Monthly Archives: October 2015

Ready in time for Christmas!!!

France, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, upcycling
Hello Dear Reader,
It’s flippin’ well started. Buy a sofa, oak furniture, new cooker or what ever in time for Christmas. You know how it goes, the world will stop revolving if your furniture doesn’t match, if you’re lunch doesn’t come from Marks’n’spensive and you haven’t got a that little black dress for the party season. It’s all a total load of sell it now, leave people in scraping debt for years to come and it will fall apart before it’s paid for anyway!
Enough! I’m going to record everything I want to watch on TV and fast forward through all the adverts between now and the new year to avoid the blatant buy masses more than you need to keep up with the Jones.
I found the chair in a local second hand shop for £10, I had the fabric anyway that I bought for £1 in a jumble sale a few years ago and had in the cupboard. It’s basically a cloth envelope with the cushion pad inside and the chair put back together. It’s coming to France with us as we’ll try to furnish the house, just like this house, with as many second hand items as possible. We looked around second hand shops in France and they wanted far too much so we didn’t buy there.
I know I’m ‘preachin’ to the choir’ here so how about you share something that you up cycled instead of buying new.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

Cheap holiday review

France

Hello Dear Reader,

We’re back. An eventful journey, the gendarmes were in the backs of lorries at the port and we were late leaving. Then, there was a medical emergency on board and the ferry had to turn back to Roscoff so someone could be taken to hospital. We were two hours late in the end. It didn’t matter, I was tucked up asleep in a cabin.

Now, I’ll share where we rented for the last week. It cost €200 for the week, which as about £160 and it sleeps five. It had everything for a baby in the house with a travel cot and high chair. Unusual for a holiday rental, it had a bath which was a luxurious addition which I made the most of.

The open plan living room and kitchen has a wood burning stove which heated the entire cottage and there were also oil filled radiators in every room too. It as so cosy and a real rural retreat with no streetlights, no traffic and no noise. A week there has revived me.


The main bedroom.


Twin room.


Single room.


Views across the moors.


Huelgoat forest nearby.


Huelgoat lake.

We’ll be back there at Christmas as our own home won’t be dry enough for a while; our first stay will be at Easter. The flat is bone dry, habitable and we’ll live in there until we get the house in order. After that, the flat will be for guests, who knows, that could be you. Rent? Switch the heating on and off in the main house, light the wood stove and keep it going a few hours a day, open and close the windows, turn the dehumidifier on and empty it. It will do the house a favour by helping it dry out so we can paint it at Easter.

It’s a beautiful area and I hope to do all I can to promote it and share it with you.

Email me for the link to the holiday rental in Berrien on the outskirts of Huelgoat, Finistere, Brittany.

My journey has worn me out, and I’m off to bed.

Froogs xxxx








Before, after and inside a Breton renovation.

France

Hello Dear Reader,

Here’s the first ‘before’ and ‘after’. The above is the house when we arrived. Weeds, ivy and wisteria trying to eat the house. Shut up and hidden at the end of a long garden, this old house needed some light. It as the very first time we visited with the estate agent.


Here it is with the weeds removed, so we could get to the windows and open them. The windows at the front are double glazed wooden windows just in need of a sand down and paint. I pulled all the ivy and weeds from the doors so the shutters could close and be securely locked.


Here’s the view from upstairs across the village and towards the forest. This was on an overcast autumn day and it will be wonderful to watch the colours change throughout the year.


Inside, it’s in good condition. It’s a good job you can’t smell it as it’s funky from being closed up for years. There will be so much more light when the trees are cut down in the garden. There is work to do but nothing desperate. Our first job will be to dry it out as, can you believe this, the back door was left open for years! This picture is the middle floor and we will build a corridor to turn this huge open space into another room.


The picture above is part of the apartment on the third floor, this has an external staircase and separate entrance. We’ll stay here on our first few visits.

We’re packing up the gite tonight as we’ll be at the ferry port at 7am tomorrow for the six hour crossing home. We’ll go visit the French neighbours tonight for an aperitif ( I thought that meant one drink, but they seem to think not) as they are very sociable.

It’s been a lovely short break albeit a bit of a worry when visiting the house, bank, Notaire but staying in the middle of the moors in a tiny hamlet with no traffic or street lights has really recharged our batteries.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx



Food Heaven

France

Hello Dear Reader,
We’ve had another productive day. We met with the local bank and opened an account then and there. Full bank services for a €8 a month fee, about £5 a month. We could have opened a post office account for no fees but chose the bank where they were the most patient with our slow French. With the rest of the day to ourselves we went for a wander around Morlaix and headed to the supermarket for lunch. Eating out here is oddly affordable, €12 for two courses and coffee. Service was brilliant, with patience with our French. We ate hake cooked in a butter sauce with salad and floating islands for dessert.
We popped into the supermarket, just for lunch but picked up some kindling and fire lighters. At home we forage for pallets to break down from the industrial estate but we had to buy some. Firewood comes with the rental property.
Anyway, a slight detour to take photos of the amazing food. It’s affordable for us as sterling is stronger than the euro but it’s not cheap. That being said, the quality makes up for the price.
There was an entire aisle of cheese, a counter full of ‘artisan’ cheese and an end of aisle display of cheese from within a couple of miles of Morlaix!
Preserved sausages, love this, even if it will allegedly give us all cancer if we so much as look at it!
More cheese, it smelt wonderful. It’s wasted on me, I’m still watching my calorie intake.
Something I love about France. Vegetables with dirt on them! I’m a grown up, I can wash my own veg.
Something the gets right on my nerves is packaging! It’s almost impossible to buy some salads in the UK without plastic, I love picking up a lettuce, putting it in my bag for life, showing it to the till staff here and them charging me. No need for any bag!
Flowers are big business here and far too much money to buy for no reason, but they are every where for people to take to graves for All saints day.
We’re now back at the gite, fire roaring, feet up and sitting in the peace and quiet.
I can recommend Brittany at autumn half term, it’s low season, ferry is cheaper and just as lovely without the summer sun. I hope some of you get to visit one day.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxx

Renovating a house in Brittany

France

Hello Dear Reader,
We’ve spent today at the house. It’s not ours yet but we had permission to go in. We did some clandestine gardening as we cut a whole tonne of ivy and vines that had smothered the house. We needed to get some light in so the trades people could see their way round the house.
DB in the overgrown garden and the pile to his left is what we removed from the front of the house. It was so overgrown that the shutters wouldn’t shut.
Steps at the back with brambles a plenty. This borders the forest. Still no wild boar! Not so much as a pheasant! I swear when I actually see any wildlife, I shall cry with excitement.
The forest behind the house.
The house now clear of vines and we could get some light in and give the house some air it dearly needed.
It’s crying out to be brought back to life. The French don’t want mouldy old houses, they leave those to crazy Brits and build new, air tight and cheap to run modern houses. This has been empty for over five years.
None of these shutters would close properly until we set them free.
A view down the garden. There are no paths, you just have to squelch through the mud.
The view from upstairs.
Well, you saw it here first. The before shots.
Yesterday, we went off and bought electrical items, a sofa bed and a few small electrical items on offer in Lidl. Sofa bed and big items were all reduced items in BUT. We had a set amount of money and firmly stuck to it. We’ve met with the ‘door man’, the electrician and have a quote from the arborist. I don’t haggle with ‘artisans’ and respect their right to choose as they please. I always get several quotes and I’ve made sure all of them were locals. We looked around a couple of Depot ventes and were unimpressed with what were prices hardly any less than new! Beds were ridiculously high in price so we’ll strap an English one to the roof of the car and bring it over on the ferry.
We’ll do most of the work ourselves from fitting a kitchen to hacking off and replacing blown plaster. Most of what is there will stay including brown tiles! Not my colour but there’s nothing wrong with them.
We’ve measured every room, door frame and window twice! I’ll now count round charity shops, eBay and discount fabric for curtains which can be any colour as long as they make it look homely.
We’ve taken hundreds of photographs so we can look back at where we started.
So Dear Reader, as promised, a first glimpse xxx
Froogs xxxxx

In a gite, no wild boar!

France



Hello Dear Reader,

I’m five miles north of Huelgoat in Tredudon le Moine which is a tiny hamlet in the national park. No street lights, no passing cars and so far no one but us and the immediate neighbours. We collected the key off the French lady next door who greeted us like long lost family. She’s lovely and her English husband’s already invited us over for a drink. Note to self, don’t try keeping up with the French, they’re experts!

We drove off into the village and bought a few provisions, including some local cider. Our plans for this weekend are to spend today by the wood burner reading and heading off for some forest walks tomorrow. I’m worn out and really enjoying the quiet. I’ll get my breath back by tomorrow.

There are lots of hunters round here, if you don’t hear from me again, I’ve been shot! I asked about wild boar which are allegedly round these parts. I found out they can travel miles over night but the neighbour, who’s a hunter himself has never found one. If I want any, it’ll have to come in fillets from the butchers.

I’ll take some ‘walkies’ photos tomorrow.

Love Froogs xxxxx


France with Love

France



Hello Dear Reader,

This is the happy look of a couple of thrifters on a cheap week away. We watch our finances, keep our bills low, check our expenditure so we can do more with our lives. We are not wearers of hair shirts and we certainly don’t live miserable lives, far from it.

We’re in a budget hotel tonight, we ate on the ferry and we’re off to a rural gite tomorrow. Off season, there are some stunning places to visit and by self catering, it can be within budget.

The gite doesn’t have wi-fi so I’ll ‘phone blog’ for a few days. We’re at the house on Tuesday and I’ll sneak you a photo without giving too much away.

See you tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

A week in Huelgoat

France


Hello Dear Reader,

I’m still here! Life has been all autumnal, soupy, stewy and heated by the wood stove with cool morning dog walks and quiet evenings.

I’m off on my cheap travels tomorrow afternoon. (Huelgoat - pronounced well-gwat)

We’ve got a ‘club voyage’ membership for the ferry which gives us 30% off ferry crossings and discounts for food and cabins. We’ve trawled the rental sites, found an area we love and found a three bedroom gite, with wood stove to rent for £150 which for the school holiday is fantastic. We’ll self cater and do a lot of walking.

Holiday cottage - mine might look like this in the distant future but currently is a dusty fixer upper.


We’re visiting ‘the house’ on Tuesday to meet some trades and to measure up for the work we’ll do ourselves. We’ll have a couple of days ‘mooching’ about the local area and some quiet time to chill out in a moorland cottage with a blazing fire.

I’ll share it with you.

See you in France.

Froogs xxxx

Feed me quickly, without fuss!

Budget recipes, Recipe



Hello Dear Reader,

Quick recipe for stuffed mushrooms. More assembly than cooking. Perfect for when you can be bothered to cook and I can’t be bothered this weekend.

5 portobello mushrooms
300g pack of feta
1 chopped onion
1 beaten egg
1 pack ready cooked quinoa and brown rice
1 pack of chopped kale, steamed to your liking.
1 sliced of cheese for each mushroom - i used the sliced sandwich cheese
serve with salad

Combine the ingredients, top with cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Serve with salad. Put your feet up, it’s been a long week and eat healthy yummy nosh that’ll nurture your soul too. I’m eating lots of easy assembly food at the moment as I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. We all get like this once in a while but hey, it’s cheaper than the takeaway!



I’m brain drained. I’m trawling eBay, free ads, freecycle and local auctions to furnish the French house. So far, I’ve gleaned…….small undercounter freezer, click clack sofa bed, double bed frame and so on. Everything will be wedged in the corner of my dining room, stacked up ready to take with us in December. We’ve hired the UK version of a U haul trailer which worked out cheaper than hiring a van. We’re buying here as we’ll take everything we can second hand and we’ll look out for second hand items when we’re out there too.

We’ll be back there next Saturday staying in a bargain gite on the moors and we’re really looking forward to lots of walking, outdoors, vide grenier on Sunday in Morlaix and a womble around the local depot ventes in the local towns searching our necessities at bargain prices. I don’t pay much here and get everything second hand and I’m going to do the same here too, especially for kitchen items, small pieces of furniture and decorative items.

I’m so distracted that this week will mainly be ‘on toast’, out of a tin or the freezer and will involve list making, packing and bidding on ebay.

Over to you Dear Reader, who else gets moments where you’d rather sit in a ditch than cook? We can pat ourselves on the back if we manage egg and chips as it’s cheaper than the chippy!

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxx

I love risotto

Recipe
Hello Dear Reader,
Went off to meet a friend for a pot of tea and a chat at our local Waitrose today, handed over my loyalty card and had my free drink. I thought they stopped that so I really enjoyed it for free! There are things they sell there that I can’t buy in Lidl or Aldi such as wild rice and quinoa. As I have a loyalty card, I can pick the ten items I want with a discount and I’ve made the items I can’t buy elsewhere as my ‘favourites’. I could go to Tesco but that’s further away…..p.s other supermarkets and local stores are available.
I’m also fond of a proper lunch, like the rest of us, I only get that at the weekends. I also like the time to slowly make a risotto.
2 tbsp oil
1 cup of wild and whole grain rice
1 chicken stock cube and a litre of boiling water
1 cougette chopped
1 large red onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
2 low fat cheese triangles
1/2 salami or chorizo - optional, we’re cutting back on meat and just felt like some today.
3 crushed cloves garlic
Heat the oil
Add the onions, courgette, peppers - sweat for 5-10 minutes
Add the rice and stock
Stir for twenty five minutes, add more water if required.
Just before serving, add the cheese.
Lush!
The go for a huge walk to burn off some of that heap of calories.
Over to you, does anyone else use a loyalty card to get some special offers?
Until tomorrow xx
Froogs xxx