Villa Picholine & La Remise are now empty. We had a couple of last minute bookings so it was into November before we finally closed up for the winter. It seems strange to see them empty but spring is, hopefully not too far away.

It has been a busy year and we had more bookings than we expected as we were a little late with the publicity. They are now both advertised on Holiday Lettings and we have some bookings already for the coming year.

The building of the last house is on hold until the beginning of next year. November saw quite a lot of rain and some floods in the region, (we were ok thankfully).  We decided to concentrate on building the garage because bailing out foundation trenches is not something we like doing and the job for tomorrow is to cast the lintels over the windows and doors.  We are just back from a photo shoot and Bryan has gone to the builders merchants to get the last few bits needed. So its an early start tomorrow for us. This will be the last of the building work until the New Year.  The roof timbers were ordered last week and will be delivered the last week in January.  Thankfully when this is on and we are watertight we will have somewhere to store all our junk things. 

Work begins on the house foundations in the New Year after our Christmas break.

We are now looking forward to catching up with our families and having fun with our grandchildren over the festive period. So until next year.........

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année

Where do I begin......

I can't believe it was March when I last updated here. The spring/summer has passed in a flash. We finished the garden in Villa Picholine about 15 minutes before our first paying guests of the year arrived. Just left enough time for a quick shower. Phew ! There has been a fairly constant stream of guests from various countries, we even had a couple who were on honeymoon.  The last booking ends on the 4th October and we shall spend the weekend closing up for the winter.

We got planning permission through for our 3rd (and final) house in May - a little late to start on the foundations due to the very warm weather. We decided to just do the inspection pit in the garage and then wait until autumn before commencing with the big build. Bryan has ordered the digger to start on Monday the 6th October  so no peace for the wicked.









In our petit potager we have had lots of lovely veggies over the last few months and we have been eating, roasting and bottling tomatoes all summer long.  The winter store cupboard is filled with sauces jams and chutneys and the freezer is full of soups.

Here at the moment it is grape harvesting time and comme d'habitude we spent last Sunday picking grapes for some good friends from the village. We managed to harvest 10 tons but didn't finish so we have to do it all over again this Sunday..... It makes a change from changing beds and ironing. 

Needless to say I am now suffering with a bad back so it's been a week of office work for me. 

We have done quite a lot of photo-shoots this year. From large chateau's to small gites. Our latest project being a promotional video for a local property restoration/holiday rental company. We even shot a wedding for some friends, too stressful to do on a commercial basis, but was enjoyable without the pressure.  

Hopefully you will not have as long to wait for the next update...watch this space.

                                                                                                                                                                                

The plans for the 3rd, (and final !), house have been finished and submitted. We now have a few weeks to wait to see if they are accepted so we have been concentrating out efforts on the outside and getting the publicity shots done.

Take a look at the video Bryan has made so you can see our efforts.

February and the beginning of March has been fantastic weather wise and the garden is growing nicely (along with the weeds). We have carrots, radish, beetroot and potatoes all planted and beginning to sprout. The strawberries are in flower and  the lettuce and beans are ready to pick.  On Sunday we ate the first of the crop - they were delicious.

30 January 2014

Well that's January nearly out of the way - another month nearer summer. It was spent mostly landscaping and planting in the garden of Villa Picholine and it is now taking shape and beginning to look like a garden instead of a building site.

The entrance is nearly finished and we have taken a few trees out and built a retaining wall to the left hand side of the drive. The render is on the walls and gateposts and we are just missing the lights and some plants for the bed on the right hand side. We have also built a wall around the olive trees in the garden of Villa Picholine and that just requires some compost digging in and that is ready for planting too. I have a list (of course) and hopefully another trip to the garden centre is imminent.


We have a few bookings now for this year, yet we still haven't done the publicity photos. I am hoping that by next week we will have them in the bag and the villa advertised. Hopefully we can pick a nice sunny day and play at it being summer.

The vegetable garden has been neglected of late but the beans, onions and garlic are growing happily away.  The tomato seeds are bought and ready to be sown and placed on a sunny window sill in the next couple of weeks. Also I am planning to sow some herbs for the windowsill of Villa Picholine so that there is always a nice fresh crop for whoever is here on holiday to use.

The plans are finalised for the 3rd house, (ours), on our "terrain" and after a visit to the mayor we have found that to build is a little more complicated than it was when we started with Villa Picholine.  So it was back to the drawing board, (or rather the computer), this week to change a few things and now we await the estimate for the eco evaluation that we need to enable us to submit our plans.

The weather this month has been changeable. We arrived back from the UK on the 2nd Jan and managed lunch on our terrace in the lovely sunshine and we have managed a few more through the month but we have also had a few days rain too.  It has not been cold though and I am hoping it stays that way.