O.M.G!

Things have been pretty tranquil at the house for the last few weeks - until yesterday.

Monsieur M hasn't been round much to do the electrics and the plumbing, but the tiler arrrived and has been working steadily.  I've been storing up pictures of his work to do a post.

Then Monsieur B, our project manager, announced that the ground work for the fosse septique and the drains would start this week. And suddenly the front of the house looks like a World War I battle field.

Our new entrance will be up this bank 

Trenches in front of the garage

When we first started thinking about the drains we happened to mention to our architect that the floor of the garage got damp.  So he suggested running a drain down the bank alongside the garage. Seemed such an easy thing to say - "yes let's have a drain running down by the garage". Yesterday the trench for the drain was dug. Which entailed digging up two large buddleias, the stump of a large palm tree and a large concrete base for what was meant to be a barbeque area. Monsieur G was not impressed with what he unearthed.  The bank is largely builder's rubble thrown up against the side of the garage - no wonder water was seeping through the wall.  The new trench is reassuringly deep.

Rubble dug out from alongside the garage

The new drain along the garage wall

This morning, Monsieur G is in the digger making the hole for the fosse septique in front of the garage.  The hole is already more than the height of a man and he's still going.  Interesting to see how quickly the layer of clay gives way to solid sandstone.  That's why our house is where it is - on a solid outcrop jutting out of the surrounding fields.

The fosse hole

The new fosse septique

With the digger, two lorries (one shifting the dug out earth, the other carrying the new fosse) three, or is it four, vans and cars parked in the drive, there's no way we can get our cars past and down to the cottage. So Tod's left them up at Serge's barn on the top road.

Photographing the rubble I came across this piece of blue painted wall.  Phoebe tells me the farmers painted their walls and shutters blue to deter flies.  I wonder if it worked?

PS: all the cars, vans and lorries have just untangled themselves and the drive is clear. Eighteen minutes past twelve. Everyone's gone for lunch.