Don’t forget the sardine tin key
I very much doubt it, and there charges must have inspired the likes of Vrbo and Airbnb.
And the oyster knife, can opener, garlic press, cheese grater, pastry brush, …
Surely not! No R in the month.
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Just coming back to this topic and sorting out what I need to do. Did you make your curtains Jane? Or buy them readymade? If the latter, may I ask where you got them? I’m struggling to find anything half-decent, having googled “rideaux occulants” the choices are just too depressing!
I may well have to plump for masks at this rate.
What I’ve done previously @spj is buy a separate blackout lining and attach it to the curtain in addition to the existing one. I haven’t seen them here but then I haven’t looked. Might be less depressing than getting a curtain style/colour you don’t like.
Edit: There’s this sort of stuff on line…
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Re. Blackout blinds…
If you have South facing windows and keep the curtains closed during the day, you will be amazed at how much heat is generated on the black surface of the blackout material.
When I was in the UK, I had some blackout material that was double-layer, white (ie reflective) on one side, black on the other. It made a huge reduction in daytime room temperature.
(Edited to add)
It looks as if the French are ahead of me as I’ve just found these.
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I’m a cheapskate, I added an inner layer to existing curtains. Can’t check what it is as gîte occupied but we bought it from Mondial Tissu. A bugger to sew I recall! Also have thermal linings in other curtains from Moondream, which are aluminium and reflective so good for sun as well as cold.
The cheapest option is of course to buy a pack of eye shades!
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That’s why I usually add it on top of existing lining - not terribly visible and a heck of a lot easier to sew 
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How about roller blinds as I assume you don’t have shutters?
Sue is definitely into aesthetics! Roller blinds are for where you can’t do anything else! (Just my view of course and most men I’ve met would disagree 
)
The main problem with blackout and roller blinds is the sides - it’s easier to lap a curtain over the edges of an embrasure than to get a blind to fit without gaps - again just my experience and of course you may well have a different one!
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We have Velux roller blinds fitted to our Velux windows and they have black out material, no gaps either.
I do have shutters. And thanks for the suggestion David, but I’d prefer curtains that extend beyond the window itself. The bedroom windows are small and I don’t want anything in the if I say embrasure, it’s not quite the right word, but I can’t think what the word would be.
Yes indeed - that works well for our velux windows but “normal” windows are a bit trickier with blinds
Prompted by this thread, I checked my washing mitt stock to find some of them looking a little faded. Since we had a group of 6 young (French) women on our list for this month I popped off to re-stock.
They left this morning, and have just checked the gîte to close the windows. The basket of washing mitts is untouched!!! 
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I’m sure they will have appreciated the gesture,Jane
By the way - where did you get your mitts from? The ones in the supermarkets locally are a very suprisingly high price (not sure why…)
And often very thin as well!!!
Honestly I used to buy lovely quality sheets, up to 1000 thread count in Oz at Target ect at very reasonable prices. ditto with towels, so fluffy and thick. Here they are appalling quality unless you go somewhere ‘posh’ and pay a fortune!
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Local market…I didn’t ask where they were made, or whether organic cotton as the price was too tempting, 3€ for 5.