We had a lovely break in Lisbon over New Year. The weather was mostly lovely and we had a great couple of stopovers in Salamanca on the way down and back - what a fabulous town.
Since then we have been doing a lot of work in our accommodation to make the new part habitable. The wood burning stove went in before Christmas and has proved to be wonderful. We have tiled the floors of the lounge, hall and bedroom and are now in the process of doing the walls of the new bathroom.
Meanwhile the solar panels were finally put in place a couple of weeks ago - just in time for the end of the Eco-Camps project. The panels on the top block are operating and at the moment we are taking full advantage of the option to redirect the water into our house. We have had a few really sunny days and we now have 1,500 litres of very hot water just for us!!
The end of Eco-Camps was marked by a final meeting in Bordeaux. We drove up at 6 a.m. last Thursday and took the tram into the centre of town to the Regional council headquarters. We did not look at the detailed programme until just before lunch, when we noticed we were down as speakers in the afternoon session!
The following day a coach brought a group of people from the meeting to visit one of the other pilot sites and then Beau Rivage. Unfortunately it was not one of the sunny days and the coach party was running late so they only had about 40 minutes here before heading back to Bordeaux. Still it all went well and our adjoint Mayor and Conseiller General kindly came out to give us some support.
The final fixes are finally being completed on the new chalets so that should sort out all the minor problems with them.
This week we are awaiting delivery of all the trees and shrubs so that we can get on with the new planting schemes.
Richard is talking to lots of salesmen before choosing the equipment for the snack bar and doing battle with the electricity companies to try and sort out what supply we need.
An afternoon off on Saturday took us over the col d'Osquich to climb up to the Chapelle St Antoine and enjoy the spectacular sunshine and views of the Pays Basque and the mountains.
A couple of our campers with caravans in storage here have decided to buy new vans and are hoping to sell the old ones - if anyone is interested we are happy to pass on the details.
2 comments:
Really good to see the blog in action again - helps me to focus on our return in July! Keep up the good work.
Alan & K
How good to have further news and that you have managed to have a break from it all. As Alan says it does keep us in focus and we cannot wait for the first week of June to see all that you have done since last time
Much love
Jill & Roger
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