All shopped out

We went shopping today primarily for some more picnic tables for the gites and some slabs of granite for the fireplace hearth I'm renovating. It turned into a bit of a marathon shopping day.

Caroline's friend recommended a garden furniture and fencing place in Chateauneuf Ille-et-Villaine, close to St Malo. It was stacked full of pressure treated wooden fencing panels of every shape, size and style; wooden swings and slides; seats, tables, decking, sheds, trellis, etc.We've already got a couple of wooden picnic tables, but we wanted something a bit larger and more rustic for the garden. We bought two large picnic bench tables for less than 200€. Bargain.

We had already been to a quarry yesterday to get a quote for a single piece of granite 1.8m by 0.7m for the new hearth, but neither of us was sure it was quite right. Today, therefore, was to find an alternative. We managed to find somewhere that did granite paving slabs of various sizes with a rough finish, rather than slices sawn from a large block. We picked up 3 pieces 60cm by 70cm to make up the full width of the fireplace. The finish on them is superb, light grey with a slight shimmering finish (a bit like fish scales).

Next stop, to buy a van. In order to renovate the barn in October we are going to need a van to collect supplies etc. The idea is to buy a second-hand van and then sell it a year later once the work is complete. A stroll around the lot soon makes to realise there are quite a few decisions to make made, size, height, width etc. The only easy decision is the colour, they are all white. Based on kicking a few tyres and poking around the inside with a tape measure, and keeping an eye on re-sale, I think we are most probably going to get a Peugeot Boxer or a Citroen Jumper. Basically they are the same van but age and price (approx 10,000€) will swing it.

While we were in the swing of it we bought the kids some new clothes in the sales, we also tried to buy ourselves some new clothes, but we are still stuggling to cope with the different size conversions from the UK. I did have a surf for conversion tables, but many of them contradict each other. For me all the size numbers for shoes, shirts, trousers, etc. are very similar, (40, 44, 48 etc.), plus various sizes S, M, L and 2, 3, 4, 5 for other clothes gets very confusing. I think I'm going to have to find things that fit them make up a laminated personal size chart for my wallet.

A few bits and bobs ready for 'back to school', and home. Phew.

All in all a fairly successful day, neither of us like shopping, so it's some of jobs we dislike over with.