Up on the roof with Phil

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the roof
And all my cares just drift right into space
 

On the roof, it's peaceful as can be
And there the world below can't bother me

One of the strange things about France is that every minute of every day there is a Phil Collins song playing on a radio station somewhere. Pretty amazing for someone who doesn't sing in French and hasn't had a top five hit for twenty-three years. I've heard Phil Collins on NRJ, Alouette, Skyrock, Chérie ......

We started work on removing the slates and wooden battens from the roof today. Neither Adam or I are particularly happy working at height but fortunately we had a masterclass last week from Gérard Le Ray who is the couvrer (roofer) who will be installing the new roof. Gérard came round at 6:30 at night to meet us and immediately headed up onto the scaffolding to look at the new lucarnes and the existing roof. he then proceeded to give us a demonstration of how to remove the slates and climb up the linteaux (battens) nailed to the chevrons (rafters) - "just use them like a ladder". Somewhere near the ridge his phone went off and he proceeded to talk on the phone whilst holding his torch in one hand and pulling off slates with the other. 

So, this morning we stood on the scaffolding, looked each other in the eye and, in Carole King's words, climbed way up on top of the roof. Actually stripping the roof all seemed a bit quicker and more straightforward than we thought it would be:

 

 We've completed about a third of the total roof area, this has revealed more about the history of the roof. The oldest chevrons are mainly constructed from chestnut, have been replaced in several places but the original ones are fixed to the pannes (purlins) using hand made nails which probably dates them as pre 1850, the pannes have a very chequered history, some seem original with beautiful hand forged nails but in places they've been replaced rather bizarrely with what looks like the remnants of an A Frame. These are in poor condition and, together with the chevrons, will have to be replaced. The good news is that the ridge beam seems good despite the wandering line of the roof ridge and the various pieces have been neatly scarfed together by the original carpenters, the A frames still look in good condition from on top (we've only been able to inspect them from below up to now). The chevrons in the area of the roof that Gérard Le Ray was climbing on were in particularly poor condition and one broke off in my hands - I guess roofers just have a sixth sense .....

To distract us a little we had the radio on and, right on cue, Phil Collins came on with "Another Day in Paradise".