A few months passed by when I received a call from our friendly Mayor - Rene “Paul you can go ahead they have approved everything!” I have no idea what Rene said to influence their decision but the fact his own house was only one large field away and he had no objection and the fact that he was Mayor of the village, giving his personal recommendation for the project must have made a huge difference.

The main fly in the ointment for planning had been the red roof tiles. But I preferred the red tiles because I thought it would actually give warmth to the look of the building. In my humble view dark grey slate tiles can look a bit dull and dour but we all have our preferences or we would all be married to the same partner! I had seen the tiles I liked in England even before I put in the planning application. I had spotted them at a local tile merchant. It was a bit of a surprise to see written on the back - MADE IN FRANCE and yet the French did not like them or it seemed did not want me to have them.

Another bizarre twist was that I asked the man in our local tile merchants if it was possible for his company to deliver seven thousand tiles to my little holiday house in France. He asked what part of France? I replied lower Normandy. He said there would be no problem because the main depot for these tiles was apparently in North East Normandy. He contacted the main depot and was informed they don't deliver to Normandy! Before I left the merchants he contacted a local freight company and asked if they would deliver the tiles from England. They replied no problem. All they wanted was a date. I would be in France and have some method of unloading seven thousand tiles and they would fit it in with a run through to Spain. Perfect for me and really no problem! The price was really reasonable. I always remember Rene's reaction when I told him of this scenario. His reply was “so much for Europe”. He had a point. We had to laugh at this silly saga.

I was just pleased to find a company willing to do the delivery. It was exciting now because planning had been approved. I had cracked the problem with the tiles. (Hopefully not too many cracked tiles on delivery). I now needed to source the stones I had promised the planners I would use.

Find out more next time............ Paul