2021 More renovations during a World Wide Pandemic

In June 2021 Nic and I went back to France during the World wide Pandemic. We had talked about it endlessly and had decided that if we didn't travel back this year,  we wouldn't have any stock to sell in our shop for the next 18 months which meant imminent closure. We were lucky to get our vaccination early in May and a 6 month Visa from the French Embassy. Getting out of NZ was the easy part. We learnt after we had left, that getting back home was almost impossible. 

We arrived in early June to a masked up France. Covid passes required at every cafe and hotel which was a little stressful as we only had our little piece of paper given to us by the vaccination clinic in NZ, proving we were vaccinated whilst everyone else had digitalised ones or phone apps that businesses scanned. They would take one look at our handwritten card and snort at us. Obviously we were from a very backward place. Feeling sorry for us they would allow us in to eat, but placing us away from the digitalised groups...

Travelling was unusual and oh so quiet! Meaning we could have a full row of seats to lie down and sleep in the plane, no queues or traffic, very quick stopovers and the Queues at French customs were very small!

We were so excited to get back to the house to continue our search for treasure as well as to keep fixing up our little piece of paradise. The Star Jasmine was in full bloom in our garden when we arrived and the Roses were pink and glorious! The rest of the garden was wild and overgrown but a week of weeding and fussing about would fix that.

We have done a youtube of the arrival 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVSmRqgtrEY&t=1s

It was wonderful to be back in our little paradise but oh so much work to be done!

Our Antique tours which were so successful last year, (we had sold 4 seperate tours for 2021)  sadly had all been cancelled. While disappointing, it meant we could continue fixing up the house throughout the months ahead. The breakfast room and bathrooms were the first on the list. 

There is a little room off the kitchen that has been ignored because we hardly ever use it except when guests come to stay on a rainy day and we cant eat outside. We needed to give the space some attention in order to give the narrow galley kitchen a more spacious feeling. We chose to wallpaper this area to give it more interest and brightness. We are so in love with wallpaper at the moment. It is like covering the walls with an art piece. We chose a design from 'Pip design' which is a Holland based company. Expensive but not breaking the bank like a lot of others we drooled over. Wallpaper also covers a few defects in the ancient walls!  

We are so happy with the effect as it gives the whole space a happy light feeling that draws you to the end of the room. I love to sit here now with my cup of tea and a good magazine.