Another day another castle...

There was not a great deal we could do in the house with the builders in so as it was another sunny day we took a trip a bit further afield to see another castle!  Yes, life is hard. This time we went to Puilaurens castle, which is actually in the next department (Aude) but still only about 40 mins away.  I now take for granted empty roads, dappled sunshine through the trees and a stunning backdrop of hills and mountains.  It's such a change from my usual daily grind as I drive to work, through metropolitan Perth, stop starting at lights, and looking at the back of a 'ute' or bus. The views from the castle are not as spectacular as nearby Queribus or Peyrepertuse (which we visited a few years ago) but the amount of castle still remaining more than makes up for it.  For instance the cistern is still intact, as are some vaulted ceilings.

Afterwards we drove back but stopped again at Puivert (also in the Aude) at the Brasserie du Quercorb as I had previously enjoyed one of their tasty beers at Le Rendevous restaurant in Leran. I understand the brewery is run by an English couple who took over an old garage and converted it into a brewery.   They have a good range of beers I think starting at 3.8% and you can get it on tap there for €2.50 for a middy (half pint), which is comparable in price to the mass produced pression available in most bars.

 I think we missed rush hour!

The builders have been in!

Work has been getting done on the house....at last!  We had to move into the nearby Village Vacances for a few weeks to allow the builders to take over and work inside the house. We had no real concept of what levelling the downstairs floor and putting in a new ceiling upstairs actually meant.  It turns out quite a lot. On the first day we popped in to see how things were progressing. Well, our builders had taken over our place with an industrial cement mixer, a big truck,  and lots of bags of cement with what looked like polystyrene balls mixed in.

The downstairs floor being levelled and raised

I understand that in the normal process of laying parquet floor, when there is a slope they put in a layer of something called chape liquide to make the floor level before laying down the sous-couche (underlay). However, in our case, due to the more severe slope they had to put in a substantial amount of concrete instead!  It's probably a good job I didn't show them the top floor bathroom. Up there when you are sat on the toilet you are in the same position as a downhill skier!  Anyway the slope was a bit more than we thought and the floor is now 8 cm higher than before! Ah well c'est la vie.

Meanwhile the ceiling in our main bedroom was also being levelled. Before, it was simply floorboards, hence bits of sunlight and lots of dust coming through. Shame though to lose the beams.

The next step was to level it (we probably lost another 8cm in height there too!):

and finally put insulation in before creating the new ceiling:

We are also now very close to getting the floor finished. Unfortunately, although we over-ordered on the parquet we are missing a measly 3 cm wide strip - so close yet so far! - hence the job is not quite done.  However, we have a shed load of the accompanying skirting board left over so I suppose that evens it out!

We had hoped to get the wood burner installed as well but that's not now going to be fitted until we have gone back to Oz. Yup the dance floor is ready but no band arrived to play!  Plus those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that the kitchen sink is now more suited to hobbits as levelling (and raising) the floor has probably made it about 7cm lower than before!  Ah well, another job for another day!

So far during our adventure, downstairs has gone from this ...

... to this