Chants de marin in Binic

Last evening was the first anniversary of the 'chants de marin' sessions we have been going to at Binic, on the north coast. So we had a bit of a do - in fact we had a really smashing evening, with standing room only and sore throats afterwards from all the singing.
Note from the poster for the evening (above) - we are now included as residents/regular singers! Feels really nice to be included - some brave souls are even starting to join in with some choruses in English. Etienne & Etienne (next two pictures below) are two thirds of the group 'Fortunes de Mer' and originally started the session. They always strike me as an unlikely looking combination, but they sound really good together as well as singing individually.
Edwige and her husband Pierre-Jean (next two pictures below) are the couple who first told us about the session back last January. They also took part in the concert we gave last June.

Hervé and Hélène (pic below) kindly invited us to stay over with them last night - saved us an hours drive back in the freezing cold. Hervé is a local Breton, and Hélène is from Quebec, and speaks French with the most outrageous accent possible! What I struggle to understand at the best of times becomes practically impossible!
Hélène took along her dancing dolls which are traditional to Quebec. They are the same dancing dolls that are common in the northwest of the UK, particularly around Liverpool. You support the doll just touching the board, which you 'twang' with your thumb in time to the music, to make the doll dance. It is really very effective!
So if you are coming to visit, plan to be here for the third Thursday of the month (except in august, of course) and make sure you have a sea shanty you can sing or a hornpipe you can play!

doors: real and faux

Got the front door fitted eventually, although the weather has not allowed us to render the in-fill either side. It would melt if I tried it!Here is the door from the inside. What a difference it makes against the wind! We can actually think about heating the downstairs now.
Meanwhile, upstairs, we have insulated and framed-out the capuchine, which used to be the only way into the loft. Since we have excavated the soil away from the back wall, this door leads nowhere, and we are not allowed to have a clear glass window overlooking our neighbor's property....
So, having installed pipes to take further electric cables (that are sure to be required once the space is blocked)....
We have fitted an old french door that came out of the house. Thus we have a 'faux' door, and a triple glazed, non-see-through window.

Insulating the upstairs

Pete helped by a friend of ours, Rhett, putting up battening and insulation in what will be the bedroom over the shop. Just blocking the drafts that were howling through the edges of the eaves has warmed up the upstairs considerably. We had to spend an afternoon the other day cutting down the hydrangeas alongside the shop (by the road), to get to the climbing roses and brambles behind them, that were coming into the roofspace - great thick twining stems growing indoors! Have vigorously pruned the rambling rose, but this just seems to encourage it! Once the insulation is done we can start heating the place and then lay the second half of the upstairs floor-boards (over the particle board you can just see in the picture)

The end wall will be dry-lined. Rendering it will bring too much water into the building again. We have bought a second dehumidifier (second-hand this time) to dry out the downstairs rooms, as the rendering is still a bit wet. As we have started to acquire furniture & beds etc, we need to keep them dry.