BUYING A HOUSE IN FRANCE - BUY FRENCH PROPERTY - TALES FROM FRANCE 3

Above: Dinard, Brittany, France.

Above: Honfleur, Normandy, France.

THE FRENCH PLUMBER

We had booked a French plumber to come and fix the immersion heater in the house in France as we had no hot water. Despite repeated phone calls, he arrived 3 days later than we had arranged. We were only there for a week and stayed in for those three days in case we missed him so we were quite annoyed. After he had fixed it, it lasted for a day and then broke down again.
The next time we were in France, we booked him again to come back to fix the immersion heater. This time he arrived a day early, got it working again, and presented us with a cheque for 50 euros saying that he had overcharged us last time by mistake, "It happens all the time monsieur". It lasted for a day and then broke down again.
The next time we were over in France, I decided to relax into the French way of doing things. I booked him to come back, put a note on the door telling him to go in and do his work, and we went out whenever we wanted and simply left the door unlocked.
Coming back from the bar one night we met him driving down the hill in his van. This time he had fixed it and it stayed fixed.

THE DOGFIGHT

Awaking on the first day of our first summer holiday in the house in France the scene that confronted us out of the bedroom window was an aerial dogfight. Spitfires were diving and wheeling against the backdrop of a clear blue sky, before swooping across the valley towards the house and, at the last moment, just when it seemed they must come crashing through the window, they would wheel to one side and swoop back out over the valley, uttering high shrill squeaks as they departed. One got the feeling that these House Martins were exhibiting sheer delight in their own flying skills.
On a recent stay at Agde in the Herault, I observed the same phenomina early one morning as I was taking my coffee on the roof terrace. I think these may have been swallows as they seemed smaller, but they were swooping round and across the roofs of the houses at high speed, weaving and banking in exactly the same way: like old footage of aerial dogfights from World War 2.