We woke around 6am next morning to the sounds of breakfast being laid, but as we were not due downstairs until 8am there was plenty of time. We eventually moved ourselves to join the others and reality dawned, we had forgotten to change the travel alarm to French time - Mon Dieu!
After breakfast Paul welcomed us as a group and outlined his plans for our work projects during our 6 week stay. We discussed ideas around potential school trips, practical maintenance tasks and a directory of information for future visitors. Dave and I set to work refurbishing the window shutters. Paul had an important trip to make to Bordeaux and arrived back in the early afternoon with Donnie. another addition to the group, which now totalled 5.
The day was sunny and sufficiently hot to blister the fresh paint on the shutters. As we worked we became aware of the sounds of the countryside, the cooing of collared doves, the unmistakable call of a cuckoo in the nearby woods and the lazy lowing of cattle at Annie's neighbouring farm. Nesting house martins flitted in and out of the barns, going about their own construction business.
Come evening we had a hearty meal of "tatties and mince" which needed translation for the uninitiated - but from the Scots dialect, not the French, and we settled down for the evening feeling suitably pleased with our first day's efforts. The red sunset assured us that tomorrow would be another warm day, and coming from the chillier east coast of Scotland, we looked forward to that.
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