May, 2016

Little chapel next door to us

 Hog Heaven

The month of May is a busy time here. Currently there is the Cannes film festival. In a few days the international tennis championships in Monte Carlo will begin. Finally, the yearly Grand Prix race in Monaco wraps up at the end of the month. But this month's treat was discovering that every year in early May there is a motorcycle rally of sorts that occurs in our neighborhood. Now that is an understatement if there ever was one. This year was the 10th anniversary of the "Harley Davidson Euro Festival", reportedly the biggest motorcycle owners club in the world.

I would hate to be going the other way

Let's start with the numbers: 25,000 motorcycles converge locally for 4 days of vroom, vromm, VROOOMMMM!!!  Lest you think this is a Hell's Angels reunion, it is surely not. (Although we did see some Hell's Angels from the 'France' chapter) This is show and tell for mostly Harley aficionados but is also a gathering of some of the most customized rides on the planet. There was so much chrome on some of these bikes they practically needed a trailer to lug it around. With a lot of "mine is bigger than yours" going around, testosterone was flying all over the place.

Why hold the event here?  Well it's a decent neighborhood for one and a great coastline to explore for another.

For the uninitiated like us, it was shocking to realize that these guys come from all over the world with their machines. From the US for instance, they rode or trucked they bikes to an east coast port, put it on a ship to the French coast, then rode, trucked or put their bikes on a train across France and pick them up locally for the show. They then cruise the Riviera or wherever till they do it all again to go back home.

Many are not just nice bikes, but serious pieces of art worth more than... well, anything I have. At night, to prevent theft or damage, some even store their rides in custom tractor trailers built to hold dozens of them. By now you can figure that the riders are not just a bunch of wild, long haired, dope crazed gang members out to rape and pillage. These guys are doctors, lawyers, bankers, businessmen (and women) who have the means to enjoy their passion. 

Fashionable and VERY friendly security officers ensure riders complete attention and cooperation.

While some might see them more as the skunk-at-the picnic, they generate a lot of money for the local economy and is a huge promo event for Harley Davidson. To that end, it is said that if there is ANY incident in a bar, restaurant or with any of the locals, the Harley reps swoop in with their checkbook and make it right, on the spot. They have a good thing going and like that they are welcomed back every year. I can't help but chuckle at how much effort they went to to make this as much of a 'California' experience as they could. US culture has a strong attraction. The highlight of the event is a 25 mile [40km] ride around the gulf of St Tropez. The roads are closed for almost two hours while the throng rides by onlookers who line the route.

 Incoming...

No sooner had island friends Ian and Lyne left last month that they returned with their friend Diane who was visiting them from Canada. They spent a few nights with us, then made the obligatory round trip to Monaco, followed by lunch in Italy for the day before returning back home to us.

Not to be outdone, long time California friends Ed and Marilyn followed, spending 5 days with us checking out our new digs, swilling wine and visiting this area for the first time. We always appreciate friends showing up to take us off the perpetual chain gang for a few days.

Ed and Marylin in St Tropez

Speaking of our digs, things got into serious gear with our continuing renovations, reaching the point where we  had the entire outside of the villa re-textured. It took them 4 weeks to do the deed, often 7 days a week, while plumbers and electricians were crawling all over the place. We currently have another outfit installing the heating and air conditioning units in the garden level of the villa. This by no means finishes the job, but clearly are big steps forward. We will do what we can before we leave.

With as much hiring of folks to do work for us as we have, both in California as well as here, you would think I have been slowing down and getting old. Balderdash! I am not, I am not, I am not! 

Why didn't I do the work myself? Because Janice refused to buy me a $20,000. compressor to do the job. It's my story and I am sticking to it.

The fact is that the big stuff has been done by contractors with the equipment and the crew to make it happen. We have mostly focused on the things that needed fixing, painting or removing. Hard to believe but that has kept us going non stop. What happened to the big plans to do the actual interior renovation of the garden level this year? 

Well, we have worked 8-10 hours a day for nearly 4 months and if there is one thing that I am notoriously poor at, it is estimating how long a task will take. I can figure all the steps in my head so it seems 'easy' to just do it. Generally, it is. But how long will it take?...anyone who knows me, knows I am clueless.

Was the property in poorer condition or more work  than we expected? No. It will just take more time than 'Mr.-I-can-do-it' planned. Rather than being bummed by the delay, we continue to be thrilled to have the opportunity.

Operation Dragoon

OK, it's time for our history lesson. You remember 'Operation Dragoon', right? Well, to refresh your memory, on August 15 1944, the beaches of Saint Tropez, Sainte Maxime and Les Issambres (where we live) were at the center of Operation Dragoon, the invasion and liberation of Southern France during World War II.  A US Delta Force from the 93rd Evac landed here to begin the liberation of the south of France. Just by the beach entrance to La Garonette, there is a memorial of the beach landing honoring the US troops. The sailing center is named La Batterie as it was the location of a German artillery battery.

Further to the east is the village San-Peïre Sur Mer where we get our daily bagette (bread). This is really the center of our town with shops, restaurants, hotels, a promenade, a village beach and a town square. Continuing eastwards there is a winding coastline with creeks, rocks and "calanques" (rocky inlets) one of which is at the bottom of our garden. There are numerous nature trails including a coastline trail leading to a 2000-year-old Roman fishpond nearby. Many private houses climb up the mountain hills. However virtually all buildings – including hotels – keep a low profile, to the contrary to locations further east on the French Riviera.

As I write this, we are two weeks from pulling up stakes and heading to the island. When we board the plane to arrive at the Bee on June 1, this place will be but a memory for the next 8 months. We don't look forward to the next place we are going to until we are on our way and we don't miss the place we just left until we return. You don't want to wish your life away. Where ever we are at at the time is the best of the bunch!

...Listen! 

Did you hear that? There is plane with my name on it calling me.  ;) 

April, 2016

See, we don't just work, we take time to goof around too.

For several years, I had written about the forge I spent endless hours at in our old village of Langoat in Brittany. The blacksmith there had taught me some rudimentary forging techniques and allowed me to putter at projects every year when we were there. This month, a friend told me that a film crew from Paris had come and shot a segment on him and his forge, as he is the last of a dying breed. I have posted pictures before but they do little justice to the medieval environment where I had the pleasure of transforming raw metal into something of use or beauty. It is a short but quite impressive clip and can be seen by clicking  HERE

Working with the master

This month I managed to get the doors to our 'wine cellar' up that I had forged a few years ago and brought with us when we moved. This is just inside our front door where there had been a closet of sorts that we converted into our wine cellar.

Mayday!

We woke up one morning last month to witness an impending ship wreck. A few sailors misjudged a raging storm in the Mediterranean and lost control of their sailboat. It landed up on the rocks below our garden and I rushed over to see if I could help. Fortunately, they had had gotten out on the rocks safely where their boat had beached itself before I arrived.

 

We spent the next 36 hours watching it getting pounded on the rocks mercilessly every 5 seconds or so by one wave after another. This now being an insurance issue, they had to decide if it was worth paying for a salvage operation or if it would be cheaper to write it off, destroy it in place and haul out the pieces. 

It was a little harder to get to than it looks in the picture because after the storm, the boat was high and dry on the rocks in a difficult place to access. Another first for us was to discover that after big storms we have to go around and wash all our windows as the sea spray leaves a coating of salt on all our windows.

What a problem to have...:)

 More of the usual

Month after month I write about our projects and the progress we think we are making in improving the home we are at. It would be easy to mistakenly think its always smooth sailing and that we really know what we are doing since in one way or another, we are always at it.

Time for a reality check. Take the plumbing I was doing earlier today for instance. I have done plumbing for decades. What you may not know, because I have never written about it, is the simple fact that I am no darn good at it. Friends that have helped me with other projects would be quick to point out, given the opportunity, that there are a number of other skills I am no darn good at either. But I digress.

You would think that doing something for decades would slowly improve your skill set. Balderdash! For me, plumbing has always involved 6 old bed sheets to sop up the inevitable ‘few drips’ as a result of my fixing things, and a whole slew of words I learned in prison. 

You would also think that at some point of being a dismal failure, you would throw in the towel (I could have used one of those too), but noooooo, I am nothing if not persistent. As I have told my kids many times, “half of success in life comes from just showing up”. I will not quit. I will try again. Maybe someday I will solder a joint that will not leak. Apparently, just not today.

Are we done yet?

In a word: no. But, we are almost ready to start! Hard to believe that we have been here over 3 months and having worked our buns off, we would be right on schedule, if this was February 1st. In these kinds of projects, the old axiom is that everything takes longer that expected, costs more than planned and is far more complicated than anticipated. This project is following that to a "T".

In January, I wrote about my building a poor man's workshop. This month saw it's completion. So here is how to build a workshop in 4 easy steps.

One of many building material deliveries made this month. Step one was getting the sand and gravel to make the cement.

Step  two: get a competent, knowledgeable  inspector on site.

Step 3: pour the stab, seal with black waterproofing (in background) and gather a little wood.

Step 4: simply assemble, tile interior, add finish and roof. Bingo, time for lunch.

Having come to grips with the fact that we will not come close to completing what we had planned and hoped to do this season, we have doubled down in ambition and pushed ahead with adding considerably more to the mix. We will focus on getting the ground floor of the villa, the exterior and the grounds in tip top shape, then do as much as we can on the lower level before we leave.

A little terrace tile

So, what's left to do? Well 770 sf (70 sm) of terrace tiling for one, 710 sf (64 sm) of Travertine stone tile for floors for another and another 330 sf (30 sm) of kitchen bathroom and assorted tile [not shown] in the living room and bedrooms, for starters.

Travertine stone floor tile

We'll need a few bags of tile adhesive to start...more to follow.

All this work doesn't just create a mess but at some point it begins to amount to something as seen in the pics below.

As always, all work / no play makes for boring grumpy people so we were fortunate enough to have Island friends Ian and Lyne drop by for a few days away from their French home in the medieval hamlet of AUDABIAC in the  Languedoc-Roussillon part of France to give us a break.

Full disclosure: I took ALL the pictures seen here this month. 
Eh... except for the good ones that Ian took.
When I have 7 picture books  published and I get a bunch of awards for my photography like him and spend what little remains of our children's inheritance on cameras and the like I will take great pictures too.

Picture Ian took from our terrace at night