to relax briefly before Matt heads to bed and I try my best to get the blogs done. Almost there but it’s 1:30am and we have more to do again tomorrow. Night all x

[23 January 2021]