Chateau Keyboard

Thursday, April 24: Gathering speed

Alex brings Manuel, aka Manolo, the builder round this morning. Bruno, the builder who lives next door, has been promising to come round next Wednesday, Thursday at the very latest for the past two years and we've got fed up waiting for him. The last straw came as I was lounging about napping in the sunshine the other day, when I overheard a conversation between him and Mice Nests In The Hair about how he's going to rebuild a wall for her. Huh.
So Manuel - he's Portuguese and recommends never using French builders since they drink Pastis at lunchtime and never get round to working in the afternoon - browses round and reckons he could do the work in about 10 days to a fortnight. We're keen for him to start as soon as possible, but he has three swimming pools to fit next month so it may be a short while before he can start.
Then this afto we nip into the bank to chat with Monsieur Cathalan, the professional financial advisor (as opposed to Mme Lecuq who advises on personal financial matters, not who advises in an amateurish way) about setting up company bank accounts. Which do sound suspiciously too cheap to be true, but we're convinced in the end.
And then on to see Jerome and the villas he's having built. We're considering using the same builder as him to do our impressive string of new homes, and are very pleasantly surprised both at the quality of the work and just how much space you get for your money. Hmm indeed.
And then tonight it's out into Nimes, first for dinner and then Britnimes. We try a restaurant recommended by Manolo but, when we do find it - no easy task in itself - it turns out to be closed for a private function and we head on back into town for something Vietnamese.