Renovation work 2010 - The terrace

The garden at La Pagerie is very large and is surrounded by a stone wall which makes it not only safe and secure but also private. We have had a number of comments over the past summer that guests would really like some sun loungers to make the most of the new terrace - this job was completed in October 2010.

The sun loungers are to go on the new terrace which was built by Chris during May 2010. This was a huge job and involved over 3000 separate paving slabs.

Over the last few years we have moved from the original garden at the back of the house, to it looking like a building site, to having a temporary terrace to the final instalment.

I hope you agree that the finished product looks fantastic and was worth all the work and effort that it took to build. Thank you Chris!

The terrace in 2009 before the latest addition

July 2004 and the existing flooring upstairs comes out and onto the garden

The grass - when you don't mow it for a while!

The original garden with upturned wine bottles for a border

Renovation work 2010 - The court yard

Over the past few months there have been a number of alterations to La Pagerie which we hope will improve the house for the guests arriving in 2011.

The first of these was a new roof for the bread oven and new court yard gravel. This has really brightened up the court yard and made it a relaxing place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine (or two).

The bread oven roof and gravel work was done by Chris and Willy during and after our visit in April 2010.

The first image shows how the court yard looked in 2003 when we were house hunting.

The gravel was was a strange dark brown colour which never really looked appealing and now it's a nice clean white colour which really helps the look of the house from the front.

The bread oven roof was required as we were starting to develop a number of small leaks - which is never good!

The usual adding a layer of varnish to the gates was also completed - the gates get the sun all the day and in the long hot summers this can really take it's toll.

All in all we are very pleased with the results - just need to find a way to keep the gravel looking nice and white which after some looking on the internet yesterday appears to be done using diluted or thin bleach. A job for next April then!

La Pagerie - new facebook page

I have just launched a new Facebook page for our accommodation called La Pagerie.

Take a visit and post your comments on here for any feedback that you have. Thank you.

La Pagerie Facebook page

A little joke.....

Shamus died in a fire and his body was burned pretty badly.

The morgue needed someone to identify the body, so they sent for his two best friends, Mick and Paddy.

The three men had always done everything together...

Mick arrived first, and when the mortician pulled back the sheet,

Mick said, 'Yup, his face is burned up pretty bad. You better roll him over'

The mortician rolled him over and Mick said, 'For sure dats not Shamus ...'

The mortician thought this was rather strange.

So he brought Paddy in to confirm the identity of the body.

Paddy looked at the body and said, 'Yup, he's pretty well burnt up..

Roll him over.'

The mortician rolled him over and Paddy said, 'Dats not Shamus '

The mortician asked, 'How can you tell?'

Paddy said, 'Well, Shamus had two assholes.'

'What? He had two assholes?' asked the mortician.

'O yes sir,, we never seen 'em, but everybody used to say:

'There's dat Shamus with them two assholes.'

Back from visit

Been back from Sompt for about a week now after spending a very enjoyable two weeks there. Spent the first week on my own doing some DIY jobs after the summer season and then for the second week the rest of the family joined me and we did some good tourist trips.

Weather out in Sompt in October is usually very good and we had nice sunny days with chilly evenings which makes the open fire more enjoyable.

Will be updating the main site in the next few days with photographs of the improvements!

French Tax

Here is a very good article about how to complete French Tax returns and what you will have to do when they have done their calculations. Take your time and read it through and it will make sense!!

http://www.french-property.com/guides/france/finance-taxation/taxation/

French telephone for holiday homes

I know this has been around for a while, and French-Property.com have just written a small article about it. Basically, if you own a second home in France then you can get a telephone line and activate/de-activate it for when you are in the home.

This can be done via the internet and via telephone.

However, what is not clear is whether you can have internet access associated with this telephone line as well. My first thoughts are that it would appear in the 'too difficult box' and there would be many problems associated with it.

Anyone know any different?

Here is the article

World Cup Predictions

This is great - no thought to this at all but the octopus appears to be getting it right!!

BBC News story

Good luck Spain!!

Taxe de séjour

A new tax is being introduced - or rather HAS BEEN introduced to the Poitou Charentes region of France called the Taxe de Séjour. Basically, this is a tourist tax.

It is being introduced to encourage tourism in the area - by charging a tax to all tourists that visit. Strange concept. Of course, it is known that the tourists won't actually pay the tax, it will be paid for by the hotel owner, the bed and breakfast owner or the gite owner such as myself.

Every quarter, I need to complete three forms detailing how many people stayed at our house and for how many nights. Each person is then charged a rate for each night they have stayed. This rate depends on the star rating of the accommodation which is obviously not known yet because the haven't and will not get a chance to visit all the accommodations before the tax started (June 2010!!!).

I have written and asked what rate I should be charging but as of yet have not received a reply.

So, next year my rates will be going up to cover this new tax.

Not sure how this will encourage tourists to the area!!

Taking your pets to France

The French-Property.com website has recently updated their article about taking your pets to France. So, if this is something that you are considering then take a read of the article and ensure that all the jabs and documentation is up to date!!

Read the article

First guests of the summer

The first paying guests of 2010 arrived at La Pagerie yesterday - but the weather forecast is not great. Forecasting showers for most of the week which is a real shame considering that we have had a new patio laid in the past few weeks which would have been great for the guests to enjoy the sunshine.

Here's hoping the forecast is wrong......

France wins the Euro2016 bid

France have beaten Turkey and Italy for the right to stage the European Championship in 2016.

France beat Italy and Turkey in the voting system, with France beating Turkey by just one vote after Italy had been eliminated in earlier voting.

The number of teams playing in the competition will rise from 16 to 24 for these championships.

The French bid was based on the matches being played at the following locations:

1) Stade de France

2) Paris Saint Germain's Parc des Princes

3) Lens

4) Lille

5) Bordeaux

6) Nice

7) Toulouse

8) Marseille

9) Lyon

10) Strasbourg

11) Saint Etienne

12) Nancy

The nearest location to our house is Bordeaux, which is just over two hours away. Not too near but would be good to be over in France at the time of the competition.

Water

Water has been reconnected thanks to Chris and Deboarah.

It would appear that the water board decided to revert to a very old UK address and start sending the water bills to that address. Of course I did not receive them and so they decided to cut the water off.

All back on by 11am yesterday morning though with only a 25,00€ charge for the pleasure of being cut off.

Water - or lack of it....

Had an email from the builder who helped us with our house - stating that he had been contacted by the water board who told him they had just turned off the water to our house!!!

No water bills or warnings received - they just turned off the water.

We have guests arriving on Saturday so not the best timing in the world.