So termite-man has been and gone with good news and a promise to get the report to the notaire on time. Phew. And let's face it, I'd feel a little miffed if the woodworm turned their noses up at our choice woody morsels. After spending some time in France it still amuses me when new Brits arrive and talk about surveys-surveys? And talk like damp is the end of the world. It is perfectly normal! Saltpetre? Everyone should have some. I mean these houses are hundreds of years old, still standing and built before damp courses, what do they expect? Anyway, I digress. Webjam upgraded their site yesterday and in the process lost my blog page, lost a friend (sob) and the map won't work. However, all credit to them, they found my blog page in record time. Just my friend to find and the map to fix.

So less than a week to M-day (move). We are pretty much ready to go, the cats have got their tranquilisers at the ready. Just got to stuff everything back in the boxes that we packed in October. It's all pretty much come out again!

The new restaurant is currently called Le Cortal and we're renaming it slightly to Bistrot Le Cortal. This is to indicate a change of ownership and more modern image retaining any recognition of it in the area. We shall have two sides to the menu - hot stone cooking (Pierrade in French) and the bistrot menu. The idea of the hot stones was inspired by a visit when we were looking at properties to a restaurant in Aigues-Morts in the Petit Camargue who did this. Stunning place, by the way, if you get the chance to visit that area. I wanted to go to the restaurant specifically to try it, and thought it was great fun. Not haute cuisine, it is sure, but novel, convivial and delicious. From an operational point of view it is also very practical as all the work on my side is in the preparation, leaving me time to do real cooking during the service. So hopefully this would allow us to have a wide choice of things on the menu without having to have a whole brigade in the kitchen. The one thing you have to avoid in France is having employees. I shall discuss this in a future post.