Building fences - c'est normale!

One of the reasons we've got to know our neighbours well is that we were all in at the beginning together and helped each other.  The houses were new builds.  Ours was the tenth house to go up. The eleventh was finished summer 2011 and the last, the twelfth was completed July this year.  The land for our road had previously been planted with vines or used for farming. We think it was sold off to resolve an inheritance issue, which is always a complex matter in France. The laws here are formidable.

Each of us in the road will have gone through the same process. Firstly of acquiring the land and then getting the house built.  Initially it was divided into plots of varying shapes and sizes. Different construction companies were responsible for the individual plots of land and for constructing the house on each plot, which must conform to local building regulations in terms of materials, angles of roof, so nothing jars with existing properties in the village. You end up with a similarity between the houses, but each design is slightly different. Inside of course, the owners can do what they like. Our most recent neighbours in fact went for a self-build. The family have contacts across the trades. However the rest of the properties were developed by four different construction companies. Ours was Maison Concept. The foundations went in December 2007 and we moved in August 2008. Nine months from start to finish.

The road was also built from scratch, meaning electricity had to be put in,  water and drainage, the road surface, pavements - although these are more like gravel surfaces, than the hard concrete in the UK.  The whole process was fascinating to watch. The workforce was multicultural, highly skilled and highly organised. People came and went as the project rolled out and the build moved on, each individual being contracted to complete their element within a certain time. It's so exciting watching your house gradually taking shape. Then suddenly it's finished and you have the keys.

A new road doesn't have any demarcation lines between the properties or at the front, to define what is your boundary from the road. That's not part of the deal.  So the neighbours formed themselves into a road association, to get the road up and running, and initially worked together to put up each others fences. Mike, Jean-Phi and Cyrile our two neighbours either side put up each others fences. If extra hands were needed elsewhere in the road, the boys set off and pitched in. One of our older neighbours Nicole needed additional help with her driveway. So Alain, Christophe, Mike and Jean-Phi went across and helped out.  All this work was of course accompanied by refreshment breaks in each others houses and gardens etc. Sometimes we'd get together in the evenings and then the girls came along as well. The road has been up and running for four years now.  We all contribute financially to our road committee, and these funds take care of a range of things from the gardening contract for maintaining our green verges, hedgerows and trees to our road party which took place in July.

Community spirit is very much alive and kicking in Cravant. If you need help with something then you go next door and ask your neighbour. There's a wonderful phrase which everyone uses. It's taken us four years to get used to it, but it sums it all up perfectly. C'est normale. We don't live in each other's pockets but we do look out for each other. And that's the way we do things here.