More photos, and another very small step forward

Today we went to our bank to start the application for a bridge loan, which we will need until our Ste. Colombe house is sold. Our little local bank could not deal with this today, but the fellow there made an appointment for us to see the person who could, but not until next Thursday afternoon. Nothing ever happens quickly in France. It turns out that there are not one but two employees in this bank office, one who is there on Tuesday and Wednesday and another who is there on Thursdays and Fridays - and who is obviously the only one who can accept loan applications. The fellow we spoke to did provide us with a list of papers we would need, or at least all the things he could think of. There might be more, he cautioned. We will of course need our agreement to buy the Nojals house, also proof that we own the two houses we now have, copies of our French tax returns, and - of course! - a copy of a current bill from the electric company. It seems that the standard proof that you exist is a copy of your electric bill. I can't begin to count how many times we have had to provide copies of one. It is no small wonder that almost everyone in France owns some sort of copying machine.

Anyway, on to some photos.



This photo is taken from the stairway in the 'tower' addition to the house. This room will be a combination dining room and gallery. Through the curtained doorway is a glass veranda, looking out over the view that appears behind the title of this blog. I plan to have at least one easel there, both to use and to show paintings to passers by when I'm not there. The sofa will be moved to the living room and the chairs (more of the herd) will be moved elsewhere. The chandelier may also be replaced with something a bit more, ahh, simple. Although, having been here for this long, I'm getting used to this sort of thing.
Another view of the gallery-to-be, with more members of the chair herd. There must be about 20 of them. We're keeping some, but not all - where would we put them? And we so rarely have dinner parties for 20!

Here's the building that will be my summer studio, or possibly year-round if we put in some heat. It's an old 'pigeonnier', which were quite the thing in Dordogne one or two hundred years ago. To the left of it is a wood garden house that was used as a workshop and is still full of wooden toys. To the right is John, probably wondering how we're going to clean up the mess inside that building:
YIKES!!! There will definitely be some cleaning up to be done. Right now, the deal is that we keep the furniture we chose and someone - not us - will clear out everything else, including everything in this building. We'll see.... We have a friend who might be interested in doing the clearing out in return for the furniture we don't want. this would work out well since the trailer that he would use to pick up the furniture could travel to there with some of our current furniture in it. Again, we'll see.

Here's a photo of the side of the house with the cellar entrance. The fellow standing there is our estate agent, Mikaël. This photo was taken back in mid-November, when we first saw the house.


OK, I Promised some photos of odd things, weirdnesses. Here they are:

This is the second cellar. The main part of the house has a full cellar, and the addition, the tower (also referred to as a pigionnier) also has a cellar, but with no doorway into the main cellar, so it's a sort of hidden away room. John has designated this his hideout, and wine cellar. OK, that's not all that weird. But here's what's in it now:
Ooooh, look it's Bambi! And Badger! And, ahh, Sanglier? I don't remember any kids' stories with cute wild boars in them. One has to guess that the late owner of the house was a hunter. These are some of the better looking examples of taxidermy. We opted not to keep them.

The late owner was also a woodworker, and here's some of the toys in the garden workshop.


OK, that's it for today. Tomorrow we're off to the house in Ste. Colombe to talk the the friend who may be clearing out the Nojals house, and to start packing!!