Preparing for Paving

Today, work began!  We uncovered the gravel area and moved at least twenty wheel-barrows full of fist sized stones from the backyard into the rock pile up near the top of the property.  Will put his bicycle skills to use to fix the tire of one of the wheel barrows and assist in the operation of the air compressor.  After everything was cleared away, we began the painstaking process of leveling the area where we'll be building a tile patio.  Here's the catch: this house wasn't built with any rain-deflection, so the patio also has to direct rain away from the house and into a natural ditch built near the edge of the concrete platform.  This means that the entire thing will be slightly sloped, which makes it quite hard to level!  While moving things around, we found several ants' nests (we left them for a couple minutes, and they cleared out all their larvae by the time we returned), more spiders than you could imagine, and two beautiful salamanders!

We worked from nine to one, took a pause for lunch, and then worked again until 4:00 when we stopped for gouté (the French version of tea time with a snack).  After work was done, Will and I took a turn on the trampoline and then went for a walk down to the river.  The trampoline is fascinating because it's constructed entirely without springs!  While we were walking, we saw some of the most beautiful cows I've ever seen.  Normandy is dairy country, and the cows were all different kinds of colors.  They also looked surprisingly clean, but I'm not sure what that could be caused by.

In terms of language, we alternate back and forth between speaking French and English depending on what we're doing and how complicated the construction task at hand is.  Will is picking up the pronunciation and a ton of everyday phrases!!!

We are also having fun comparing what each of us call things.  Between the UK, USA, France and New Zealand there are a lot of names for things (like french fries, hot chips, frites, etc.) so each day we go through the motions of figuring out what someone is actually meaning when they say something (even salad is not sacred).

Tomorrow is our first trip into the local village to go to market and rent some equipment for laying tiles so we are all excited about that but I don't think we will have any issues staying in shape with all the moving of things happening around here.  Also, yesterday we went into Granville, a seaside town to a big trunk sale (basically a big yard sale in the street).  It was pretty funny to see that just like in the USA everyone haggles on price.  When we went to the water there were still bunkers on the beach from when the Germans occupied the land , it was a pretty surreal site to see.

Until next time!

S&W