So we eventually signed, got the keys and arrived at Pissou (down a narrow, winding little road, 800m off the road which leads from the Col de Port to Massat) to wait for our removal van to turn up only to find that they had not yet moved everything out of the house - unbelievable! So we dumped their stuff where we could and then Mick from Milen Light Haulage (http://www.milenlighthaulage.co.uk) turned up and professionally unloaded our clobber into the ground floor. Edel and Neil eventually turned up and cleared their stuff out of the house which was a relief until we found that they still had loads of stuff next door at Claudine's and in their other barn which they would collect over the coming weeks. Thought we would never get rid of them!
The weather for the first week was damp, cool and apparently very unseasonal. We had no cooker (the oven that we had brought with us required a certain amount of wiring in), no hob (the gas hob we had brought needed mounting in some kind of surface and a gas cylinder attaching), so we ended up cooking on top of the 'poele de bois' (wood burning stove) which actually produced some very nice meals! Andy eventually managed to sort the oven and hob and some even lovelier meals followed. The washing machine (ordered from a French white goods website http://www.cdiscount.com) eventually arrived and we went out to buy a separate fridge and freezer - we have been quite surprised at just what good deals we were able to get over here!
Things that have struck us most since we moved here;
1) the peace and quiet! We are woken in the morning by the sound of birds and we hear the raptors calling over the woodland across from us. No sound of neighbours, cars etc.....
2) the quality of the produce. Whether it is the amazing bread that we get from Gils, our boulanger just 2 mins down the Col at Espies, the superb quality meat....
and offcuts for the dog that we get from the fantastic butcher 5 minutes down the hill in Massat, the stalls of fresh fruit and veg at the market, the superb local cheeses that we can get from everywhere or the very drinkable wine that we can get from the little shop in the village for 2 euros a litre (take our water bottle down and fill up from the barrel!)......3) the friendliness of the locals - such open, smiling people, full of warmth and welcome
4) the totally unspoilt nature of the area in which we live - some locals still make hay with a pitchfork and wheel wheelbarrow, goat and sheep herders still spend months at a time up on the hills with their herds.
5) the prospects for getting fit - the road bikes have finally had a dusting off and we are starting to tackle the cols! I have finally clicked with my roadie and am loving getting out on her. Apparently I look like a natural! In addition to the bike, my new Rossignol B2 bandit all mountain skis have arrived so I am already getting excited about the winter. There are also loads of possibilities for mountain running, there is climbing and bouldering just over the col at Tarascon and mountain biking possibilities are endless.
House renovation
So enough of the regional promotion thang, we also obviously have a house and a barn to renovate, which is proving, er, interesting! We (Andy) quickly realised that the wiring done by the previous owners was downright dangerous and that some immediate rewiring would be required. The first job was the first floor bedroom area, where Andy power-chiselled a channel in the thick stone walls into which lengths of conduit containing the socket and light wiring was then buried (see photo).
This was a very dusty, noisy and disruptive but very necessary procedure. The previous owners had taken the easy route by running unconduited cable down corners of the room before building unsightly plasterboard coverings which totally spoilt the lines of this lovely old house. The process also involved ripping off the plasterboard which had been mounted on the very uneven stud wall which separates the bathroom from the bedroom and laying new conduited cable for the lights and power before putting new plasterboard up.
Andy then had the fun task of using the wonderful French 'finishing' plaster which set rock hard even as he was mixing it! Oh what fun! A bit of googling threw up the hot tip of mixing the plaster with 'colle' which is used for joining plaster bricks and which results in a much slower-setting 'plaster'. Once we had finished with it the walls were flat, the cables hidden and, once painted white, the walls looked fantastic 
Our first visitor!
Mid June, Jamie arrived to spend a few days with us - yay! Was just fantastic to see him, although his stay was somewhat marred by a nasty bacterial stomach bug that I had picked up (probably down to the horses/cows up at the Col de Port contaminating the 'etang' from which the water is fed down to us (untreated, I should add!). He was bowled over by the place and completely understood why I had chosen this area to be home... thank goodness, although I knew he would! We had a delivery of plasterboard while he was here (destined for the attic.... eventually) which he admirably moved up the tight staircase with Andy. We also had a fab afternoon down by the river between Ercé and Aulus in very hot temperatures where we tried to entice the dog in to swim - hah, as if! What a chicken! But it was fun :-)
I have to admit I was somewhat tearful when I saw him off at Carcassonne airport.....
Various other stuff
So it is now mid August, and I have finally got round to setting up this blog, so that friends and family can keep track of what we are doing out here. In the interim, my mate Hils and Paul Reeve paid a flying visit in June on their road bikes, midway through completing all 6 mountain sections of this year's Tour de France! After a brief 30 min stopover to see the house, stuff their faces with pain au chocolat, croissant, tea and coffee, they were off - was lovely to see Hils :-)
We delayed our visit back to the UK by a week when we heard that John and Helen Rushby were coming down our way to see the Tour de France towards the end of July. We had a very sociable 48 hrs when my mates (and b&b hosts) Iz and Nick Evans also popped up from Narbonne to stop the night and then watch the Tour come up the Col de Port in the morning. John and Helen had their camper van that night and we all partook of Andy's fab cuisine and copious amounts of wine before we realised that we had to get up in the morning to cycle up to the Col in time to see the Tour before midday. It was impressive seeing the race pass through and just a shame that the Tour news over the following days put a dampener on the event. Anyway, John and Helen stayed with us that evening which was lovely! Next day, it was fab to see them actually relax, chill out, read a book on the terrasse and soak up the tranquillity that is Pissou. Shame we had to be off ourselves early the following morning as we started our drive back to the UK.
So an uneventful but tiring 10 hr drive back up to Calais on Wednesday 25th July (not a peep out of the dog - what a fantastic traveller he has turned out to be!), a stopover with one of our hosts (thanks for the hospitality Bernadette) and an early ferry on the Thursday, before being greeted by dire weather as we returned to the UK - quelle surprise! Back in Sheff, it was a mad dash to get the house ready for lovely Aussie couple Kelly and Gareth but we made time to meet up with Ads and Rik, Trudi and Julian at the pub which was just lovely! But finally, after what was probably one of the most stressful periods of my life so far, we handed over the keys to our new tenants with some relief and then headed down to Dorset with a fully laden car where we celebrated mum's 70th birthday on style, to the accompaniment of Jazzbomb (http://www.jazzbomb.com) - thanks for a great evening Sam! Was fantastic to spend a wee bit of time (but not enough) with Jamie who was managing the blueberry harvest for my brother. Also wonderful to see my mum and sister again plus the various uncles and aunts who came to mum's bash.
But we finally had to leave and had a very good crossing from Poole to Cherbourg and another 10 hr drive on good roads (shame about the intermittent heavy downpours) back down to Pissou.
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