Wednesdays in France

We have have a few favorite places in the Loire.

Richelieu has been one of them.

They recently restored their market and so

We wanted to see the results.

We were impressed and even bought a few things.

Cardinal Richelieu wanted to build the perfect town.

The plan was there, unfortunately today

it is a little down in the tooth

but, one can imagine what his dreams were.

Maybe, just maybe - today's people can bring back

some of the magic.

Looking out on the square from the restored market.

The Cardinal

http://richelieu-eminencerouge.blogspot.com.au/

A blog dedicated to the town of Richelieu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDC97aZNy2Q

A You Tube thing worth a look

Pickets on the Fence

The front fence must be the longest saga of this house renovation. The dining and living rooms in essence are finished except for those little decorating things - wall hangings, Vogue accessories, all that rubbish (Sue's job).

Meanwhile I'm out doing the heavy stuff. Bloody pickets - I'm sick of them but having said that, the finished result gives me a sense of pride.

Pretty little pickets all in a line.

Sanding - painting - this is the hard stuff

Welcome to our home

Hope we get a really good result on the auction towards the end of the year when we put the home on the market.

There was a Time

Way back in my past, there was an Antique and Vintage shop I had. Some of that furniture and nick knacks are still with me. Some of it is in our revamp house today.

Edwardian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and a touch of kitch were a part of the shop. Where we were was a great place to buy items, not a great place to sell. It was in the 70s - today sees a change in the area where old is new. We were ahead of our time.

149 Plenty Road, Preston - 1975

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Throwback Thursday - an ocassional self indulgent "Look at Me" post.

2006, Sue and I took our once in a lifetime trip to Italy and France.

We met out 20 year old son Andrew in Rome on his first overseas trip.

He celebrated his 21st birthday in snowbound rural Russia, as you do!!!!

We walked and jogged the streets of Rome - great memories.

Sue and Andrew seen here at Ostia Antica - a sort of Pompei, near Rome's airport.
Look it up on Google.
This was one of the shop keepers buildings from 4thC BC

A photo for Wednesdays in France

Just a few from Loches

Always a nice place on market day.

Getting There - Almost

The Dining Room was the easy thing. Placing furniture in the Dining Room was always mutually decided.
The table due to its size could only go one way and the sideboard had its place on the back wall of the room. The finishing touches will happen during the week for our first official dinner party for friends who are celebrating their birthdays. We were to go out to a restaurant but we thought it would be nice to have them here with us in our newly decorated Dining Room.

Do you think we need a rug under the table - something bright?

At the end of the weekend, I put up the blinds, hung the mirror and added a couple of prints.
I'm thinking we might make this our French room with prints brought home from our travels.

It's the Living Room that's caused a little more robust discussion between the two of us. You may remember that we purchased two 2-seater couches - we didn't give a lot of thought of how they would be arranged in the room. They were purchased for the next house which may sound a little strange as we don't really know what that house may be as yet. It was an impulse buy, we just liked them.

Anyway, we've tried several different configurations which all have their pluses. It's just that we don't seem to agree on any one of the choices. I love this, she hates it. She likes this, I'm a bit ho-hum!!!

I'm sure we'll work it out as we give it time to live in.

I guess on the bright side is that we can always make changes depending on our mood or entertaining needs.
The room has two focal points - the fireplace and the bay window. The challenge is to give them both the attention they deserve.

My idea was to set the furniture diagonally in the rectangle of the room however it does close the room up a bit.

Sue's idea was to push one couch to the bay window which gives the feeling of a larger room.

It does add space and opens up the room while making the fireplace the focal point.

The next job is add the colour to the room in the form of wall hangings and accessories. A coffee table is coming later in the week and we need a large rug to the living room.

By the way - did we tell you its winter in Melbourne. It seems that our friends in the Loire Valley are experiencing a heat wave.......Ha!...........mid 30s are commonplace in a Melbourne summer, occasionally rising to 39/40 degrees.

But then again we are complaining because we are having a cold winter with the mornings in the single figures. The top was 12 yesterday and today.

This weekend has been consistently raining so working on the inside of the house was fun however I do have to get those pickets back on the fence rails - maybe next weekend.

Wet, wet, and more wet this weekend so no outside work.

The Floors now Finished

Our last post showed the initial sanding on the Baltic Pine floor boards. Over a period of a week, they are now finished. We are most pleased with the final result. Rather than a gloss, we opted for a semi-gloss final coat.

Although we can now walk on the surface, we can't move the furniture back into the rooms until this coming Wednesday. It will be exciting to see the rooms come together for next weekend.

What it looked like when we first started the transformation.

After the 1st sanding

The finished product

SPIT and POLISH

We've painted the ceilings, the walls, the woodwork but the hard work was the preparation..

It's starting to come together now.

The floor sander arrived today and the 1st stage of preparing the 90 year old baltic pine floorboards began. Tomorrow he does the edges and then the first coat of varnish goes on the lush grained timber.

Within a week we can start redecorating the hallway, sitting and dining rooms.

Can't wait.

Meanwhile - this is our family room.

Wednesdays in France

Back in 2012, we travelled from Paris to Provence and along the Cote d'Azure. We took a left at Nice and up to Vence and Castellane before driving the Canyon Verdon. We stayed in Castellane one night and felt eyes looking down on us from above.

You just never know who is spying on you from the windows above.