Bats and bricolage

Week 2 at the château has seen us getting on with the cleaning and gardening as we gradually try to make an already beautiful château seem even more beautiful!

While cleaning the windows on the first floor I opened the shutters and BAM! down came a small black thing with a thud. I nearly lost the plot and screamed (prompting Rich to think I’d finally fallen off the ladder). Apparently I had dislodged a sleeping bat who was now looking a bit winded on the windowsill…

Concerned that I might have hurt him, I kept an eye on him while Rich came up to see what all the fuss was about. Yeah, the bat was cute until he started coming round, baring his fangs and flapping his wings, clearly not impressed with his rude awakening. Luckily he decided that he’d be better off elsewhere and flew off so I could carry on cleaning the window. I opened all the rest of the shutters much more gingerly after that.

We’ve been trying to do a bit in the garden (not that we are experts by any stretch of the imagination) just to try to tidy things up. We couldn’t find many gardening tools so off we went to Bricomarché for DIY stuff (NB Nadia: bricolage can mean odd jobs, home improvements or just pottering about). We tried the big Bricomarché in Cognac (about a 40 minute drive away) and then found that there is one in St Jean D’Angély (about 15 minutes away). Wow! DIY heaven (I never thought I’d hear myself say that)! We bought some tools and headed back to the château with renewed enthusiasm for weed clearing now that we had the necessary tools. It turns out that I can do about an hour’s weed clearing before my back hurts and I need a break (such a lightweight). I’m sure I’ll get stronger…

We had a couple of sunny/rainy days this week culminating in a glorious evening with the most amazing double rainbow. We chased around the village in the car trying to find the best angles for photos but they really don’t do it justice.

Here are the latest photos from this week:

À bientôt, bisous!