Today
Jean Pierre, the plumber, arrived to install a new hot water tank. Sometimes you hear horror stories of French
artisans who never arrive when they say they will or leave a job half finished. Fortunately, in our experience, they have
always turned up promptly and carried out the work in a very efficient manner.
The
water tank is replacing the enormous old one installed about 25 years ago. It lives in the downstairs utility area (at
the bottom of the pigeonnier that may have once housed a pig) and is accessed
through a hobbit door; unless you are under four feet tall you have to
duck. Paul and I do this automatically
but I was very worried about the safety of Jean Pierre, perhaps I should have
made him wear a hard hat.
 |
| rustic hobbit door |
Poor
chap almost had a heart attack when he inadvertently set the fire alarm off
whilst soldering the pipes. Apart from
that the installation was carried out without mishap.
 |
| shiny new water tank in situ |
Philippe,
our neighbour, came round to investigate the activity. He rubbed his hands with glee and asked Paul
if he could have the old tank. “Bien sûr,” Paul replied. That will save us
the cost of the plumber having to dispose of it.
 |
| old tank |
Philippe never throws anything away. There is a veritable scrap yard at the side
of his garden. I suspect he has plans to
build himself a still. In fact he has
shown Paul the printed plans of such a project.
At the moment he takes his plums and pears to a local distillery to
undergo that magical alchemy that transforms them into a very potent eau de
vie.
You were lucky to get the new in and the old out through the hobbit door.
ReplyDeleteWhenever we go to the local EleClerc my husband says we should buy a hard hat. Our sous-sol/garage is also for hobbits and the tailgate of the car will hit the top so no open up fully. This means ,nearly everytime I bang my head on a lock or bit of plastic from that door.
I've seen stars a few times from our hobbit doors.
DeleteHello Sue,
ReplyDeleteI have been reading here since the beginning. I'm enchanted with your blog, with your sense of humour and with your beautiful house!
Greeting Maria x
Very kind words, thank you Maria.
DeleteI sometimes think our whole house was built for Hobbits.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we live in Tolkien's Shire.
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of Philippe.
ReplyDeleteWe have one very low beam that has to be ducked under to get to one end of the house upstairs. P never goes there.
There is never a dull moment when Philippe is about. He will undoubtedly feature in many of my blogs.
Delete