Debris

One set of guests left today and the others, on a five day break, have gone up to 'La Barbacane' restaurant at the Hotel de la Cite for a Michelin dining experience. Last night we all had dinner here at 42rvh - I'm no Michelin chef, but I think it went well - everyone was still sat around the table at 1.00am and no-one realised how late it was, which is probably a good sign that another thrown together group of people were getting along just fine. It was a good evening.

It was gone 2.00am when I managed to get to bed after sorting out half of the kitchen mess and then up again at 7.30am, not just to finish the clearing and sort breakfasts but also because I had to take the car to the garage for it's CAT - two minutes to drive there and ten minutes to walk home, picking up the breakfast viennoiserie on the way - brilliant, I just love how quick it is to get anywhere here and, as a result, how much extra time I have. I was back in plenty of time to get the two breakfast trays ready after finishing off the washing up and tidying of the debris from last night.

The old Audi didn't fare too badly either - it needs a couple of things sorting but they are so minor that I don't have to go and get a re-test, just check the car back into the garage so that they can fix them and then they will notify the authorities that it has been done - an eminently sensible way to go about things. In the meantime, I have the car back on the road.

Debrah also left today and is now back in London and, once again, the place feels strangely empty as it always does just after she has gone. The weekends seem to fly by with very little opportunity for us to spend time together, what with guests and dinners and breakfasts and new design and build projects.

On Sunday we took a drive out to Domaine de Cantalauze, the enormous money pit owned by Niall the eccentric, in order to show Chris what was what and give him an idea of the magnitude of the potential for him and Debrah. As I suspected, the initial thought was that it was too big and couldn't be done but I hope that with a bit of reflection they, especially Chris, will find a way to try and make it work - because it could be a great project for them both.

Meanwhile, Denis' project will be kicking off in earnest this week, with more materials and the start of the major demolition. 'Operation Barney' has already returned to the streets of Carcassonne, with Chris scattering radiators and whatever else around the refuse collection points of town - just when they thought we'd finished, we're back in business!