Project renovation rewire and firepit - Friday 10th August

Project renovation rewire and firepit - Friday 10^th August

We decided to have a fire today to clear some of the overgrown garden and extensive wood pile we have built up, informed during the day that fires are not allowed between May and September, ooops, poor Andy was in charge and as the temperature was over 30 degrees, he really spent the day cooking, still it gave him some much needed heat since leaving Spain (it really does rain a lot in Brittany, not as bad as the UK but much worse than Spain)

here's our homemade fire pit!

Lots more work done, and we are now absolutely knackered (well I am!) 

Andy has got a hot date, not bad work considering we have only been here a matter of days. So John and I go out for a meal, should be romantic, overlooking the lake, but just trying to keep my eyes open was a major achievement.

We have an early night and are in bed by 11pm, at 4am we are awoken by footsteps and a voice, thinking it was Andy we weren’t too bothered until we realised it was actually a French voice that we could hear!!!!!!! Heading up the stairs to the top floor (at this point all French words leave your head!) john asked who it was, and if they were police (he didn’t sound aggressive) couldn’t understand each other, so got up to investigate, with our trusty baseball bat. Checked all the rooms on the way down and there was nobody there, at this point my over active imagination kicked in with thoughts of ghosts etc. Got to the ground floor and saw that a window had been forced open. Nothing was missing, and as we had left our new bank cards (along with pin numbers) and the car key sat on the chair realised it was definitely not a robbery. Looked all around and there was no sign of an intruder, so John went to get dressed and I put the kettle on (we are British after all!!!). I heard a noise as I fired up the BBQ (everything is cooked on this including the kettle) and looked behind to find a man crouched there, I let out a shout, John asked if I was OK thinking I’d burnt myself, I realised the intruder was only about 19/20 and looked quite scared, so I shouted back that HE’S OK, John thought I’d shouted back that I was OK, when John came into the kitchen I don’t know who was more surprised the lad to see a giant of a man holding a baseball bat or John seeing me talking to a random bloke.

We tried to find out who he was, but he spoke almost no English and at this point we spoke NO French. His hand was swollen as though he had been fighting, so tried to check that he was OK he could only say brother so we sent him on his way, an hour later we heard him walking past with another lad (we assume his brother who had been looking for him) so all was well.

The house had been empty for years so he must have thought it was a safe place to stay, what a shock he got!!!!

Top tips

1.       Remember the crime rate (in little French towns and villages) is totally different to the UK

2.       If you have shutters on your windows use them

3.       Check if there are any restrictions on fires