Snails and puppy dog tails

After a couple of slow weeks on the renovation front, it was wonderful to have a driveway full of work vans once again. The reappearance of Max the plumber was a particularly welcome sight as we were without hot water for almost a week – I don’t care what they tell you, cold showers do not make you feel healthy in either mind or body. Max is one of those people who drives you crazy with his lack of urgency yet when he does arrive, you just can’t get angry with him. I wish the same could go for our electrician Pierre, who I mentally nickname ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ as he is never here when you need him, made an appearance this week. Naturally nothing ever goes to plan when you have a house full of experts; one water leak and a faulty kitchen tap for starters.

The big news in Rouffiac is that the internet 5G fibre thingy has finally arrived in town and with this in mind, we booked an appointment for the connection. Of course, the house wasn’t going to make this easy for the installation team – snails decided to collectively block any chance of getting the fibre down the pre-placed tube. These snails have a habit of making a nuisance of themselves, the mysterious opening of our electronic gate for example. Who knew they had a penchant for sticking themselves to the internal mechanism thereby scaring the hell out of the human occupants who had to rush out and close the damn thing before the dogs got out. I did however get a few ideas for ‘escargot’ appetizers out of my neighbour who found the whole thing hilarious.

Despite all the internal chaos, the arrival of Christian and his digger this week was a big cheer and we now have a huge hole in the garden where the pool will be. Denis, as always, has helped me get a team of locals to do all the hard work and I have Roy, pool expert and great friend, to project manage the whole thing. The dogs love the mountains of soil piled up and spread around the garden, a whole new playground in which they can dig, sniff and in Arry’s case, try and put back in the hole. It’s all very exciting for both woman and beasts especially with the temperatures starting to rise.

Even with all the soil and toil at home, I did manage to get out and whizz off to Montpelier once again for Alice’s ‘confirmation’. The French Kennel Club equivalent (société canine centrale) run these little events for all to get pedigree’d pooches. The stud breeder and now a good friend, had explained to me what would happen but to ring her if there were any problems; “He might comment on her coat” she said. He did. “C’est tonte” he snootily muttered resulting in a secret snigger from me, the word ‘tonte‘ not only means clipped – it also means mowed. Nevertheless, he pronounced of sound pedigree and sign the papers. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed he had checked the box for a male Border Terrier, she’s due to give birth in three weeks…..

“We should learn from the snail: it has devised a home that is both exquisite and functional” (Frank Lloyd Wright)