If I was an Author ....

Peter Mayle came to France to write a novel - he finally managed to publish his novel Hotel Pastis four years after being distracted by the challenges of living in France and writing A Year in Provence. Michael Wright came to the Limousin in France to keep sheep and ended up writing C'est La Folie see http://www.lafolie.co.uk/ for more information.

I'm didn't come to France to write a book and I'm not planning to write one - but if I did it would probably be called "Plaster - just why Britain and France are so /different".

I've written before in this blog about the differences between French and British plaster and how this seems to be a metaphor for some of the wider cultural differences between the two countries. We've been plastering again but this time using imported British plaster. Getting the contrast between the areas in the building that are new and sharp with the rougher finish of the existing original walls is a challenge. I'm sure that Kevin McCloud  would have a view on this but what we've decided to do is make the new bits smooth and modern and the older original parts of the building will have a more natural look. Going to one extreme or the other would be wrong (risking on one hand a faux vintage look or a modern interior that looks like it's been transplanted into a 250 year old building) so we're walking the tightrope of compromise.

Hence, after doing the old lean-to in French plaster we rumbled back from the UK in August with three quarters of a tonne of British boardfinish plaster on the trailer. This was to plaster the two end walls and the ceilings downstairs so, nearly two years after fitting the ceilings in the house we were back on the board lifter to install the barn ceilings. The boardlifter had also come back on the trailer from the UK and was a special 4.5m high lift version to (hopefully) allow us to install the high ceilings upstairs. Even Gérard, our roofer and increasingly our general building advisor, was impressed when I told him what we'd paid for it.

Barbara, Board lifter and Adam

The ceilings went up pretty well considering the large area we were covering and so to the plastering. Using British plaster requires organisation and timing and so naturally Barbara was in charge of the organisation and prepared her work area carefully:

 Fortunately Adam is pretty good at plastering and manages to cover about three times the area I can and so we managed to complete all the work in just over five (pretty intense) days.

Adam "Laying On" above the fireplace

End wall with first plaster coat applied

Finishing the doorway to the house

Before and after plastering around a beam

The kitchen plastered !

British and French plaster are different, neither one is "better" as they produce (at least in our hands) different finishes. The pink British stuff is smooth and flat, the French white version ends up a bit more rustic (ie: rough). But - the British version is less than half the cost of the French one and, because it goes on much thinner, probably costs about a quarter the price per metre squared.

Not for the first time I find that we are importing things that are available locally but, even allowing for the extra cost of running a trailer back to the UK, are much cheaper than buying the French version. As we want sharp, flat areas in places we can justify this on decorative grounds as well as cost ones but I find myself worrying either:

a) we haven't spent enough time sourcing local materials to find the correct suppliers (but actually I think we have)
b) there's a serious problem of uncompetitiveness in France that will surely cause the economy to stagger even more in the future.

Meanwhile the barn looks good and the word processor remains waiting .....