Does berrichone = inglenook??? 
We are in the Berry region hence Berrichon. A typical fireplace is one that I can easily stand inside, and they generally have a bread oven attached.
My garden backs onto a ‘natural park’ where granite was cut for stone. George Sand ( who lived about 18kms away) based 2 of her novels here.
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Our chimney in the UK has been swept and the French chimney sweep comes in November.
Hopefully next year well only have the French chimney to worry about.
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Well I’m trying to organisea sweep for next week but either have the number wrong or I’m hitting the fact that French artisans don’t “do” electronic communication (in this case text, predictably there isn’t an email address).
We rang our sweep at the beginning of September and October was the earliest he could do so I hope you get someone.
Oops, I can see it might have to wait until the spring.
In once sense it is, ahem, well overdue as I didn’t realise we were supposed to do it every year for about 2½ years (i.e about this time last year) and then, with only occasional visits it was a “to-do” item rather than a “done” item - it still is 
Mind you we only light a fire a couple of times if we’re over in December or January - I doubt we’ve set a fire more than a dozen times since we bough the house. That said burning poor quality scrap wood intermittently probably means those 12 times have contributed more soot than they should have but I suspect we will be OK in practice for a couple more fires. It’s not as if the place doesn’t have other heating.
If you are absent a lot… and seldom use the chimney… it could have “something” lurking/blocking that is not obvious… or it could be perfectly clear.
You can buy rods quite cheaply and do a ramonage yourself, while waiting for the “official” one… then you can relax and enjoy watching the logs crackle…
I believe that with some installations a twice-yearly ramonage is the norm…
True, there’s a cowl to stop birds getting in/nesting though.
Hmmm, not sure about that - it’s a “closed” foyer - I presume that the plate at the top can be removed but I’m not sure - I see that some of the sweeps feed the brush in for log burners from the top, this might be the same (and I don’t have a ladder long enough to get to the top of the house).
Yes, not sure what circumstances would warrant that but given a bill of 120€ or so for two or three fires a year I think I would simply not bother.
Frankly for the use we get out of it I wouldn’t want to do it more than every other year.
Hi Paul… sounds like yours is an insert and you do need the professional chaps to do it.
Is there no-one locally, who has a key…and could stand-in for you when the sweep comes ??
It might be something to think about…
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It might be, although the chimney is an original feature as is the completely unused one at the other end of the house - there obviously was a fireplace in the kitchen (and stove, probably on a separate flue as well).
No.
I suspect the neighbours across the road would - they’ve offered previously but not knowing them all that well I always felt that it would be an imposition.
It’s normal to have to remove the baffle plate whether you rod it down or up to allow any large pieces of debris an exit. Whether you can remove the baffle plate securing screws is a different matter as many seem to use steel bolts/nuts.
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It’s nice that they have offered… and it might be worth while accepting… if you feel unable to tackle it yourself. It would not be an imposition… they would probably be chuffed if you accepted …
how long have you been neighbours…???
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I’ll have a look next week, I’m not terribly inclined to DIY given the chance of mess and done from bottom to top I’d worry about knocking the cowl out and not being able to get it back.
We’re actually unlikely to visit this Christmas - probably just long enough to put the heating on either just before or early in the New Year.
Quite possible - I feel a bit silly because I really am crap at spoken French 
Currently having to phone the sweep is stressing me out and knowing that he’s likely to be saying he’s too busy not helping. I suppose it much be the time everyone wants the chimneys swept before winter kicks in though so not surprising the sweeps are busy - there don’t seem to be many to choose from either.
We bought the house Feb 2015, manage about 5 weeks a year there so,… coming up to 4 years or 5 months depending on how you count it 
Oh dear… you are a bit stuck then… but at least you do have a good heating system, so you can stay cosy while you figure out how to chat with your neighbours…
In the beginning, I used to work out short sentences in English… play with google translate… and print out the French as a crib sheet… 
If you’re struggling to get a sweep over next week then I’d be happy to drive over and let them in if you can get an appointment arranged at a later date…then post the keys back to you…
I still go into crisis mode over my spoken French…one day I’ll feel quite confident…another day I can’t even recall the basics and know that I’m not even on par with a French toddler…
It happened several times whilst my family were here…on one excursion a little one maybe 2-3 came up to my two grandsons…they’re 5 and 6…she was barefoot…and we couldn’t immediately identify who she was with…my daughter was getting really worried…”mom who is she with…??? What’s she saying…??? Where are her parents…anyone could have snatched her and driven off with her by now…”
As far as I could make out she just wanted a drink of my grandsons cordial and she was inviting them to play and climb trees…x 
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Yes, I’ve done that if I know I have to do something face to face, but small talk is difficult. My written French is OK - with a bit of help from Google sometimes, I just don’t get enough practice speaking the language, and to be fair I’ll probably manage to speak to the sweep on the phone I just get a bit stressed by the prospect. It’s more knowing that I suddenly take on the guise of a stumbling imbecile when I speak French than anything else.
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A very kind offer, it’s a long way from you though.
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If it gets to be a real worry for you then my offer is there…x 
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When the sweep here in the UK did our wood burner he went from the burner up and when he got to the cowl he used a drill to rotate the brush as he pulled it back down.
He didn’t remove the cowl. He removed the baffle plate in the burner.
If you’re worried about a blockage you can do a smoke test.
We’ll see how it pans out.
However, it does seem that French artisans a very reluctant to embrace modern communications and in the case of sweeps there seem to be so few of them. If I Google “chimney sweep” locally (a town with about twice the population of Vannes) I get 26 within a 15 mile radius at least 161 of whom have a website and can be contacted electronically.
If I search for sweeps around Vannes I get less than ten, one of which is specialised to only wood burners and few have websites and fewer email addresses. As it happens there is one based about 20km away who does have an internet presence and web contact form so I’m going to try them.
I’ll get it done one way or another
1] the 26 hits is in yellow pages - there are probably more and some of the ones in YP who don’t have a website shown do, in fact, have websites when I google them.
How do people who have difficulty with the phone because of hearing problems get on?
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