Bureau, Buroc, Bureaucracy...

Do you remember those old Dubonnet ads?

I don't remember the picture - just the slogan. Now I know it was a play on words as well as following the adman's dream repetition of 3, but I think Bureaucracy could be the same (although I'm not sure if 'Buroc' or 'Bureac' has any meaning - if it has I hope it's not rude!).

The reason for this bureaucratic post is that this afternoon I paid a visit to the Mairie in Le Dorat to look at the permitted paint colours for buildings in the town. The lady asked if I had put (in my deposition about mending the roof) that I was also repainting and I said no, I knew the colours were strictly controlled but I didn't know you had to have permission for the repainting.... ...Tut, tut, you should have put it all on the last application, but it's too late now, you'll have to do another one!

So, a small forest of paper later, a plan of the shop in the town setting and a plan of the town in relation to the universe , four pictures of the exterior etc, etc, later.... ...but she was kind enough to lend me the paint colour chart of which they had, of course, only the one copy. Bring it all back tomorrow, she said and, of course, it will take up to two months for the permission to come through, so you can't start the work until then.

Back home I thought I would scan in the colour chart for future reference, should I ever want to paint the insides of my eyelids while standing in Le Dorat, for example...

...two different printer ink cartridges later I had my copies...but they were a bit different from the originals, although the colour match was perfect on the computer screen. Damn cheap printers!
(The pictures above are actually photographs).

There was a Limoges telephone number on the chart so I rang up and asked if I could buy a chart for myself. The lady was very helpful and said I didn't have to, they were free, and she would put one in the post to me. Hooray for helpful fonctionnaires!

Just have to fill in the forms now.....

Space and Ladders

As you can see, all the beams have come out in preparation for new ones, so the shop currently has no floor at all!
The copper pipe you can see running across the front of the picture is the old water supply. It came in to the meter in the cellar, near the front of the shop, and was then piped left to go up the side wall to the kitchen sink on the floor above and, in a very convoluted way, to the right along the cellar wall and the left-hand wall of the back room at ceiling height, along a beam and down into the toilet in the back corner! You can see it a bit better in the picture below.
Click on a picture to see it bigger.

The Cellar!!

Well, it's sort of the cellar by default, as you can only see into it now as the floor has been removed. As you can see, the joists were pretty much all rotten, as we thought, and need replacing. We thought maybe some would be OK but it looks as if they'll all have to go. Seems a shame, but it's all grist to the mill wood for the fire.
The pictures are not brilliant because they were taken with the flash as we couldn't be bothered to take off all the shutters. Still, you get the idea.

One thing that I noticed was the newspaper hanging over the copper water pipe. Presumably this was considered to be enough to prevent it from freezing? I think I'll lag the new one!

The new floor will have a new hatch to allow entry to the cellar, although I don't envisage keeping anything down there. There is a chute into the cellar from the street which was obviously used for delivering coal, as it is blackened with coal dust. Guess this was the fuel for the old Rosieres cooker that was in the kitchen! The chute will remain, to provide ventilation, but with a grill over it to prevent rubbish falling in from the stree.

Old News

...and books...

These are some things that turned up in the shop....

The newspaper was pasted on the partition walls, under the 1960s wallpaper. The papers varied in age but seem mainly to be 1967.


There was one intact newspaper - I think it was found in one of the shop cupboards - which is dated 1964...
























As well as these there were some old paperback books which seem to have belonged to a Fernand Duchiron (there were some address labels I found some weeks ago to a Mademoiselle Duchiron, and also a gas bill from 1984) but I reckon Fernand is a boys name... although I have found references which show that Ferdinand is a girl's name!

Well, whatever, the book below has an inscription of Fernand Duchiron in the front...
...and what I imagine is the shop stamp, on the next page...


It is rather fascinating to have this little snippet of history and I hope to find out more about this family, who lived in this building, with a shop selling umbrellas and knives.

Glassware

One of the things I brought home today from the shop was some glassware and a few Limoges plain white chine dishes. They were in the old porcelain sink on the first floor, having been taken out of the cupboard in the kitchen when a previous seller had taken out all the shelves! They scrubbed up quite well...

More Room

Yesterday Ian and Fred started on the demolition of the internal stud walls. Today they were sorting the debris and I went and took some pictures.
Click on the mosaic to see the Chez Penny set on Flickr.

Electricity!!!

Today the EDF men came in their big cherry-picker truck and connected the electricity to the shop.


Hooray! The first step in a long road to restoration and opening of the shop!