Fosse Septique Pt 5

Many moons may have past and our fosse is still not finished. But the good news is that we have finally had an inspection from the authories and everything is now sorted out technically speaking. All we have to do is wait for the man to come back with his machine to finish off, He's promised to be back in the next two or three weeks.

This is France so we are not holding my breath. The good thing is that we still owe the Contractor half his money so there's quite some incentive for him to complete as soon as he can. Just maybe the exchange rate will change to our favour by the time we need to pay him  - fat chance of that I think.

Credit Agricole

We have just received a cheque book for the bank account that we opened in France. It has taken a few weeks to arrive but what a surprise when we found that each cheque is printed with a colourful picture. In our case there are various themes connected with the Charente region. For example a building, views of  the countryside and various animals.

I am not sure if these pictures are intended to make the writing of cheques less painful but it is certainly is different. It reminds me of a time in the 1970s when the banks in the UK did a similar thing but the practice soon died out.
 


We found opening an account with Credit Agricole a very easy process with the English speaking staff member on hand  making the whole process a pleasing experience. However, like the banks in the UK they did like pushing there own products such as building and life insurance. On that the French banks are different to those from over here.

For anyone wanting to know how to correctly make out  a french cheque follow this link.

http://www.lost-in-france.com/living-in-france/finance/115-how-to-write-out-a-french-cheque

hedgehogs

Today we received an e-mail from our friends to say that they have been on a wildlife rescue mission. Apparently the large hole that we still have in our garden has been subject to an inspection. Not by the fosse septique inspectors - a fat chance of that at the moment it would seem. No, by two little hedgehogs, how nice.

Unfortunately they hadn't taken simple health and safety precautions and didn't wear restraint harnesses and inevitably toppled into the excavation. Fortunately they were spotted making little muddy footprints in the bottom of the hole. So a ladder was lowered into the excavation and down went our friends to rescue the hedgehogs. Having had a quick check over they were set free none the worse from there little adventure. Thank goodness the hole wasn't flooded.

I have now erected a sign warning of the danger so hopefully these little cuties don't fall into the hole again

Roof problem

Unfortunately numerous Winters and a leaking roof have taken their toll on our poor oak roof trusses. On close inspection we have found that the top ends of the main frame members that have been exposed to the elements have rotted together with the ridge timbers.

 Our builders are a little nervous about touching these, let alone lifting them to their new elevated positions. Looking closely at them last week I have to agree. There are limited options, including taking the trusses down piece by piece, carrying out repairs and refitting. Another being to have new oak trusses manufactured. Both these options whilst being a solution unfortunately add too much cost to the project that has a finite budget.



We are therefore looking at the option of purchasing factory made raised tie trusses. This will possibly end up with a saving in that we won't need to lift the roof. However, we will lose a lot of character, something which is a concern. But needs must.

We will of course save the oak trusses and hope to incorporate them in some way in the work to the property even if it means using them in the scheme of landscaping.

nos nouveaux voisins

Whilst over in France a couple of weeks ago we were  introduced to our French neighbours Dennis and Teresa (Deni and Teres). They own the little cottage next door and use it as a maison secondaire. What a lovely couple whom made us feel very welcome.

They are retired and don't speak a word of English so it was really great to try our French out. Its amazing how much you suddenly remember when you need to. What we didn't know a little bit of hand gesturing got us by. We managed to get across to them that we wanted to erect some scaffolding in their garden to work on the roof and that we were going to lift the roof and put some velux windows in. They were fine about it and then asked us into their house to look how they had done things roof wise. The staircase was so steep you had to go down again backwards and had no handrail.


We then talked about our children and what they were doing . So all in all we were very pleased and our French lessons are starting to pay off.

Fosse Septique Pt 4 - I love France

Last week the Monsieur Maire himself dropped in a form to our Friends house to pass onto us. This was a fairly simple form asking us to give details regarding our new fosse septique which once submitted they would stamp in and send onto the district office.They would then inspect the work and we would get our certificate of compliance.

Therefore as soon as the scanned copy dropped into my inbox I eagerly printed it out  and set off filling it in with my my best friend google translate. Job done, scan and sent via email back to the Marie's office all in the space of an evening. That was nearly a week ago. As is the theme of things at the moment I am now told by the district office that the form I was given is out of date and that I would need to fill the correct one if they are to process the application.

I am getting to love France more and more.

EDF

EDF work in mysterious ways. We have been trying to have the electrics reconnected to the house. Theres an electric pole outside the house with a cable leading from it to the EDF  main fuse and meter. Theres also a existing fused distribution unit.

 

So I rang the English speaking help line and try but I may I couldn't get the guy on the phone to understand that I needed just to meet a man in van at the house to put a main fuse back in.  Instead as he had no records of such a property then it simply didn't exist and disbelieved what was telling him. I needed to ring another number were I needed to speak to the Engineers that would carry out a survey and then give a devis for a connection.

After a few days I decided to ring the help line again. I gave the lady a meter number and every other number that was on the meter but still no records. Just as I thought that I would have to install my own electrical generator as my life seemed to be ebbing away I was asked two questions. What is the name of your nearest neighbour and what is the meter reading? Incredibly this enabled the meter to be found on EDF system and within five minutes I became the newest EDF customer and an appointment with a man in a van that would turn on the electrics. And sure enough we are now energised. I will need to get the connection up graded but for now I am revelling in this small achievement. Now for the water connection!!