MONDAY I shall never forgive her. Charlotte, my glamorous practice manager, has given me Covid. She picked it up on a residential art course 10 days ago and infected me before she started having symptoms. I’ve pointed out to her that, while she expects to suff er for her art, it’s not fair to expect me to suff er for it too. In the two days since I fi rst tested positive I’ve developed a pea-souper of a brain fog and fi nd my mind drifting off mid-sentence. As a punishment I’ve let her
come back in to work, while I’ve cancelled all my appointments for the week. These include a formal handover tomorrow of a completed barn conversion for which the clients have driven over especially, all the way from Edinburgh. As you may have gathered, I’m not good at being ill and I’m feeling really quite grumpy.
TUESDAY Test myself. Positive. Pierre, my bewhiskered
Gauloises-powered project manager, will be presiding at the handover instead of me about now. These meetings are usually pretty good-natured, even if sometimes the clients are just glad to see the back of the artisans and to get their home back. The process is
Tue day
Architect’s diary It’s all in a week’s work for France-based Neil Vesma Tue day
Stuck in the offi ce with Covid, Neil turns to looking at photos of past projects such as these to cheer himself up
pretty straightforward; the client and the artisan sign a statement agreeing the work is complete and any apparent snags are noted and a timescale agreed for their rectifi cation. Hopefully, there won’t be too many hiccups as I had a pre-handover meeting with the artisans a fortnight ago to pre-empt any problems. First up today will be the
groundworker, then the maçon, followed by the carpenter, the joiner, the plasterer, the
electrician, the plumber, the heating engineer, the tiler, the kitchen fi tter, the pool installer and the decorator. Once everybody has signed, the keys are handed over and the owners take possession. I have already reminded them to have the property fully insured from start of play today. This point also marks the start of the artisans’ assurance décennale, their 10-year warranty. Later, Charlotte tells me Pierre has rung to say it has
all passed off smoothly, c’était nickel. I ask her to thank him for me, she says she already has and she peers over my shoulder at my screen. “I’m just looking at photos
of some of the places we’ve worked on over the years,” I tell her. “It’s amazing the good stuff we’ve done despite all the setbacks, and the weather last year. I’m almost feeling cheerful just scrolling through.” She responds with a smile and a cup of tea and says: “That’s the power of positive thinking. You’ll be right as rain in no time.”
WEDNESDAY Still positive. Still miserable. A couple of weeks ago I
fi nally received The Call. I’ve lived in Villeréal for 15 years and I have fi nally been asked to join the Conseil Municipal at the mairie – if elected I shall be a town councillor. It’s not a high-powered post
like in Paris or Bordeaux, but it’s a big thing in the town as everyone knows everyone else and there’s nowhere to hide when arguments start about parking or the primary school losing a class. This being France, the
Memory lane... another one of Neil’s past jobs 70 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: July/August 2023
election process is super- complicated and bureaucratic, so I spend an hour going through my candidacy form and supporting documentation. The election will be between
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