Giant Kiwi in Descartes

Yesterday morning we had our first appointment with our new accountant and business advisor, Dominique. He lives in Descartes and our meeting was held at the table in his charming courtyard. He was recommended to us by Alex and Nicole from Les Limornières. They thought he would be perfect for us, and indeed, he seems so. We showed him our business proposal and after quizzing us a bit, he was enthusiastic and sympathetic to our approach. His word of caution was that it will all succeed or fail on the success or failure of our website, as this will be our primary means of attracting clients. We now have to provide him with some personal documentation, design the website and come back to him to go through the business registration process.

When we arrived, his wife Annette greeted us and said Dominique was off washing the car, as they were going on a picnic this afternoon with a group of Spanish exchange students that they are involved in hosting. Turns out Annette and I already know one another, as we have met at the Trésorie Public, where she works and I have paid several bills. When we got up to leave, Annette called 'wait, wait!' through the window and ran out with a jar of confiture de cerises.

Visiting Descartes also gave us a chance to photograph the giant Kiwi that adorns one of the roundabouts in town. I have no idea why it is there, but it is skillfully constructed and very amusing.

In the afternoon we went up to Sylvie and Pierre-Yves to pick up a bag of colle carrelage (tile glue). They have several bags left over after having their tomettes (terracotta tiles) laid, and we are just about to start laying ours. The glue goes off after a time, so they are happy to sell their excess to us at a bargain price. Then we had to go to Châtellerault to pick up grouting for the tiles (more on which later) and the tools needed for laying them.

Then we thought we would pay a quick visit to the chimneys at the old arms factory, but gave up on the endeavour after half an hour of going around in circles. The Pont Henri IV is partly closed and also the bridge downstream. Central Châtellerault along both sides of the River Vienne is a maze of narrow one way streets. We did eventually manage to cross the river, and we could see the chimneys, but just couldn't work out how to get to them.

Susan