
Mysterious objects
Hello to you all
I hope you have had a great week? I have enjoyed hearing from some of you – your comments mean a lot to me. It is also very exciting to know that there are people out there reading this each week – the ramblings of someone trying to renovate an old house, make a new life, keep working and generally deal with all that life sends, and of course French admin.
I have some amazing friends (you know who you are) who have been very kindly encouraging people to follow our journey through the Coffee and Chocolatines blog. This week one friend in particular, Susi, recommended the blog to her followers. I was quite overwhelmed.
Let me tell you a little about this fab lady. Susi has the most amazing shop in Salisbury – one I miss. The shop, Casa Fina, is an emporium of treasures, old and new and the perfect place to find gifts. I can’t tell you how many presents I have found there – beautiful and often unique items. Some of her latest finds would look lovely here – one day! If you find yourself in Salisbury you must visit, but she also has an amazing website www.casafinasalisbury.co.uk . Thank you Susi.

My hand is slowly recovering after the cat incident (see blog post: Contretemps with the cat). I can finally dry my hair and have even managed a tiny bit of left handed gardening. I have so many things to plant now so this mishap was not well-timed. I have to say I was a bit fed up with it all last week, but honestly I am lucky and just need to be patient. Not my strongest talent!
I mentioned last week that we have been accepted for the insulation scheme – an amazing piece of news. Max and I have been mapping out the next few weeks as the work to wrap the attics in cuddly insulation (not pretty but very practical) will be done on May 26th. We have (well he has) a lot to do to get ready as there are boards missing in various places in the attics, including a hole out onto the second floor terrace. These are jobs we have always needed to do but a definite deadline date does help move things forward.
When the tower roof was being done, part of the top of the wall above the second floor terrace door fell out – not surprising once we saw how it was built! Amazing that it hadn’t happened before. I would love to put some glass into a small part of it so a little of the bones of the house can be seen, plus I think it would add interesting light and a little picture view to the attic. Looking at the gap this takes a large amount of imagination but bear with me, although this project is not top of the list right now. It will have a temporary cover while the insulation is being done.

While measuring up to replace some old floorboards with different old floorboards, Max had a good look at the old tiles that are in various places in the north attic. I mentioned these in the post: Up to the belvedere. Our north attic is a fascinating glimpse into the history of the house. When the roof was being redone, we discovered that there was a layer of flat terracotta tiles under the roof tiles – almost like a form of insulation. They must have weighed a tonne – it is lucky the walls are nearly a metre wide. The attic is also tiled at one end, like a floor – who knows why. Maybe for storage? There is also a very dusty old pulley up there, which I have to confess I have only just noticed. I suppose grain was probably dried in the attic as it has little shuttered openings that apparently would be opened in the summer.
Much more fascinating is the layer of tiles beneath the attic floorboards. It is really interesting looking at the structure of the house. Again I wonder if this was some form of insulation? The weight of all these very solid tiles is incredible These tiles are now suspended by wire, which doesn’t look old. Were they always? Was the wire replaced at some point, perhaps when the rewiring was done and new ceilings installed by the previous owner? Maybe it was necessary to secure the tiles first. So many questions. There doesn’t seem to be space for someone to add in all these wires, nor can I imagine that anyone would take all the tiles down and put them back. Maybe I should see if the previous owner can shed any light on this?

When the roof was redone the flat tiles were sadly replaced with wood. We kept the tiles for use in the garden and various projects as they are beautiful, very old and in good condition. I had been wondering how long they were there – and assumed since the house was built.
However a further discovery this week under a broken and rather wood-wormed floorboard was that the floorboards are actually the old ceiling and once upon a time it was pale blue. Locally this colour is known as pastel and was originally created using woad I think. The paint is now rather water stained but actually that makes it rather beautiful. The old tiles were obviously added later but have clearly been there for a long time. It would be amazing to be able to date the paint. I am beginning to feel like I am writing a mystery story rather than a blog!



I have also been puzzling over our middle attic. I have a theory that when the tower was added and that end of the house made a little more grand that the original entrance to the middle attic was lost. The end wall is certainly newer than the external walls. This attic is also a lovely space but currently only accessible through a hole in the wall. Fascinating – the construction of this house is a bit of a conundrum.

I also wonder what type of house was here when Raymond D’Agen inherited it in 1595. We think the oldest part of this house was built in the 1790s and the tower added in the mid to late 1800s. I have started looking at what is online at the archives départementales in Albi. There are documents dating back hundreds of years. I have found further parish records for 1737-1792 with some mention of the house. They are incredibly hard to read as the handwriting is very elaborate. I have also discovered some details of land ownership in 1545 but cannot make head nor tail of them online – impossible to decipher. Not sure if I will be able to in real life either but I feel that a visit to the archives is becoming a must. I have also been going through my research to date and have a definite gap in the late 1770s to 1799, when the house appears to have changed hands, ‘transferring’ to a soldier who served under Napoléon 1st. There is a lot more to find out.
When we moved the previous owner gave us a box of papers he had found but had never gone through. We also discovered various bits and pieces in the attic, some of which are in the post Projects Galore! I have just tidied up 2 boxes of papers and bits and re-found a curious object. It is quite heavy and seems to be made of brass and alabaster or marble. It comes apart but not for any obvious reason. Could it be a lid of something? Any ideas? I think is destined to become a rather beautiful paperweight, once cleaned up.
In the box was also this roll of wallpaper which may date back to the 1920s – the heyday of this company’s production and popularity. The quality is amazing, such thick paper. Somewhere in the house I am going to frame a piece of it for posterity.

It was made by Paul Dumas in France, who produced furnishing fabrics and wallpapers. He had a factory in Paris, constructed in 1913 to replace the factory he had acquired from the Valette wallpaper company. In 1928 he extended the factory and by 1930 was producing 50km of fabric and 70,000 rolls of wallpaper a day. The designs were transferred onto wood rollers, replacing the very cumbersome copper ones. In 1928 the factory had 750 employees, 131 by 1954 and sadly closed in 1978. His wallpaper and fabrics are sought after today. (Information courtesy of https://numistoria.com/fr). Our little sample is very pretty I think and is not dissimilar to some curtains that were left in one of the second floor rooms. Memories of past lives in this house.
My other mystery find this week is a round stone. Very exciting I hear you cry! However as the advert goes, this is no ordinary round stone. At first that is what I thought it was, but I realised that it is too crafted in shape. We then wondered if we had happened upon an old stone cannonball. My imagination may have got the better of me. We then noticed that one end is slightly flatter, so I suspect it was once on top of something, an old gate post perhaps, a wall? If only I could travel back in time to find the answers to some of these questions and see the house through its life!
All this in a week, along with work, bees swarming in a tree by the terrace, pea shoots appearing, the roses beginning to bloom and my neighbour appearing with a huge bunch of flowers from her garden. Another neighbour also dropped by completely unexpectedly last weekend, which made my day. So nice to have a chat in French. The cuckoo is still singing away but it seems to be getting chilly again. What has happened to the weather this year – more signs of climate change and the need to take that very seriously.

Enjoy the weekend and the week ahead. Drop me a line if you have time. I love hearing from you as I said. If you have any ideas about some of the mystery items this week, let me know.
Many thanks as ever for reading.
Next week, look out for an announcement.
A bientôt
Ali xx

