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Gites Cognac - Cognac Gites Self-catering holiday accommodation Cognac, France

Le Moulin de Chazotte

News

Bob Todd writes: This page will be updated as regularly as possible to provided an ongoing diary of events at Le Moulin de Chazotte. The latest events are at the top of the page. If you would like to know more or have any comments please email us at moulin.chazotte@wanadoo.fr

April 14th 2008: The first outing for the latest addition to the fleet! Here we see half-term visitors Mike plus sons Alex and Sam in our new snazzy-red canadian canoe. Visitors to the Mill this year will have two canadian canoes to choose from.
I suspect that the ongoing competition to see which family can get the furthest upstream and back on our river in one day will really hot up this year. This canoe even has a cool box for those essential liquid refreshments!

NEW FEATURE - PROPERTIES FOR SALE
If you'd like an idea of what sort of place you might be able to get for your money in this part of France, then click here

January 3rd 2008: A very Happy New Year to all and lets kick off 2008 with some good news....Brittany Ferries have finally got their act together again and have reduced their prices in line with their competitors.

BRITTANY FERRIES PRICE REDUCTIONS FOR 2008!!

Not only that, but as we are members of the Brittany Ferries Owners Abroad Club you can benefit from an even larger reduction by quoting our special membership reference number when you book your channel crossing with them. We've already been able to help several of our 2008 clients and savings of £60 or more are possible. Not to be sneezed at (hay-fever sufferers excepted)! We recommend crossing from Portsmouth to St. Malo on an overnight crossing with a cabin. This means you get a free breakfast on board and are on the road in France, bright and bushy-tailed, by 8am. The drive down to Cognac takes less than 5 hours so you've got plenty of time to take it easy and stop for lunch or a bit of sight-seeing on the way down before arriving here at 4pm. Congratulations to Brittany Ferries, we used them for donkeys years but up 'til now they had gradually priced themselves out of the market. You can get more details on www.brittanyferries.com and we'd be pleased to give you our membership reference when you book your gite here.

December 4th 2007: "An ode to a Charentais watermill"
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going all cultural and poetic in my old age( it's far too late for that!) but, if I may, I am going to indulge in a bit of waxing lyrical. You see, I've just spent the past two days beginning the renovation work in the first-floor part of the Mill building which houses the millstones themselves. We've lived within a few metres of these stones for nearly 5 years now and I suppose we've more or less taken them for granted as being nothing more than three defunct albeit rather decoratively quaint lumps in the floor. But, ooh (this is where the lyrical waxing begins), ooh and thrice ooh, I am totally humbled, nay verily dumb-struck with awe and admiration for the chaps who put this mill mechanism together and actually got it to turn at all let alone grind grains of wheat into flour. The Mill closed down in about 1896 and was probably refurbished with new French burr-stones and cast iron components some 50 years before - so all this took place in the 1850s without the benefit of electrical power tools or internal combustion engines or winches, jacks, steel scaffolding, laser levellers, thermos flasks, mobile phones etc. etc....and least of all without Health and Safety at work regulations. Actually now I think about it, the absence of Health and Safety might go a long way to explaining how they DID manage to get it all up and running! Nevertheless those three neglected sets of Millstones with their uninspiring exterior bear evidence to the most extraordinary skills which were routinely practised in the days when there were literally thousands of similar watermills in this area, throughout France and Europe. (relax - end of waxing!)


Dec 2007: The three pairs of French Burr millstones. The wooden cover over the third stone would have originally had a grain hopper built onto the top of it.	Dec 2007: The wooden cover lifted off the millstone. Each of the three pairs of stones weigh at least 1.5 tons!	Dec 2007: The upper "runner stones" of two of the sets had lost their three iron bands over the years and as a result had cracked dangerously.

After much soul-searching we decided that the two cracked stones had deteriorated so badly that they would have to be removed. The plan was to leave the lower millstone (bedstone) of each pair in place and to try to incorporate them into the new floor as an historical record plus you'd still be able to see them above the mill mechanism in the room below. The iron retaining bands around the outside of each stone had disintegrated long ago so it was simply a question of using my hammer drill to cut them into manageable-sized lumps....or so we thought! As the chisel bit of my Makita hit the first quartzite block of the larger millstone it bounced around on the surface in a shower of sparks and made no impression whatsoever! So we went back to basics and after copious cussing and levering with a large crowbar we finally broke out the first piece and began to see how brilliantly these millstones were originally constructed. In simple terms each of these burr-stones was made by skillfully assembling a jigsaw of pieces of quartzite ( known geologically as Chert) giving a combined weight for each millstone of about three-quarters of a ton. The whole lot was then bound together with iron bands and 'glued' with, what looks like, a plaster of paris mixture. I gather that there are very few parts of France where Chert is found and that most of these millstones were made at a quarry near Paris and delivered, by cart, to the mills that required them.


Dec 2007: The first part of the cracked, larger runner-stone comes out. You can see the grooves to grind the grain which were hand chiselled into the face of the millstone.	Dec 2007: The remaining four quartzite blocks of the runner-stone. The bedstone below them shows the very characteristic radial grinding grooves of this type of millstone.	Dec 2007: The bedstone of the smaller damaged millstone showing the central iron arm (rynd) and the bearing which supported and revolved the upper runner-stone.

The next problem we had was how on earth to get the lumps of quartzite out of the mill and down to the ground outside. Quartzite is not only as hard as nails but incredibly heavy so even a 30cm x 30cm lump was almost too heavy to lift never mind stagger down the rickety staircase to the ground floor! Therefore with Health and Safety firmly in mind, our daughter Emma and partner Rob used their mountaineering gear and know-how to ingeniously rig up a block and tackle system to hoist the individual blocks up, out of the window and down to the ground. I should say a big thankyou to our good friends Rolf and Iris Kruger at this point for kindly lending us their hefty pulley wheel which was absolutely indispensible for the job.


Dec 2007: Rob and I taking the first millstone apart. The big chunk with the grooves in was so heavy we had to drill and split it into two pieces in order to move it!	Dec 2007: Rob and Emma's block hoist system which was attached to the roof beam above.	Dec 2007: A quartzite block being lowered out of the mill window. I'm heaving on the rope to pull the block away from the wall and prevent it damaging the stonework.

9th October 2007: Well, I thought we'd just about discovered all the different sorts of wildlife there is to be found in our unofficial French safari park here at the Mill however, today we caught ourselves a Genet. Hands up if you knew what a Genet looked like before you saw the picture below - now you know!

9th October 2007 - A Genet in the live trap

The background: Last week we put a live trap (a cage with a trap-door at one end) under the fig tree to catch a pole-cat which has been damaging the barn roof by lifting up the tiles. The trap was baited with honeycomb and a couple of eggs but instead of getting the intended pole-cat we found ourselves with a very handsome Genet. The picture isn't too clear, I'm afraid, because I didn't want to frighten the animal more than necessary by getting too close with the camera. According to our reference book, even though they are similar in appearance to cats, Genets are in fact related to the Mongoose. This one had a body about half as big again as a domestic cat and had a superb spotted coat with an amazingly long and bushy, banded tail. The head was much more pointed than a cat although at first glance it could possibly have been mistaken for a Siamese. These animals are nocturnal so we waited until dusk and Jane opened the end-door for it while I skillfully held the torch, at a suitably safe distance, so she could see what she was doing! (Biology teachers are trained to cope with this sort of situation - that's my story anyway!) Our beautiful temporary captive shot off into the night, none the worse for wear and hopefully a little more wary of our trap in the future!

13th and 14th September 2007.....and now for something COMPLETELY different!

April 2007: It seemed that the UK was enjoying better weather than us for a change but, as they say, spring is sprung and it's time to put away the winter woollies again until the end of the year...yippee!

April 2007: Without wishing to sound big-headed or anything, it looks like we could be on the way to becoming just a tiny, weeny bit famous. No doubt many of you are avid readers of expensive glossy mags such as Paris Match and Farmers Weekly. If so, you may already be regular patrons of BBC Good Homes which seems to be an excellent and prestigious monthly production. If you are fortunate enough to get hold of the MAY 2007 issue you will find within it a feature on...you guessed it...US!

October 2006: As part of our own ongoing integration into the European Community, we are proud and delighted to have been given a 3 star rating by GITES DE FRANCE about whom you can find out more on their website www.gites-de-france.fr

September 2006: September and October are an excellent time to visit this part of France. The nights are just starting to draw in a bit but daytime temperatures are usually very pleasant indeed. It's perfect weather for walking and cycling too.

July 4th 2006: Well, it's been a long time coming but, as you can see, I've finally got round to putting some pictures of L'Abricotier online. The gite has already been in use earlier this season but we've been busy with the little finishing touches up to now.

May 20th 2006: The theme for today, dear reader, is 'Rambling'...We were delighted the the mill was chosen as one of the historical settings for a guided walk of the area by a Rambling society. The ramblers visited several sites and at each one a short story was enacted by actors in mediaeval costume. You can see a chap named Hubert in the shot below who turned out not only to be a good actor but to be blessed with a superb tenor voice which he used to very good effect.

Also on the rambling theme, here is a picture of our beautiful rambling rose (excellent link, or what?!). This plant is reputed to be over 100 years old but it is clearly thriving still after we rescued it from the choking undergrowth at the side of L'Abricotier. Roses simply love the climate here in Cognac and this particular one has the most heavenly scent too. Jane has a wide variety of Roses growing in borders around the place and at this time of year they are quite stunning.

Spring 2006: May and June are a great time to visit this area because we usually get plenty of blue skies but without the rush of summer visitors - plus it's cheaper because we're only charging mid-season rates! Here are some of our guests enjoying some sunny site-seeing.

April 20th 2006: Time to spruce the place up a bit ready for the summer. The gardening tends to be on a slightly larger scale than usual! Tasks include raking the leaves out of the millpond, beginning to mow the 7 acre lawn and felling some of the poplar trees which died during the drought last year

April 4th 2006: The 2006 holiday season is underway already. Our first family group are lucky with the spring weather and take advantage of the high water-level in the river to do a bit canoe exploring too. The first group of swallows are already flitting around the field catching lunch on the wing.

January 30th 2006: Less than 24 hours after the snowy scenes at the Mill yesterday and we have a complete change of weather. We sat out on the terrace for the first time this year and had our lunch! The snow has completely disappeared and we have glorious blue skies with warm sunshine. To prove how warm it was, the cats came out and lazed around too.

September 2005: During the summer we excavated and started reconstruction work on the collapsed stables (L'ecurie). If you take a look in the "Restoration projects" section you can find out more. At one stage we found more than 20 ancient floor tiles buried in the compacted mud below the level of what was a red quarry tile floor at one time. The tiles are mostly badly broken but you can make out different distinct designs on them. We are told that the tiles date from the 12th century. Later on we uncovered some stone steps which I left in place and used as part of a new stone stairway. It's amazing to think that those steps and tiles had lain buried and undisturbed for centuries and that the last people to walk on them may well have done so over 800 years ago!!

June 2005: After a 12 month delay, work on the terraces and barbecue area at the back of the Mill began again. The terrace is shaped like a ship's bow with the burbling mill-races on either side. A large communal barbecue has been built into the original huge stone fireplace which was formerly inside the lounge of the Miller's house (now long gone except for rebuilt sections of the lower walls). It's a wonderful place to sit out with a glass of wine and soak up the last rays of the evening sunshine. The three pictures below show the gradual transformation from August 2002 to June 2005. The barbeque is now fully operational although there is still some finishing off to do.

May 2005: The second gite was finished just in time for the letting season.. La Maison d'Hibou has turned out to be even nicer then we imagined and comfortably sleeps 5. The gite has superb views to both the front and rear. The rear view is over the mill-races and into the poplar woods beyond. While from the front windows and terrace you gaze over across the vineyards to the ancient cognac distillery on the horizon.

August 2003: Things to do while you're waiting to have your house connected to mains electricity and water.........

July 2003 to May 2004: After nearly a whole year, we finally have a swimming pool.

June 2003: "Don't worry", said the Carpenters at the end of May "You strip out all the floors and we'll come back soon and fit the new ones". In hindsight, what they were actually saying was "See you in 3-4 months!" Still, we had plenty of other things to keep us occupied. The next little project was to start building the terrace right along the front of the house. There was rubble everywhere and the terrace was an excellent place to dispose of tons and tons of the stuff....which is exactly what we did!

May 2003: During April 2003 we drew up plans and had numerous site meetings with numerous different tradesman (Artisans), as well as the electricity people (EDF) and the French equivalent of the Waterboard (GDF). We wanted to get quotes for renovation work on La Maison Principale which is where we ourselves were intending to live. By May 2003 we had placed orders with all the appropriate companies and committed ourselves to spending a large chunk of spending money, too! We were promised that we would have water and electricity as soon as possible which we thought probably meant a couple of months at the most...talk about innocents abroad....we eventually had to wait 12 months before we could turn on a tap or switch on an electric light! So, while we waited for the masons, carpenters and plumbers to start work we got stuck in and started stripping out all the walls, floors, ceilings etc. By the end of May 2003 our house was nothing more than four bare external walls, an earth floor and exposed roof timbers...just a shell...ready for the rebuilding to begin. By then we had moved into our trusty caravan in the barn.

Early March 2003: Within a few days we had settled in and put together a temporary B&Q kitchen (Note: I hope someone influential at B&Q reads this because I'm giving them an awful lot of free publicity...Dear Mr. B or should that be Mr Q? We've still got several more kitchens to fit out here...have you got any spare ones you could send out in return for a free holiday?) (Fat chance!!). Most of our furniture was still in boxes and stored in the huge room which runs the full length of the Mill building. We did also manage to find the picnic table and the trendy Stella umbrella so we could sit out in style.

Late March 2003: Now this is the bit where any lady readers might get the wrong impression about my apparent lack of chivalry in sending Jane down to dig out the old well. Yes, I know it looks bad in the photos below but bear with me because there is an explanation! You see, it all started when we found the remains of an old well hidden under a mound of earth, stones and a rotting tree stump. I dug away the debris and lifted some ancient stone slabs to find the well itself full to the top with 'orrible slimy silt. The above-ground bit of the well had presumably been levelled or had collapsed at some stage because all we could see was the outline of the stonework (about 1 metre square) disappearing down into the ground. So, never ones to dodge a challenge, we decided to see if we could clear it out. I manfully started shovelling and after a while hit a sort of semi-solid floor about a metre down. Surely the well would have been deeper than that? The stonework of the walls was in remarkably good condition but we were fishing out large stones, lengths of rotting branch and bits of unidentifiable organic matter all marinaded in foul stomach-turning water. At that stage my arms weren't long enough to reach down any further so we decided that one of us had to climb down in there and get digging. You guessed it - Jane! The reason why it was Jane who got the short straw was that we only had one pair of waders and they were too small for me....honest! The problem was that we had no idea how deep the well was and whether the solid bit we had got to would collapse at any moment. So we put an aluminium extending ladder into the hole and Jane climbed down with strict instructions to climb like hell if the ladder suddenly started sinking into the depths of the well! I lowered a bucket on a rope down to her and between us well pulled out a mini-mountain of gunge.

After digging for an eternity, in between gasping for fresh air, we suddenly hit a slab at a depth of about 2 metres and we had reached the bottom. As you can see, the sides of the well are in very good condition and I have now started to rebuild the above-ground structure. Incidentally, after the well had re-filled itself, we had the water tested at the public-health lab in Cognac and were delighted to find that it was now safe to drink (not that we have!). Another feather in the cap of feminism!!

February 2003: On 10th February 2003 we moved out of the UK and arrived at Le Moulin...only to discover that we'd been burgled since our last visit! The robbers had taken all my power tools, our bikes and all our sporting gear as well as wierd things like kitchen cupboard door fronts! Anyway, too late to turn back so after hours of fun with the local police we moved in. We had brought out a garden shed (courtesey of B&Q) which became our new, ultra-modern toilet in the field...still only a hole in the ground...but this was REAL progress! The river was a raging torrent and the woods at the back were flooded after severe rain but the mill and the house seemed unaffected apart from some leaks in the roof.

January 2003: With the sale of our house in UK imminent, we hired a box-van and brought out a mini-mountain of tools, furniture, kitchen units, and other essentials. We carried on making the place as secure and comfortable as possible for a couple of days before heading back to shut up shop in Ross-on-Wye.

October 2002: On 29th October 2002 we signed the Acte de Vente and Le Moulin de Chazotte was ours...gulp!! By this time we had put our house, in Ross-on-Wye in the UK, on the market and already had a firm buyer. We brought out a load of stuff from the UK and set up a sort of primitive 'home' in the only vaguely habitable part of the mill buildings. So, here we were in the back-waters of deeply rural France in an house which had stood empty for as long as anyone could remember. A house which had no running water, no electricity and no sanitation whatesoever. We made a rudimentary earth-closet toilet out of a couple of beach wind-breaks and a flimsy awning.....and the adventure began.....

July 2002: The beginning of it all....Jane and I came over to France for our two week summer holiday with the caravan in tow as usual. We had made appointments to see several British-owned gite businesses and were basically intending to do a bit of research into what we could get for our money if we sold up in the UK and moved out to France. After a week in the Charente and Dordogne we planned to pick up our two youngest children, Greg and Helen at Bordeaux airport before working our way together gradually down towards the Pyrenees. Our eldest daughter, Emma and her partner, Rob were in the process of doing the GR10 walk of the Pyrenees from one end to the other ( a gruelling six week trek!) and we had arranged to meet them high up in the mountains so the whole family could spend a few days together. What none of us had expected or anticipated was that, before we even got as far as Bordeaux, Jane and I would discover, fall in love with and make an offer for Le Moulin de Chazotte near Cognac! However, having made the offer, unfortunately the Agent rang us on the mobile phone to explain that we had been pipped at the post by an American bidder and that the Mill had been sold. Such is life..so we shrugged off the disappointment and continued down towards Bordeaux. However, within a couple of days the Agent was back on the phone to report that the American bidder had pulled out...were we still interested? By this time we were all together at a lovely Camping Municipale next to the bullring in Aire sur l'Adour so fate presented us with the chance to have a family pow-wow and make a joint decision which would change all our lives irrevocably.


December 2005: Frosty barrels!	Jan 28th 2006: The river Chazotte in winter	Spot the two cats!	Jan 28th 2006: Ship's bow - rigged in arctic mode


2007 Son et lumiere: The seating arrangements. The spotlight was mounted in the window top left.	2007 Son et lumiere: The pre-show entertainment. Yours truly on the left and fellow left-hander Phil on the right. Trusty caravan with frilly cover providing the back-drop!	2007 Son et lumiere: An early scene where the miller's apprentice recues Francois 1st from the river.


2007 Son et lumiere: The miller's kitchen where the battle-axe millers wife awaits his return from a poaching spree in the King's wood.	2007 Son et lumiere: The royal court where the miller receives his sentence from his King for poaching.	2007 Son et lumiere: A happy family shot after the show as Elaine (Miller's wife) cheerfully strangles John (Miller) while the two young lovers look...er... lovey-dovey!


2007 Son et lumiere: After show hilarity for three redcoats (Alan, Brian and Peter) and a bloke with a chicken on his head (is that REALLY me?)	2007 Son et lumiere: The cast	2007 Son et lumiere: His majesty indulges in a spot of light chopping! Peter and Brian ham it up!


June 2007: Helen starts mowing the field	June 2007: Some time later....a couple of hours more mowing to go yet!	June 2007: Barry & Hector tackle the monster weeds!


April 2007: La Maison Principale with two magnificent ceanothus shrubs flanking the terrace steps.	April 2007: An outdoor meal in the warm evening sun on the Ship's Bow at the back of the mill.	April 2007: The wisteria on Le Hibou is only two years old but flowering already.


Sept 2006: WI PTD (Pineau Tasting Division) AGM	Sept 2006: Does this thing have brakes?	Sept 2006: For car-spotters, it's a rare thin-wheeled Beemer cabriolet. Sorry Dai!


July 2002: L'Abricotier showing the original superb apricot tree	July 2006: L'Abricotier - a new face and a new (though still a tiddler) tree!


May 20th 2006: A serenade for a group of ramblers at the back of the mill	May 21st 2006: An ancient rambling rose


April 2006: An immense archeological reconstruction of a Roman Temple and Thermal baths at 'Le Moulin de Fa' near Barzan	May 2006: A personal tour of Chateau Chesnel by our charming neighbour La Comptesse de Rofignac (facing centre)


April 4th 2006: The Barbeque is fired up after the winter shut-down	April 4th 2006: The canoe gets its first outing of the year


Jan 2006: Adeline soaking up the sun on the terrace	Jan 2006: Even at 17+ years old, Bola still loves the sun


March 2003: Home Sweet Home. Jane demonstrating the finger-tip, easy-slide B&Q drawer unit ( a boon for every kitchen!)	March 2003: The French life-style begins. (Yes, I know Stella Artois is Belgian but that's the only umbrella we had at the time!)


March 2003: Jane digging out the well in (small) waders.	March 2003: The well ready for re-filling


February 2003: The new plush B&Q toilet block (aka Thunder Hut!)	February 2003: The river Chazotte after heavy rain.


October 2002: Our new house!! All mod cons except water, electricity, 'phone, toilets, windows, stairs etc.	October 2002: The stylish outdoor toilet! Comprising two beach wind-breaks a flimsy awning...oh yes...and a hole in the ground!