Robandco: "Good fences make good neighbours"*

The geomètre and her assistant came and went on Tuesday so the boundary is now marked out between our house and Georges’ empty one next door. After they left,Georges and Spouse worked happily together preparing the formwork for the foundations of the fence/retaining wall to divide our properties. “With a bit of good luck,” we thought, “we’ll get this done before we leave next week.” Thinking they were finished for the night, Spouse turned to attack the fig tree and Georges continued to put up the forming.

Alert as always, Spouse muttered to me that one of the tiges (metal spikes inserted by geomètre) seemed to have migrated towards our house, so we diligently dug around and moved it back. “C’est mal mesuré?” said Georges innocently. “Bien sûr” we nonchalantly replied.

Georges went off saying he’d be back on Friday to pour the concrete, as he had another commitments in Bordeaux. This was fortunate, as during those 2 days we had time to assess the work he had done. Not only was the forming extremely crooked, it was crooked in Georges’ favour and our little path was becoming narrower and narrower. Having excavated the metre deep , 1.37 metre wide path by digging out the rubble Georges had dumped there, we wanted the wall on our side of the boundary to give us control of it. Repairing the wooden wall damaged by the rubble was an expensive and time-consuming task for Spouse and we had paid for most of the materials for the cement wall. Nevertheless, we felt a little guilty for I am not sure what reason, as we pulled the forming down and rebuilt it.

Time was running short as Sunday came to a close. Our departure was set for Tuesday and Spouse was determined to have the wall begun and therefore clearly in place. At the end of the day, Louis from across the road sauntered over, made approving noises about the forming and suggested that he and a couple of other neighbours come and work with Spouse on Monday. As Georges had made no appearance, either to help with the wall or to sign the geometre's official document, this offer was gratefully accepted. Joy oh joy! Help and expertise!

As well as finishing the little wall, we are repairing the wood on the side of the hangar and will coat it with the black mixture of sump oils that seem to be most recommended to preserve the wood. This quaint practice explains the plethora of black sechoirs/ hangars/tabacs in the surrounding properties. Many have been converted into two storey dwellings; others sit rather forlornly on fields, used as storage sheds, vestiges of another era.

And we have good news about the fountain (“delivered in three days” said the company website.) It is now 17 days since the order was made and 15 days since it made it to Bordeaux. However after sundry complaints to Mondial Relay and to Oogarden (I know, it’s an odd name), it has finally arrived and Louis has promised to install it in our absence.

It’s always chaos when we leave but at least we will have made some progress. Paris here I come!