My friends in Franceses have been working hard. When they first moved in, the path down beside their house was in such a bad state that Theresa fell and bashed her knee pretty hard. So they started to build steps.
Then the neighbours told them in no uncertain terms that they needed planning permission. So off we went to the Town Hall.
It turned out that the path was a public right of way. Therefore they did indeed need official permission. Worse, they needed to lodge 600€ with the Town Hall, to cover repairs if they made a right mess of it. They had six months to do the work, which sounded fine to begin with, but they kept getting more ambitious about it, until they nicknamed the path “The Bypass.” They’ve worked like stink for the last month to finish it.
And today was the official opening.
We all felt ready for a bit of silliness, so we stretched a red ribbon across the top. I made a speech declaring the bypass officially open, and cut the ribbon. (I always wanted to do that.) And then my son drove his remote control car down the bypass and back up again.
And then we all trooped inside and had lunch, followed by cake.
That was a really fun day. Video to follow as soon as I’ve edited it.
