Читать книгу Our House is Not in Paris - Susan Cutsforth - Страница 19

Oh, IKEA. We just love IKEA, as do Brigitte and Erick who make regular trips there for their chambre d’hôte. Setting up house of course meant spending bucketloads of euros, but it was so much fun! Another doona cover, throw it in the trolley. Tea towels, towels, kitchen equipment — you name it, we bought it. Yes, the French debit card Stuart had set up had a limit that we exceeded rather considerably. This meant that, in the Bordeaux IKEA on our way back from Martine’s, we were the people holding up the very long queue and attracting the sort of looks you try to avoid, especially in another country. We then had to use our Australian credit card as well, which of course attracted a huge fee.

The Trocs, or second-hand shops, are our idea of heaven, and we were thrilled to find two in nearby Brive. They were full of the most wonderful treasure imaginable: tables, chairs, lights, sofas, dinner sets and artworks. It was in one of them that we found our dining table, complete with two drawers that are used to sweep the bread crumbs into after a meal. There was also a minute scrap of old newspaper; when Jean-Claude examined it, he was able to pronounce that its vintage was around the Second World War.

We had both read The Caves of Perigord by Martin Walker before our trip, and it added another layer of insight into the area surrounding Cuzance and the history that resonates in the French countryside. The nearby village of Cressensac was on the route of the German soldiers marching to Paris. Now, whenever we whiz along in our Renault, I imagine the drumming of soldiers’ feet and the fear in the hearts of the villagers.

We also found a magnificent table and lots of other treasure, such as the soufflet (bellows) that Stuart, with his great eye for ‘transforming’ pieces, thought would be a brilliant coffee table for the barn one day. On another trip, we stumbled across the absolutely perfect table and sideboard for the barn. While new, they look old and are made of oak and modelled on the style used in monasteries. While this was almost enough money for a car in itself, we couldn’t resist it. We thought that, when the day came to search for furniture for the barn, it would be our benchmark and we’d never find anything like it again – so, that was our justification.

Another trip to IKEA took place during our three weeks of intensive renovating. It was yet another huge buying spree, but this time with all the measurements for the kitchen we’d chosen. Part of the planning had been to put Post-it notes up on the wall and move them around, trying to get the placement of everything right. Very fortunately, while everything was sitting ready in boxes for his first project the next year, Stuart found time to put one piece together. Just as well, as the top, which the catalogue had clearly stated should be included, was missing. He used all his mobile credit trying to sort it out with IKEA; without success. We then turned to Erick to check when he would be having another IKEA trip. Erick swung into action and went there to buy us the missing piece and made another round trip to deliver it to us — keeping in mind that it was their busy summer season, with numerous bookings and guests. Stuart was prepared to wait until the following year to get the missing piece but I felt that it might go out of stock. Thank goodness for Erick, especially when he made the delivery and also appeared with two cushions for us to use on our stone steps. That transformed our level of comfort to no end.