Demolition Derby Begins

We're having the lion's share of the work on the house done for us via a local contractor, but we thought we'd save some money by doing demolition ourselves. 

We intended to remove the partition from the living room this trip, at least.

As it turned out, we got a lot more done that that. We got a large portion of the piquetage done. Piquetage means stripping the plaster and cement off the walls to get them back to their original construction, which is stone and daub. The goal is to restore the wall to better health before continuing work - with daub walls, materials like plaster and cement prevent the daub from being properly aerated.

Noah, removing the partition

Frédéric, thinking, what have we gotten ourselves into?

Frédéric and Benjamin: Do we call this progress?

Benjamin did a large part of this wall, in the kitchen

Frédéric's brother stopped by to help in the entryway/bathroom

People who plan ahead would have rented a dumpster. We are not those people.

 

The Garden

 The money pit does have a great lot, it's about half an acre and has a lot of flowers, a chicken coop, a pig house, and fruit trees. 

front yard

chicken house, also currently home to millions of spiders

pig house

pig house - in French, porcherie... Benjamin says it's where you keep the Porsches

front side yard

apple, plum, and wild cherry trees in the yard

Project or Money Pit?

Back in the spring, we made an offer on a ... well, house is a rather big word for it, given its condition... in Normandy, with the idea that after renovations Frédéric's mother could live there if she needed somewhere to go. At this point she's less than lukewarm about the idea, but we finally closed at the end of September, and can start renovations. If she's not interested after renovations, I guess we have a vacation house. 

Did I also mention - this is the first time I've seen the house in person. We put an offer on it, got estimates for renovations, got our financing in order, and closed, all without my having ever seen it other than in photos. 

The house is located 20 minutes from beaches, 50 minutes from D-Day beaches, and an hour and ten minutes from Mont St Michel, and five minutes from Frédéric's sister and her family, and from their mother. 

the house in all its glory

chalet tacked on to the end

living room, split in two

other half of the living room

kitchen

entryway, which will become the bathroom

kitchen

barn, which will become a bedroom

barn, which will become a second bedroom

the chalet

watch that first step, it's a doozy!

Official BIA Certificate

Noah's official BIA certificate came in the mail. It was something of a process, as we had to phone the rectorat, then send a letter asking them to print it, enclosing a paid envelope with tracking, which they would then only send to city hall and Noah - and no one else - could pick up there, during one of the seven hours a week city hall is open, five of which fall during school hours. 

Fortunately, it arrived during school vacation, so Noah was able to go pick it up. Unfortunately, it contains an error as to where he was born, so now we have to start the whole process over again...

Aisne Departmental Championships: Day 2

On the second day of departmental championships, Benjamin came in 3rd in his age group in 400-meter medley and 200-meter freestyle. Noah came in 2nd in his age group in 200-meter freestyle, and 3rd in 50-meter backstroke, 400-meter medley, and 50-meter breaststroke.

Benjamin in his happy place

Noah and Benjamin

Noah and Benjamin

How you're most likely to see Benjamin start his races

Noah and Benjamin, side by side in the 400-meter medley

Noah, 3rd place

Benjamin, 3rd place

 

Aisne Departmental Championships: Day 1

 The boys swam in the departmental championships today, which fell a full three weeks earlier in the season than usual. 

Nonetheless, Benjamin came in 2nd in 200-meter backstroke, 2nd in 1500-meter freestyle, 3rd in 100-meter backstroke, and Noah tied for 2nd in 50-meter freestyle.

Noah, ready to dive during warm-ups

Frédéric got roped into qualifying as an official

Benjamin, warming up

Noah, ready to go

Benjamin, 2nd place

Noah, tied for second place

Nowhere Benjamin would rather be

Interclubs at Crépy-en-Valois

Noah and 3 of his teammates swam at an interclub meet today in Crépy-en-Valois - Noah's first meet this season. 

They managed 7.6km between them during a 30 minute event and Noah maintained his times from the end of last season in 50-meter breaststroke, 50-meter freestyle, and 100-meter medley.

Ready to go

Noah in breaststroke

Noah's posture when he sees a camera

 

FWA / BIA Ceremony

Last summer, Noah decided to sign up for an online course to pass his brevet d'initiation à l'aéronautique (initiation to aviation certificate). He found a program and attended online lessons every Wednesday evening for two hours. 

Today was the graduation ceremony, in Paris.

We took the metro in, which also served as a family history lesson - line 13 is the line Frédéric's dad drove

The ceremony was at the Sorbonne - fancy!

This is the certificate from the program; Noah also got his BIA certificate from the state

The "godmother" of the program was Virginie Guyot, first female commander of the Patrouille de France, French aerobatics team