Never-Ending Road Works

Tuesday 13th June

Towards the end of last year we learned that Eymet, our little town here in South West France, was to be the one of the staging posts for the Tour de France.  A couple of years ago it passed through, in the blink of an eye, but now it was going to actually start here.  The date emerged as the Twelfth of July.   In some ways France is almost a third world country (which may be why we love it so much), the pavements are a disgrace, as are many of the roads in town.  Electricity cables loop dangerously down the sides of houses and the drainage is antiquated; everything heads down towards the river, but when, as it often does, it rains hard – the roads turn to rivers in minutes.  So, again we were delighted to learn that major improvements were coming.  New drains and water pipes; electricity cables going underground and the road we have our Café in,was to be redesigned and relaid completely.

Work started in early January.  Well, actually it started last year in some streets, but the work on our street Rue du Temple started in January.  We received a letter from Dubreuil, the main contractors, apologizing in advance for the disruption which would take approximately seven weeks.  And there was a lot of disruption.  For weeks the road in front of us was both closed and dug up.  New pipes laid, and the cobbles relaid.  It did cause us some problems but we got through it.  The market, which partly goes down our street was moved and we had a dip in trade on Thursdays.

Well, seven weeks passed quickly, and it was obvious that the work would not be finished in time.  Such is life in France.  Never believe delivery times.  Prochaine Semaine and a shrug of the shoulders.  Ah Well.  Then we heard that the road would be finished by Easter.  Then by the end of April.  The actual road was finished about the middle of May – so, not too bad.  But they are still working on the rueelles, back alleys to those of you in England.  But work is painfully slow.  And several other roads in town have been dug up and relaid at least three times.

Everyone can see that it will not be finished by the Tour de France.  But hey.  But almost the worst thing is that many roads in town are a mess still, the dug up trenches filled with a mix of sand and chalk and grit, which is messy when it rains and gets stuck on peoples shoes, which they traipse in to the café every day.  We assume that one day the work will be finished, although the work-men amble along in their slow and methodical fashion, and the roads re-surfaced.  But for now we have never-ending road-works…