Not to mention wallpapered fireplaces:thinking:
It’s good you found the problem before too much demolition happened- I never liked cabbage🤢. Reminds me of a time many years ago flat sharing. We had an infestation of flies, couldn’t work out where they were coming from and spent most evenings going round swatting them - bit of a competition who could get the most in 10 mins. Turned out someone had left us a few potatoes in a bag by the front door…
Good advice Stella - glorious evening, supper on the terrace, glass of lambrusco (summer’s come) and a huge sense of relief that we are not carting stuff down to the cottage and sorting out the mess that’s down there - I’ve been doing some lime mortaring and repairing the legs of some chairs, so bits and pieces all over the place. I can shut the door, continue washing the smelly clothing down there and enjoy supper.
Re legionnaires, we always have the hot water very hot (and warn our guests).
Yup Mark, the flies have been having a field day! Try frying an onion in butter gently, adding couple of grated carrots and a good handful of grated cabbage and a good pinch of something spicy, my favourite at the moment is creole. Mix it all around for a bit in the sizzling butter til the carrot, cabbage and onion begin to brown a bit. Then pour in about a quarter of a cup of water, bring to boil, salt well, pop lid on frying pan and let simmer for at least 20 minutes (30 is better as it’s all a bit more melded together.) Absolutely delicious way to eat cabbage. 
It’s obvious you use your gîte.
This was an official warning of possible problems, issued by the departmental “bureau of something or another”… issued to all folk presumably on their registers… who offer holiday accommodation…
presumably other folk have received the lengthy email… but I thought it worth a mention… and with second homes being empty far longer than foreseen…they too could have problems.
One of the joys of having the gite at the bottom of the garden - far enough away for us all (owners and guests) to have privacy, close enough that we can solve anything on the spot. So it never really gets shut up. OH back and forth at the moment painting all the shutters.
Ooh now that’s sophistication
We rented an apartment in Grenoble back in the early eighties that had carpet on the walls. Very trendy in the seventies it seems 
It also had an avocado bathroom suite if I remember correctly. They’ll probably be back in fashon soon.
good grief… I remember the Avocado stuff… 
we are now enjoying … pristine white porcelain… (which we would have considered uninteresting all those years ago…)
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Yes, the first house we bought back in '83 had an avocado family bathroom and a pink ensuite (or maybe the other way around). We never had the money to change them before we moved on 
I suppose we were lucky to get rid of the place.
I had one in my first flat in Croydon, very trendy…
and us in Essex with a new house in 1978… "magnolia throughout, Avocado suite (bathroom) 
Yes, you couldn’t go wrong with magnolia. And wallpaper, do you remember wallpaper?
In he bungalow we had before we bought the new house mentioned we used woodchip wallpaper. Watching Homes under the Hammer I cringe when the presenters diss the 70’s style - it worked well for us with a nice coat of paint after 
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Don’t talk to me about woodchip, Laddie, I remember Anaglypta and Grain and Varnish! 
and of course polystyrene ceiling tiles - lethal!
Firemen hated that, burning sticky gobs falling on them!
Has anyone discovered a way to get rid of Artex?
We are in the process of ripping those down.
Don’t you go knocking wallpaper now.
When we bought our Normandy house we were bewitched by the splendid textured tenture dressing the walls of our two impressive salles de réception (sniff) .
The coverings are 1mm thick and have the texture of fabric, to remove them would be an act of vandalism, a desecration, barbarism… words almost fail me, but not quite 
The stones would groan if someone attempted to strip them, like flaying a hog-tied beast. No! 
Non ! 
Pas possible ! 
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