With planning permission secured and the builder organised I need to get on with the installation of the underground services and to remove the first floor, all of which was agreed with the builder.

Materiaux Nord Blayais arrived with the first load of sand for backfilling the trenches but offloading to the land was not an option. The 9 metre lorry could not get in through the gates and electrical and telephone lines at high level prevented the crane from loading over the wall as we had done at Le Chai. The only solution was to offload it to the roadside in front of our neighbours land. No problem. However it will mean manually wheelbarrowing all the sand into the site for the trenches.

Meanwhile, the downstairs rooms was finally emptied of all stone. Only tiles to go now. Oh, and dismantle the little wall that both I and the builder missed in the quotes. Made a start removing the floors above the on the upper and lower mezzanine levels. These also need to come down (and be burned) before the builder starts. Am I running out of time?