Well, it took a couple (few?) more days than expected, but we have a functioning main floor bath as of late today – toilet, sink, & shower! It may not sound worthy of a post’s title, but then you can maybe imagine our not having one during recent days in Mirabel :-). Perhaps because of that, we spent Saturday in Avignon on an all day shopping reconnaissance, looking at lighting fixtures, appliances, upstairs bath vanity & fixtures, and sundry other items. We took tons of pictures and the 6 of us are now discussing what we all want via email. On the way home from the expedition we had a fabulous dinner at Au Comptoir (translated webpage with pictures) in nearby Piolenc. Yesterday was mostly spent as a down day, recharging and assimilating what has passed by us these last 5 days. We did drive a wonderful backroads route to Mirabel aux Baronnies through Buisson, through lovely little Vinsobre vineyards, interspersed with blooming fruit trees. We then continued on through Nyons and up the Eygues valley. At Nyons the broad river valley narrows into a gorge cutting through the Baronnies, with small French villages perched between steep hillsides and the river. A complete change in scenery only 10 kilometers from “home”.
This morning we found M. Lopez busy on the bathroom and Martha immediately dove into unpacking linens in preparation for the day when someone sleeps at the house. I wandered around the house processing what we saw during the shopping expedition, collecting missing dimensions, and starting to prioritize tasks. After a cool but sunny lunch on the terrace, I grabbed my camera and spent the afternoon in therapy – driving the 3 kilometers to Piegon and exploring the photogenic locations I spied earlier in the week. Even though I am planning a return to selected sites during better light, these middle of the day shots aren’t too bad – Mirabel is the town in the distance with church steeple (post continues below the slideshow):
Tomorrow installation of the bedroom doors begins, our ferronnier should come and measure for our ironwork (stairway railing and window grill), and our heating oil tanks will be refilled. M. Lopez should begin installation of our remaining electrical and M. Zamora moves to the upstairs masonry work. And one of these days I’ll roll up my sleeves and finish tiling the bedroom level. ‘Til then (or maybe sooner 😉 ) …
– Rick