I am thinking of laying various types of exposed aggregate finished hard landscaped areas around the outside areas of the house, These can be easily achieved with a bit of experimenting, first on small areas that can be easily removed before embarking on large areas. Careful batching of materials in a hand mixer is the key to ensure consistency of colour and texture. The concrete must be placed into form work and tamped to level and finished with a wood float and then allowed a set. The time taken to achieve this will be anything up to an hour depending on the air temperature. The surface of the concrete then needs to be sprayed with a concrete retarding agent. After a further six hours gently power wash the surface to expose the aggregate and then leave to cure. By using combinations of different natural sands and aggregates various interesting colours and textures can be achieved.
The building sand in the Charente is light grey in colour and mixing this with 5mm-10mm sized white sharp aggregate, again which is common to the area should produce a good look for a patio area to the front of the house. There's not too much you can do about the colour of the cement as this varies between different manufacturers i.e. between dark grey and light grey, but it has to be taken into consideration when you are trying to come up with a desired colour and texture.
I am reliably informed by Philip Voice who runs a landscaping network and lives in France that the local materials I have seen is sharp sand (sablé batir) and castine (white limestone scaplings). Phil's site is well worth a visit by the way http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/ .
A sidewalk, or pavement, footpath, foot way, and sometimes platform, is a path along the side of a road. It is well for the general people to walk and also safe. Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful!
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