L'aigrette sur le toit

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By now, most of you must be thinking that our life in France is just one festival after another, interspersed with healthy scenic walks. But sessions of Hard Graft do intervene.

Yesterday it rained, seriously. We were both doing different bits of DIY downstairs, so had no idea that the roof was leaking so badly that the water had coursed into the attic and then down again to the floor below, via a fast-running stream from ceiling to carpet. With weather like that, damage-limitation was the only option, but by this morning, the skies had cleared, and ….. we had to climb onto the roof. Our neighbour Paul advised us to clear away any moss, and look for cracked mortar. So for 3 hours, we both did just that. I’m not wild about heights, even when protected by balustrades and retaining walls. So clambering about our roof represents something of an achievement. As did the whole dustbin liner of moss we gathered between us.

The thing that made it worth while was the sight of an egret in a tree near the river, preening itself for upwards of an hour. Hence the title of this blog. It’s an allusion to a popular nearby restaurant which specialises in chicken dishes, Le Poulet sur le Toit. The egret wasn’t on the roof, but we certainly were, and had a grandstand view of this elegant bird before it eventually flew down to the river to hunt for lunch. We’ll be back on the roof for more tomorrow. Hope the egret pops in to see us.

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Photos

I take my life in my hands.....
....just to get moss of the roof