| I've just spent the day removing the mud from | | | | the inside, and "point" them on the outside so that |
| between the stones of our house in Brittany. The | | | | the whole house looks like a wedding cake. We've |
| mud stands in place of lime or cement mortar which | | | | avoided the wedding cake appearance on the outside |
| were unavailable or unaffordable when the house | | | | - leaving the "belles pierres" to speak for themselves. |
| was built. | | | | On the inside we try to preserve some of the |
| The process gave ample time for reflection on what | | | | unevenness of the walls and leave party walls with |
| should be done when an old house is modernised. | | | | adjoining houses as they are - the rest covered in |
| Here in Brittany it is impossible to preserve a house in | | | | plasterboard that follows the contours of the walls. |
| its original state if it is to be lived in. All the memories | | | | The rooves were nearly always slated in Brittany, but |
| of those times - mostly the memories have died with | | | | the old slates have almost disappeared. They were |
| the people who lived then - would be of bad | | | | of poor quality for the most part, but even the |
| weather, mud, cramped living space, the cold and | | | | smallest were used (near the ridge of the roof). Like |
| privation. Today we can avoid these things but we | | | | nearly everybody else we replace with Spanish slates. |
| risk losing the spirit of these old places. | | | | French slates from the Monts d'Arree or Trelaze in |
| Ironically one of the features that we, and others like | | | | Anjou are only for the very rich. |
| us, proudly retain is the dated front door lintel. But | | | | As far as the floors are concerned we capitulate to |
| our French neighbours tell us that many such dated | | | | modern practice, so tiled concrete replaces "terre |
| artefacts were actually looted from the local manoirs | | | | battue" (=beaten earth) which was the traditional |
| at the time of the revolution. | | | | floor material. This lives on, by the way, in dances |
| The upper storey of old houses was always a | | | | called "pile menu" which originally accompanied the |
| grenier - never lived in except by mice who feasted | | | | actual process of consolidating the "terre". |
| on whatever was stored there. These days the | | | | So it is with water, gas, electricity and telephone: we |
| grenier becomes several bedrooms. They can boxed | | | | have them all but we often think about the last |
| in as normal rooms or left open right up to the ridge | | | | farming family which lived here. All four daughters |
| - 15 feet, which is what we have done in part. | | | | "bettered themselves" and the only remaining sign of |
| Next the walls would be as rough as the stone that | | | | farming is a plough and a harrow at the bottom of |
| made them, but possibly lime washed indoors every | | | | our garden.. |
| spring to control the population of bed bugs which | | | | How can you reasonably honour such people who |
| spent part of their life in the walls. Nowadays we | | | | lived such hard lives ? |
| insulate them and cover them with plasterboard on | | | | |