70) The making of a pool

Since my last post (rather a long time ago I'm afraid) the pool has made great progress and we are nearly pret a plonger.  I thought, therefore, I would give a blow by blow account of "the making of a pool...."

After the concrete base had been laid we had a torrential downpour.  The pool filled up with water (before it had any method of draining it) and the surrounding excavations turned into a claggy quagmire.

Undaunted our Portuguese macons turned up on time and got to work building the sides.

It didn't take long before it started looking a bit like a pool......

Then there was the  local technique to construct.  This is where all the equipment goes (pump, filter, valves etc).  We have designed this to be sous sol, firstly so it can't really be seen and secondly, so that any noise from the pump and so on is masked by its position under the earth.

Then (quite randomly) the chap turned up in a rather intriguingly rigged tractor to cut the grass in our field - a story for another time.

Once the walls were finished, the skimmers went in.

Next the walls were rendered to give a smooth finish.  I asked the (French) artisan if he was a platrier - plasterer).  Oh my goodness me no, he told me, he was a macon.  Plasterers work inside he said, trying hard not to make it too obvious he thought the client an imbecile.

In the midst of our chantier we saw this extraordinarily beautiful butterfly, which seemed to have been designed by Mary Quant.

Once the walls had been rendered (by the macon) they were capped off, ready for the margelles.

After quite a lot of discussion between the plumbers, the pool people, the electricians and the digger man it was finally resolved who would be doing what in terms of laying and connecting the cables and water pipes (this could easily merit a separate posting of its own).

With the digger back again (still, regretfully, without its key when it was left overnight) they got onto the job of landscaping the surrounding mud bath.

While all this was going on this most bizarre of creatures dropped in on us.  It looked like a leaf, but we think it was some sort of weird and wonderful moth (though we couldn't find anything quite like it on the internet).

With the basic landscaping completed, it begins to look like a real pool.

Following quickly on from the macons, the pool people started to be install the equipment in our underground bunker.

They then put the trim round the edge for the liner to be attached to.

On a wonderfully sunny day shortly afterwards, our two pool blokes turned up to fit the felt which goes under the liner (to soften the feel of the concrete render).

With the felt in place, the sable (sand coloured) liner was fitted directly after.

And then the water was turned on (with a rather clever ball cock device to switch it off once it got to the level they wanted for the next task - cutting the holes for the jets, the skimmers and the underwater light)

Today it got to 32 degrees and it seems set to continue.......

............but, for the moment all we can do is watch and wait as the water level rises slowly slowly....

69) Cahors en fete (ou en fou?)

A very enjoyable trip (as always) to the Saturday market in Cahors.  And (as always) we ran into some of our  (adopted) French family, Pierre and his enigmatic younger daughter, Camille.

It is the season of fetes.  And not to be out done, Cahors has a sort of celebration of gardens.  Various events have been happening, most of which we have missed, but one that is on for a month is a weird project to knit woollen knitted type things round random street objects dotted about the town - like trees for instance.

or the already rather weird sculpture outside the law courts........................

........and the odd park bench.  This made a bit more sense as it greatly improved the comfort of the usually red-hot iron municipal seating provision; and clearly it amused the locals.

There was also a display of (almost certainly crap) sculpture in the cathedral cloisters.  But we had missed it.

One thing we came across by luck, which was not part of the fete, was this rather intriguing (Zen?) garden in the municipal headquarters of the planning department.  It consisted of a few dead twigs in a tray of gravel, surrounded by an MDF, vomit coloured, up-sweeping border with a hole in it.  Clearly there was a great deal of subtlety and symbolism that had simply gone over our heads.  We couldn't understand why this too had not been highlighted in the fete.

It is also interesting to note that the building housing the planning department must be one of the ugliest and most inappropriate buildings in Cahors.  According to the sign outside, which no one has bothered to take down, it was once the police headquarters building.  One wonders how it ever managed to get planning permission; on the other hand.......

And in our own garden the lettuces are doing really well (the glass is there to give scale - it was the nearest thing to hand).