Well, I’ve left the Art Farm, and with it the Ardeche. It was a good fun learning experience, experiencing mortar work for my first time, and it was great to be able to do a little bit of walling again, but the cold was getting me down and I was luckily offered a ride and a place to stay in the Dordogne, especially because it is in a “plus beau village,” named Domme.
Haven’t been unable to wash my clothes, or my body for that matter, for weeks I was longing for the comforts of central heating, showers, and laundry facilities. I’m all for camping and roughing it, but after a few weeks of it I’ve usually had my fill. Particularly when you don't get the benefits of camping in the open air. I was waking up to the cold frosty mist of my own breath each morning, our only wood was scavenged from scrubby land and was too wet so it smoked rather than gave off heat, so around day 20 it got to be enough. I quickly finished pointing my newly constructed arch, finished the stone staircase going around the side of the house, and I built up the terrace/retaining wall from a 6 foot corner to 9 feet, including returns.
You can see what I built in the before and after photo. I built the wall to the right to create a sense of harmony, an echo of its mortared brethren to the left. I decided to simply level off the terrace at the back to create a more restful look. Johnny wanted a staircase on either side, but there weren’t enough appropriate stones readily available for the right hand staircase. He had some stones but they needed to be dug out of the barn floor – no time.
Before building the arch we first had to dismantle the mess that was already there. However, only having one proper support strut I decided to improvise. This is where modern appliances come in handy, A fridge with a tire and a stump of wood with wedges held one floor joist while a strut held the other. An oil drum cut in half was our falsework, which was in turn supported by a bar-fridge with a washing machine on its side. Since Johnny had left us with almost no wood, and a hungry fire that barely kept the house at 9 celsius, we knew that precious lumber could not be spared for false work or struts. This was our answer:
To get to Domme, Dordogne, we needed to drive from the Coiron plateau in the Ardeche, across the southern Central Massif, a 6 hour drive fuelled by the desire of two men to get sun in their faces and warmth in their bones. When we left the Art Farm, with its 1000metre elevation, it was 1 celsius and blustery and cold. When we arrived at Dordogne it was 15 celsius! What a difference, while the Hellebores were beginning to grow at the Art Farm, here in Domme, at the top of a limestone hill surrounded by stone buildings and fortifications, bulbs had already popped! I can smell life all around me, grass is sprouting out, Snowdrops have been blooming for quite some time. Daffodils, Crocuses, Irises, and even some Forsythia are flashing their colours with the same exuberance as inner-city gangs at the local baseketball court!
Dordogne is one of the richest areas of France, it has a very high concentration of “plus beau villages” a designation that only villages under 1000 can attain, and it is one that is highly desirable for the sake of tourism. However, why I consider it to be one of richest areas in France is because it specialises in the most important things, listed in order from greatest to least importance: Excellent gardens with Bories (or dry stone Cabannes), the fine wine of Bergerac and Cahors, Orchids, foie gras, truffles, and fairy tale castles.
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