Day 61.
Yet another French holiday is approaching (and it’s a long one) so our guys are pushing to get some things finished before they leave for two weeks. I guess we’re getting off easy, as it seems that much of France goes on vacation for the entire month of August (“Août”). Entire offices can shut down for a month. Many restaurants close and leave a little sign on their door saying they will return in September. Everybody takes to the roadways to travel elsewhere, creating such horrible traffic that the “Bison Futé,” the French government’s traffic info service, publishes a chart showing the best days, even down to the hours, to avoid being on the roads.
A big job was to create a doorway from the kitchen to the cave on the back of the house. There is already an entrance from the living room, but we want to use part of the cave as a pantry.
the kitchen area before 
walls and beams sandblasted, floors removed
and now a new doorway into the cave
It was quite a task to cut through the wall to make that doorway – the stone wall was 3 feet (1 meter) thick. It will be so handy to have access to the cave from both the kitchen and the living room.
The next doorway has been started. This one will go from the living room through the exterior wall of the house into a small corridor leading to the annex, which will be the master bedroom and bath.
our living room before 
the fireplace partially exposed – the doorway will be just to the right of it
this shows the spot where the doorway will be (the far corner)
the doorway has been started – they have to first put in a support above the opening
And outside, things are now starting to happen. All the bushes have been removed, except the big “tilleul” tree (they are also called linden or lime trees, although they aren’t the fruit-bearing kind of limes) in the courtyard. The old heating oil tank has been drained and removed, and the large “fosse septique” (septic pit) has been exposed and filled in.
goodbye chicken coops 
no more fosse
now that all the bushes are gone they can get the area ready for the annex
Meanwhile, back at the rental house…
A big gust of wind caused the umbrella to smash the glass table in our entry courtyard. What a mess. It’s nearly impossible to remove broken glass from gravel (fortunately it was tempered glass so not sharp shards). We had to remove and replace some of the gravel. Then the search began for a new table. After visiting seven stores in the surrounding area, we finally found a near-exact replacement. And it was on sale. Hurray.
And in the grocery department..
Whisky ice cream!
Susan Walter | 21st Jul 19
I have taken to referring to tilleuls as linden trees, which is their German name, but understood in English. ‘Lime’ trees is really British English.
Did you save me any corrugated iron? or has Hamilton taken it all to the tip?
Whisky anything — yuk. Whisky icecream — double yuk.