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Let’s begin : )

Alethea x

A week late with this edition due to travel, ankles and paws…!

Miss Romy is currently sporting a rather fetching inflatable collar, much to her chagrin, after a mini-op on her paw. So now we’re both hobbling about together. Although, given we’re experiencing our first canicule (heatwave) of the year, like much of Europe, with temperatures sitting in the mid-30’s for around ten days, it’s not the worst timing as it’s certainly not dog zoomie weather.

With a national holiday every week, May definitely kicks off the Summer season providing heaps of social activities and that age-old challenge of trying to get anything done when there’s always a holiday or everyone is taking ‘le pont’…

My extremely kind friend, John, made a snap decision to visit from The Hague and look after us following ankle-gate, how incredibly lovely is that? Aside from being a huge morale boost and excellent nurse (!) it was simply great to spend some proper time together. He’s also one of Romy’s favourite people in the world and she remained firmly attached to him throughout his stay.

Other random things:

Need a peaceful rural retreat? There’s still some Summer availability for La Petite Maison in June – one of the most beautiful months of the year here.

Intrepid Travel just launched eight new Premium Family trips. Watch baby orangutans in Borneo. Stargaze at a desert camp in Morocco. Spot leopards in India. Small groups, expert guides, all logistics handled. Explore the trips.

Some of my favourite wild swimming spots around here are along the Ceou, a small tributary of the Dordogne with crystal clear jade-coloured water. There are one or two established spots - the old mill pond at Daglan, complete with benches and picnic tables, and the weir further along – but also loads of quieter stretches where you’re likely to be toute seule. It’s a nice contrast to the busier banks of the Dordogne itself.

During canicules, I generally take Romy for a morning walk / swim through the river. Shaded and cool, it’s pretty much the only place she can exercise safetly in scorching temperatures. In winter, we rarely see another soul and Romy becomes accustomed to having the place to herself. 

Somehow during one winter, she appears to have developed the firm belief that she is the world’s greatest swimmer and that humans are incapable of swimming properly.

I was only alerted to this newfound epiphany at the beginning of one Summer when on arrival at the old mill pond Romy charged into the water to ‘rescue’ a happily swimming young boy, her efforts considerably more submerging than helping him.

Horrified, I jumped in after her and was relieved to find the boy spluttering with laughter, clearly unbothered by the fracas. Still, bracing for understandably furious parents, I began an immediate stream of apologies as we all clambered out.  It turned out the boy’s father was not in the least concerned, reassuring me that they all loved honden. He explained the whole incident had actually provided an excellent photo-opportunity and having batted away my apologies proudly showed me a second by second sequence of his son’s Romy-rescue in action. We were fortunate they were Dutch, loved dogs and found the whole thing hilarious.

Needless to say, I was keen not to activate my dog’s newfound Baywatch persona again. Unwilling to risk further rescue slash semi-drowning incidents, during Summer months we now stick to our more secret isolated swimming spots where no Romy rescues are necessary. Better for everyone.

Airbnb guests sent off armed with map co-ordinates and random ‘turn left at the big walnut grove’ style directions, report back as delighted with their new discoveries. Although I may need to keep one spot entirely to myself!

Perfect for: canicule days, dogs who enjoy swimming without performing rescues, and generally peaceful wild swimming.

Part of a new collection of A&A Local favourites – places or activities that either sit slightly under the radar or are so consistently good that they stand out from the tourist trail.

It’s Nov 2023. I’ve finally fired the original maitre d’oeuvre, removed two of the inept teams he hired and I’m now surveying the wreckage of a gutted main house and a suddenly silent chantier. 

Only one major devis (contract) remains untouched: the heating and clim enterprise.

A substantial part of the renovation, they had also been sourced through the original maitre d’oeuvre which immediately gave me reservations of the ‘are they similarly incompetent?’ variety. 

-              What, why? I wrote about that before, here: Let’s talk renovation #3: being duped.

I’d also not had terribly positive contact with their representative to date. Old-school in style, seemingly fixated on the opinion of whichever man happened to be nearest, and therefore one of the individuals on the receiving end of my outburst in Mais le probleme est…

So, I approached our next meeting with some trepidation. My preference was to disengage, request my deposits back and start completely afresh. 

No such luck.

The work had already been scheduled into their planning, I was told. The representative then added he didn’t rate the old maitre d’oeuvre either (hum, really), and in fact he’d happily propose someone new but not to worry, he’d be by my side (unspoken ‘little woman’ vibes) throughout ensuring all went fine. Urgh.

Once you’ve signed a devis in France, paid deposits, and formally engaged an enterprise / artisan extracting yourself is difficult. It’s a fair system designed to protect all, but with little wriggle room if you’ve had the misfortune to engage sharks. I had no option but to continue with them. Meanwhile, the enterprise had yet to do any actual work.

Fast-forward to February.

Though achingly-slowly, with the extensive efforts of the new maitre d’oeuvre the renovation was re-starting. New artisans were engaged, systems emerged from the chaos and some of my unease around the heating / clim enterprise began to come into focus.

Asked to provide an additional devis for the radiators, their representative returned with what can only be described as a complete and utter mick-taking, farcically high figure.

This, coupled with fresh claims that obvious works (trenching from one of their configurations to another) had never been included, constant games of blame the other artisan, rubbish slow communication and over eight months passing since banking my substantial deposits… and, still, no work, my frustration was mounting.

Eventually, exasperated, we decided to invoke a French superpower: the local Maire.

The owner of the company deigned to turn up and supposedly, reassure me. Darting around the chantier, he openly chastised his representative in front of me and the maitre d’oeuvre (awkward), before re-drawing their systems plan. Then came the real meeting. Citing freezing chantier temperatures, I’d explained in advance we’d continue discussions at the Maire’s office and that he’d join us.

Our Maire has held the role for years, and understands renovations, laws, and importantly, has a certain gravitas. The company owner entered with all the subtle charm of a mini-Napoleon and opened proceedings by dismissively asking: “Who are you?” to the Maire, who had, incidentally, been introduced both verbally and by email. Rude.

The now puffed up mini-Napoleon then proceeded to defend his company’s extortionate devis increases, snapped rudely at me, the maitre d’oeuvre and his own representative. Altogether it was quite the defensive show. I felt relieved the Maire was there both to witness and adjudicate.

After the enterprise cohort had departed, we asked for the Maire’s view. Did he think I could fire them? A calm shrug, slight negative nod and a ‘Mais non, c’est complique”. Did he think they’d see sense? A different type of shrug “N’inquiète pas”.

The following week, I received a new plan… then a start date, then a considerably lower revised radiator devis and some concessions elsewhere. I was also assigned a new contact, the owner direct. Happily, I never had to deal with the slippery mansplaining representative again : ) While it didn’t allay all fears, it did demonstrate that there had definitely been some rip-off behaviour.

A few days later, after dropping off a small thank you gift to the Maire, I was once again struck by the feeling of community here. It was very clear our Maire had no truck in allowing anyone in the commune to be taken advantage of, whether by inflated costs, intimidation or even assumptions that a foreign woman wouldn’t know any better.  

If you’d like to connect the renovation dots, here’s another linked story:

More Snapshots of the Domaine Les Plonges ‘journey’ next edition.

Possibly you found your way here via Instagram? @domainelesplonges? If so, an extra Bienvenue! You’ll already know I love a good visual…

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