Toads, Bread Oven Update and Garden

A really good day today. I painted TWO paintings, strimmed the ditches and perimeter, had a two hour French class, stacked a whole load of timber and worked on the bread oven.

 Just can't get rid of those toads. Any suggestions?

 I started levelling the top the other day as well as filling significant gaps.

It's nice to see a bit of colour.

 Next year I'll be able to make the wall permanent...with luck.

How can you tell that Pierrick brought one of his horses down the lane today? It was real entertainment watching him later trying to coax it into a horse box.

 Getting the inside wall prepared for tomorrow. If I can finish the other side as well as this corner section, I'd be over the moon.

 The inside wall is really haphazard...a lot to do.

I'm looking forward to the challenge.

A Walk On The Wild Side

Today we went to Planete Sauvage with some of the locals of Cruguel. It took a few hours to get there but it was well worth it. Here are just a few of the hundreds of animals we saw.

This wolf photo was a total fluke. It just ran past and I instinctively took the shot without looking through the viewfinder.

At lunch time we enjoyed a superb  4 course meal before resuming our rounds.

It tried to take my hat. 

My favourite photo.

After the show we went underground to view the dolphins...quite an experience.

A really memorable day out.

Merci pour le pierre

I've been struggling to find sufficient good corner pieces of stone for the chimney. Enter Michel from Paris who has an outbuilding with stone in it and he'd like it taken away...and Martin who also has some stone surplus to requirements. It's my lucky day.

Michel...

and Martin outside the outbuilding...it used to be a chapel for the hamlet in times past.

Stacked ready for use, and there's more if I need it.

 Started work on the top of the wall to level it off...more time consuming than I thought.

Update on the wedding of our neighbours.

I found out from Mickael and Sophie that the party finished Sunday morning at 5am, and resumed again at lunch time to carry on through to 6am this morning.

They really know how to party in France.

Mickael and Sophie's wedding

After such a tearful day yesterday it was nice to see a day full of joy for our neighbours.

 Turning the corner and coming down towards the road leading to the main road.

The vintage car was Mickael's transport.

Bev watching everyone arrive at l'eglise Saint Brieuc de Cruguel.

All done and dusted.

On the way to reception.

A bit of fun while waiting for everyone to arrive.

la salle polyvalente de Cruguel...it's where Bev and me mix with the locals every month to play games or step outside to enjoy a game of boules, which is what we did with some of the guests after taking this photo.

One of the Dishes...the food was exceptional.

It didn't end here...we left early at 1:30 am when the party was really rocking. As strange as it may seem, it's a family affair and the children aren't taken home to go to bed...they stay with everyone else. The celebrations will go on to the early hours of Monday.

Sad News

I found Bev with a consoling arm around a tearful Sophie this morning outside our front door and, as I looked to my right, I saw a number of gendarmes and a tractor that had a dead horse in it's bucket and was lowering it onto our front garden. It was such a harrowing sight. The horse is only a few years old and had just broken out of the field and was heading towards Josselin.

Just past Beaulieu and before Dave and Annie's place, it was struck by Jean Claude from Cruguel. There was nothing he could have done to avoid it and it died instantly. Jean Claude was lucky to avoid injury, as his car was destroyed by the impact.

It was such a sad thing to happen, even more so on the eve of Sophie's wedding.

We thought it might be the horse that would have been pulling the wedding carriage tomorrow, but apparently not.

All the same, it's a tragic accident and such a loss. Sophie was understandably heartbroken, as was Mickael

Paris

Last Saturday was a very wet day, but still very enjoyable. We (Bev) actually drove into Paris even though she swore she'd never do it again after the last time when we were stuck going around the Arc De Triomphe.

 It gets bigger each time we visit...

Well, perhaps not that big.

I always wanted to go up the ADT. I met an elderly couple from Texas along with the husband's mother in the queue. She was as shocked as I was there wasn't a lift...but she made it to the top. I told her we were only half-way up... her expression was priceless.

The climb was worth it. We walked from here all the way down the Champs Elysees to the Tuileries and then up to the Opera House (which was closed)...then walked back to the Eiffel Tower for our boat trip.

Bev spotted  a place to eat.

At the start of our romantic boat trip along the Seine in the evening...still raining.

Thankfully, the sun was shining brightly the next day for our trip to Monet's Garden.

Bread Oven

This is how we'd like it to end up...with a mezzanine floor just above the doors and extending eight feet into the room. John Flinn drew this in minutes. It's a pity the actual building couldn't be completed in the same time.

This is where we are...after re-building the right-hand angle on the gable. A long way to go. Next week the chimney should be completed, weather permitting.

 Where the old first floor timbers were...