Féte du Travail in Rochefort

It's been a while since my last post (about six months to be completely honest!) but now that the warmer weather has returned so have I!  

I've had a very busy winter working on the renovations of our town house in Cognac with my husband Spike and building the stock levels back up for my Etsy Shop after a very busy Christmas period.

The glorious weather has made us concentrate on the courtyard of our house and to my absolute joy we have installed a second hand fountain that I found online a few months back.  There's still so much to do but having planted up the flower beds it's a good start (although our puss 'Raoul' seems determined to squash my endeavours).

Still very much work in progress but Jakie doesn't seem to mind

This May Day weekend (Fête du Travail) we had a choice of so many flea markets in our region it was difficult to decide which to visit but eventually plumped for a brocante held in the pretty town of Rochefort.

I was delighted to come across some yarn bombing while we were there and long may this trend continue!

The bandstand near the flea market is simply charming

The sun was out and the flea market was full of interesting trucs that I snapped up and are soon to make an appearance in my shop.

An eclectic mix of trucs and so many bits and bobs to sift through

Here's just a small selection of my many buys from Rochefort that are waiting to be processed.

It's a tough job but someone's got to do it!

Home Sweet Home

It's been a tiring couple of weeks but I couldn't be happier.  We are safely installed in our new home in Cognac and la vie en ville is agreeing with us both.  It's always worrying when you make such a large change to your life but I'm relieved to say that I have no doubt that we made the right choice.

A little grubby and sad but a beauty waiting to be revealed

I think the reason I never really felt quite satisfied is that I am a townie through and through and although I love the countryside and the idea of country life and I think it's fair to say that I have given it a go but I only truly feel stimulated by my surroundings when there is beautiful architecture to admire, cafés to frequent and boutique shop windows to gaze into.  The countryside is a wonderful place to visit but for me, after ten years of living in France, I feel that I have finally arrived.

So these last two weeks we've been busy unpacking just enough of our things to live comfortably without getting unnecessary items out of storage that will get in the way during the renovation process.  We've been so preoccupied with this that I've hardly had time to keep up with the numerous Christmas sales of my Etsy shop.

My new spacious office (I think I may change the wallpaper!)

And my dwindling stock (must go shopping!)

We've only just started to fully explore all the nooks and crannies of our new place and to gingerly peel back wallpaper, lift corners of lino and discuss which walls will be opened up and to what extent. That's the exciting part.

We did start by gingerly peeling back wallpaper but may
have got carried away when we found a false wall the length
 of the narrow entrance hall... not so narrow now!!!

So we have a lot of dust filled days ahead of us but the house has such wonderful original features coupled by a feeling of charm and elegance that I really don't mind going through all that upheaval again.  

The stunning marble fireplace in the living room that needs opening up
and something to be done with that 1960's chintzy inner surround!

The view of all four levels of the house from the top of our elegant
spiral staircase is definitely worth the climb!

Our cute little bedroom/cat sanctuary is just oozing with French charm

I am the first to admit that I have a terrible track record for putting down roots but I am confident that this time we have at last found our forever home and in spite of the sceptical chuckling I continue to endure from close friends and family (not to mention the chorus of "that's what you said last time!") I remain sure that I will not tire of this poor ugly duckling of a house that will, given time, blossom into a swan or for that matter the fabulous vibrant town of Cognac.  

Vendu!

I have been literally bursting to share the happy news that we have recently accepted an offer on our house.  It happened a few weeks ago but I wanted to make sure that the sale was definitely going through before I started bragging (I have been known to fall flat on my face in the past after becoming rather too pleased with myself!)

Our current home in the heart of the French countryside

Anyway, last Friday we sat down in the office of our Notaire (a sort of solicitor in France) and signed the Compromis de Vente which is a contract where all parties agree to the terms of the sale.  With French law the buyer then has a cooling off period of a week before they are well and truly bound by the contract to either go through with buying the property or to lose a large deposit (around 10% of the property price).

Now that I have covered the technical stuff the self satisfied gloating can now well and truly begin.  OK, so we were very, very lucky to get an offer on our house just three weeks after putting it on the market but we are particularly pleased that we avoided paying estate agents fees and sold it on the internet without spending a centime on advertising... oh clever ,clever me (I'm really asking for it aren't I?)

To be honest though because we received a serious offer so quickly it came as a bit of shock but we are now very excited about the move and after much toing and froing and a few sleepless nights we managed to eventually secure a lovely house in Cognac that we have had our hearts set on for the last 10 months.

Our soon to be new home in Cognac

The house is a major renovation project (as always) and in our favourite quarter of Cognac situated near the river and just a short walk from the lovely historical centre of town.  It's going to be quite a departure from the life we have now but I can't wait to have all the facilities that Cognac has to offer right on the doorstep.  

With all this excitement my brocante business has unfortunately taken a bit of a back seat but our move is scheduled for mid November so I will have time over the next few weeks to get back to the flea markets and start building up stock again for my Etsy shop.

So please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us that everything goes through without a hitch and hopefully in the future I can not only share with you our experiences as we renovate this poor, tired old house back into the beauty it once was but also keep you up to date on our adventures as we adjust to la vie en ville.