Welcome to our home

Hi, my family and I live in Normandy, France. I blog about our home, life here and our Catholic faith at lacoeursacre.com.

[sweetoothgirl]

Caramel Apple Gingerbread Galette

[lacoeursacre]

Getting ready for Christmas early; Gaudette Sunday

Getting ready for Christmas early; Gaudette Sunday

I haven’t been posting regularly because I’ve been, you guessed it, getting ready for Christmas. let me tell you, my early work has really paid off. I’ve bought and wrapped the majority of the presents; just the stocking fillers need to be done over the week. Luckily for me, as I took on a project in this final week that seemed simple. (Narrator: it was not). So having found my time consumed by…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Entryway Part 3; Lights and Other Extras

Entryway Part 3; Lights and Other Extras

Work is still going on under the stairs and at the back of the hallway. As the back door is the only one in the house that’s not double glazed retaining heat is a big consideration. So I adapted this curtain to keep the cold air out and the warm air in. You’d be amazed at the cold chill you’re hit with when you draw the curtain back in the morning. Speaking of tiebacks, I got these from ebay.fr.…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Entryway Part 2; Under the Stairs

Entryway Part 2; Under the Stairs

Having finished tongue and grooving the two walls near the back door I added a panel to lengthen the under stair so they ran parallel to the other side…. The panel is the side of the armoire that the mirrored door in the kitchen came from. You’ll notice the wood block underneath; this was left in the garage by the previous owner. I’ve used others that were there in the will be kitchen. As the…

View On WordPress

[the-cat-with-the-emerald-tiara-1]

This is the author of the Kate and Harry bullsh*t ;

https://royalgossippsychotic.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/duchess-kate-causing-concern-and-exasperation-among-royal-family-and-courtiers/

The did indeed pick the right handle in including Psychotic in it... Thanks for this background.

Duchess Kate Causing Concern and Exasperation among Royal Family and Courtiers

As she passed the third year of her marriage the Duchess of Cambridge has caused endless irritation and exasperation among the courtiers of

[lacoeursacre]

New Buy - What Would You Do With it?

New Buy – What Would You Do With it?

I went to the brocante over the weekend and bought this Henry II buffet. These normally go for anywhere between 30-100€. I bought this for 2€; I spotted it a while ago, but it was only 25€ then. It’s obviously something they just wanted rid of now. Although I had to pay 30€ for delivery it worked out the same amount that I was about to spend on wood to finish off the ‘vestibule’ under the…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

A French Can Chair Using Recycled Elements

A French Can Chair Using Recycled Elements

I thought I’d focus this post not so much on the how to, but the what to use in terms of recycled items. It’s not only good for the environment in terms of less landfill, but saves money, time in terms of shopping trips, packaging, and fuel going to get/having delivered the resources. I’ve always loved this style of French cane chairs… Gorgeous isn’t it? So when I saw this on le Bon Coin I knew…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Telephone Table to Upholstered Bench

The telephone table was actually lovely. I’d bought it online in the U.K. prior to our move to France from someone who did upcycling and sold pieces on eBay. I especially loved the seat and plan to do something with the fabric. So why did I decide to change it? As it was half seat, half table it was difficult to place it in the house. When telephones were a new invention and you had one at a…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Entryway Part 1; Tongue and Groove with Coat Hooks

My husband went to put some peelings in the compost bin recently and found four little eyes staring out at him 🥰… Of course they came to live with us. They’re adorabubble. However, they bring to life the meaning of Phoebe’s lyrical genius… Don’t tell me that she’s not up there with Tolstoy for communicating the mysteries of redemptive suffering; not after I’ve lived with these babies. They’ve…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

20 Inspiring Vestibules

As we have a long house we have several entry points that each have their own problems. From draughty doorways sucking all the warm air out, to muddy boots left by doors and unsightly coats seen by anyone calling at our front door. However, because of the size of the house I’m considering making some vestibule areas to counter these problems. For those of you who don’t know what they are,…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Side Area

I updated you on the changes to the layout of the kitchen last week, but as I was working on that I had started on this little side area. On the adjacent wall area will be the range oven we would like. As a result this space is very narrow, only 40cms. Added to that the right hand, workable area underneath the counter is only 50cms. This is because the left hand side, just prior to the dividing…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 8 Weeks to go

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 8 Weeks to go

I was been working hard on the kitchen, my youngest was off school with a cold, and then we had houseguests for a week (bliss). As a result this is a post that covers several weeks activity. Here is what’s bought and done; Christmas stocking presents for my girls Just various things to paint with, notebooks, decorative hole punches, glitter, hair things….anything small really. These are…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

All change in the will be kitchen….again

All change in the will be kitchen….again

As the kitchen comes together ideas that I previously had thought would be wonderful I later found won’t quite work. I’m not a kitchen planner, which means that I don’t know the main issues such as needing to have the oven near a sink. Additionally I’m working with items that I gradually ‘find’ in brocantes, which inevitably means I must be adaptable. This change isn’t as a result of that…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 12 weeks to go

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 12 weeks to go

We’re still at the stage of Christmas preparation were I am sure many people seeing this post are wondering why on Earth am I faffing around with this now. Yet with both my daughters birthdays in the next six weeks, along with house decorating on top of Christmas preparations I feel I need to keep adding to my list of things I’ve done. To show how necessary it is for me, personally, to start…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Autumn and the Virginia Creeper

Autumn and the Virginia Creeper

The front of the house needs some tidying up after the summer- but I couldn’t resist sharing a picture of our Virginia creeper. We planted it about 2 – 3 years ago and it’s starting to really take off now. I was worried that, with the work still needing doing in the kitchen before the plumbers come again, I wouldn’t have time to fix it before the leaves disappeared.

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Laying the Laminate Floor

We’re so happy the floor is finally laid, but I thought that as there are so many tutorials on YouTube I would do a post on the difficulties and pitfalls you might experience. Why? Because throughout the laying process I kept grumbling “they didn’t tell you about this in those videos”. One of the main reasons for my griping was that they all miss out it hurts. Some mention that your knees will…

View On WordPress

[lacoeursacre]

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 13 Weeks to Go

Getting Ready for Christmas Early: 13 Weeks to Go

For some reason I thought this was published, oops. So here’s my late 13 weeks to go post. I’d said how part of my ‘to do’ list was decorating, and this week I’ve been laying the kitchen floor in the will be kitchen. I’m just about to finish it in preparation for the chimney to be swept next week. This has meant that some of the prettier list items haven’t been done. So here goes… I’ve received…

View On WordPress