This is where we are moving to.

You have to try and imagine it with geraniums and petunias trailing down from the balcony and lavender in front of the entrance.

That upstairs room with balcony is set to be my office.

They've built (almost finished) two little townhouses in front, so the front garden ends where you can see the big bushy shrub in the lower picture.

There we are. Or there we should be very soon now. Posted by Picasa

Comments

Anonymous said…
Are you sure you are in France? It looks very Austrian to me. We lived in a farmhouse just like it in Villach!
9:01 pm
Alan said…
Yes. Profoundly French. Regional, in fact. It's called a landaise.

The real landaises have proper timber frames and are basically wattle and daub houses with overhangs for storing wood and hay and tools and stuff. Our pastor has a proper old landaise deep in the forests of les Landes, which he is doing up slowly as a holiday home/investment.

This one is a concrete imitation from 1979. But the style is local.

One of our reasons for going for this house is that it will be interesting to know what it's like to live in a landaise!
10:03 pm
Anonymous said…
I must say that I like the look of it very much from the outside. I dare say there will be many shots of the interior in the fullness of time, including the garage? Oops, sorry, that was the study you previously showed us.
9:52 pm
Alan said…
Yes. It'll be OK.

I don't think the house needs any major repairs (though I remain to be convinced of the efficacity of the heating system!), but I think with a judicious lick of woodstain here and there, and a well-placed petunia and a couple of mixed hedges and clumps of bamboo, it could all look a whole lot better.

At present it looks kind of ... unadorned, unlived in, unloved...

And we noticed today that the vendor has taken the mailbox away! (I guess that means he's gone...)
11:00 pm
Alan said…
Oh, and no garage...

We'll have to store the bikes under the eaves, together with the mower and the rats. Not very traditional!

But we do have a big walk-in loft.
11:02 pm
Anonymous said…
Yes, but that still leaves the all-important question, where is the trombone to be kept???
1:42 pm
Alan said…
On the balcony, of course! Where else?
2:44 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor
Read more

The Kitchen

 Our new apartment will be equipped with toilet and bathroom etc. but not with anything at all in the kitchen. Not even a sink. So we need to purchase a kitchen and engage a kitchen fitter. A friend who knows how to fit kitchens suggested buying an Ikea kitchen. "They're guaranteed twenty years and they honour their guarantee", he said. "I've proved it". Well I don't know any other kitchen laces in France, and I can't imagine there's much that's cheaper than Ikea, so I was happy to accept his advice. So it was that on Monday I booked an appointment with the Ikea Kitchen Planning Service in the centre of Bordeaux. The woman was friendly. "You've already started the process", she said, (have we?) "so that will save us lots of time". "What are you aiming for?" Something not too country, something discreet, something that can adapt to whatever colours we put in the rest of the room. She understood our dislike of
Read more