Building a bistrot in France

One thing can be said for this heat, if nothing else - the paint dries really quickly!

Well this week has been relatively quiet, just lots of boring old painting. Well, painting USED to be boring, but that was before the new toy - the (drumroll) wonderful paint sprayer system that doesn't need a compressor, um low pressure system, I believe you'd call it! Wow, what a wonderful investment that is - I recommend it to anyone who has a bit of painting to do. It really gives a professional finish. All I would like now is for someone to invent a machine that you wave over the offending old paintwork and it is prepped in an instant. I am fed up with being covered in paint flakes and dust. Still, the results are rewarding. We are painting the exterior paintwork in a creamy orange -as orange features in our logo -as the recently painted shutters demonstrate: I am painting the interior paintwork a creamy 'café au lait' colour which will really blend nicely with the intended colour scheme of aubergine. It'll work, I promise!

I have been very excited this week to learn that there is a grower in Pezilla-Sur-Riviere who grows heirloom organic tomatoes. If there's one fruit I get really excited about it is tomatoes, particularly organic ones, as I think the flavour really is much better than hothouse ones. Also it would be interesting to showcase rare varieties. So I shall be calling in on my way to Perpignan, next time I go. I am excited by the differences between here and the Dordogne in the fresh produce. Of-course, the Perigord has a rich and historical cuisine, divine in its' own right. Fave dinner? Confit, chips and walnut salad. Yum! But here is like the garden of France with orchards and fruit stands every few meters. I'm like a piggie in clover. The growing season kicks off in the Dordogne with tobacco, then sunflowers and then corn. And then they leave the corn in the fields until it's all brown and ugly, but it's for the cattle.

Another good thing happened: at the beginning of June we ordered an inox grease separator from a French company based in the Alsace region. We paid a €500 deposit and he said it would be 3 weeks. Well, up until last Monday we had spoken to him a few times and he kept saying that he had sent it, and then we couldn't get him on the phone or to answer his emails. I was beginning to get that knot of dread where you think that something might imminently go wrong....but, oh yee of little faith, the guy delivered it himself Monday evening. He said it had accidentally gone to Nice (!) so he had gone to retrieve it and bring it here himself. We were putting the pressure on, because we want the plumber to install it. All the water from the kitchen needs to go through it and it needs a tap for cleaning. Phew! I didn't want to see €500 disappearing down the swanee.

Another early morning tomorrow. Dave put 2m of bar-top in the car the other day and then braked on his way home, and....you guessed it, it went through the windscreen. Durr. So off it goes for a new windscreen tomorrow, fortunately it's covered by the insurance. That poor car, we really beat it up.

Our adventures buying and renovating a restaurant in the South of France

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My Blog » 33° today, and lovin' it!

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