End of the season

We thought it would be nice to end our trip with a visit to Fouras. If we had any lingering doubt about the end of the french holiday season we dispelled it today. Many of the shops and cafes where already closed and the handfull that were open had very few punters. As we walked along the main street we had it more or less to ourselves.

We stayed less time than we thought and came back to Nantilly to go for a bike ride - three hundre metres from home a pedal fell off Anika's bike, the thread stripped and it was unrepairable on the rode. So it turned out to be a 300 m bike ride followed by a 300m bike push. C'est la vie and buying cheap second hand bikes.

Sunday morning breakthrough...

we are fairly sure that we have found the "switch" that controls the immersion heater and so we have turned it off, this could see a big saving on the electricity costs as we have had it switched on since buying the house last December. We willl get the houskeeper to confirm our findings.

Lots to do as it our last day and it may be a while before we ar eback.

Another dehumidifier note

Despite promises from Breathing Space, the company we turned to for our dehumidifier, we have heard nothing from them so my campaign against them gets quietly underway. Step one is to name them, and advise caution. Step two will be another attempt to contact them on Monday.

Saturday August 30th

Another day, another game of golf and my worst score ever even though I played as well as I have all week. Perhaps I was coming out in sympathy with all the europeans failing to make the cut at the Deutsche Bank in Boston - some of whom (eg Casey and Poulter) won't make it into the next round of the FedEx Cup. Surprise surprise Poulter complains that there is something wrong with "the tournament" - yeas mate - your scoring!

Another very good meal on the terrace at Andre's by the old port. As you'd expect the place is alive at this time of year. Holiday makers, street theatre, and journo papparazi actvity around the Socialist Party summer meeting.

Now if you wanted to sit in the yard...

at the table, in the sun you'd be enjoying a temperature of 37.2c or if you prefer the shade then it is 29.4c with humidity down at 20%. Now that is warm for northern Europe!

A bit of excitement in Marsilly; as I cycled back from the boulangerie the gendarmarie were out cordonning of La Poste as crime scene. Nothing on BBC website as yet....

In the early evening we dropped down to the old port in La Rochelle and strolled among the throng. After 18.30 the car park near there becomes non-payant and there seems to be a tidal moment when it is very quiet as people avoid it until the gratuit begins. The streeet markets thrives well on into the evening and the street entertainers abound. We still managed to get a ccomfortable seat at a pavement cafe and watched the world go by while nursing a cool beer. Drink drive limits are very low here and one needs to be very moderate - one drink max.

Whilst "in town" we booked up for a final night dinner at Andre's.

It was just a year ago....

that Anika and her brother made a visit to Nantilly to take a look at this house. The following weekend I flew over for a second look and we made an offer. By mid December (the 14th) I think it was ours and we made a quick visit to "take possesion". We have a Facebook and some of the stories about the place and the work we have done can be found there.

Another go at the golf

It is not the only thing we do you understand; we've taken to cycling around the place as well. Also on another front during this trip we have painted the kitchen walls and the landing and this brings us closer to finishing all the tasks we set for ourselves when we took possession of the house last December.

Anyway back to the golf; a 9.50 tee time seemed more conducive to my play although Anika did not likeher score for the round. For me, at least, I finished every hole and althogh I lost five balls I was pleased with a good number of my strokes, I achieved a par on hole 11. Thus far I have only managed to par three of the holes as opposed to making it to double figures on six of them. Another plus for the round was that none of my scores exceded previous worse scores on any hole!

A round of golf and a discovery

16.20 was tee off time (depart?)for the two of us at Golf de la Pree just 2km down the road. Although the reported temperature touched 27C the breeze from the bay made it very pleasant to play. My own game was a bit hit and miss, literally as well as figurativley, and I faded badly (again) on the back nine - not recording a score for 10, 17, or 18. !8 was a bit annoying as I drove into the huge fairway bunker on the right and it took me three goes to get out and then my "recovery" approach shot ended up in the nightmare greenside bunker and after three more goes of failing to get out I gave it up.

And now for the discovery, in searching for a take out pizza we came across a bar / tex-mex cafe in Nieul sur Mer. we might well give it a try sometime soon. we reckon that it is about 4km from us so we are figuring if it is within reach of our new mode of transport - the bicycles.

Now is the morning of our dehumidifier

I will tell this tale at length quite soon but for now it's sufficient to say we have one.
The saga began during the last visit when we decided that installing a dehumidifier in the house would be a great benefit over the winter months. Local research suggested we would have a better range to chose from in England and so it turned out to be.

Extensive researh identified that most dehumidifiers operate very badly at low temperatures but one variety is effective down to about 5c. We selelcted our model and suppplier and began the process of ordering one - for delivery to France. Our sellected supplier assured us of delivery in three days from dispatch and we agreed that they could and would dispatch on Tuesday 19th August, delivered on the Friday. Anika came over to be here. The supplier confirmed dispatch in an email but nothing turned up. The sort version is that we eventually took delivery on Thursday 29th August almost a week later than promised. We are taking this up with the supplier and depending on their response I might tell more.....