And then there were two

24 hours after picking up the low oak table that I talked about in my last post I happened to be looking on Le Bon Coin to see what I might be missing when, lo and behold, I spotted exactly the same table again, but this time on sale in Bordeaux. But not only that, whereas I’d paid the last seller 100€ for the one I’d bought in Tonneins, the latest one was on offer for only 40€!

Sure, it was described by the seller as being ’10 years old and well used’ and the pictures he’d posted looked to support that, plus it was also missing its drawer handles, but it didn’t look as though it had suffered any deep scratches while being ‘well used’ and as it was again made of solid oak, restoration would probably only involve a bit of elbow grease – cleaning years of polish and surface dirt off it and rubbing it down back to smooth, clean wood.

So as I’d be in Périgueux on Thursday afternoon, I had the idea that I might as well continue heading west to Bordeaux to take a look if the table was still available, which it was. So after a brief lunch-time snack in Périgueux, I found myself heading off on a chilly but otherwise beautiful afternoon in the direction of the Atlantic coast and the city on the banks of the river Garonne.

As I had plenty of time in hand, I decided not to use the ‘payage’ but to stay instead on the Route Nationale and although the journey was slower it was much more pleasurable, taking in the towns of Mussidan, Montpon-Ménestérol and Libourne (thankfully now by-passed) among others and the wine growing areas with famous names like Pomerol, Saint Emilion and Graves. It was only when I arrived In Bordeaux itself that my problems began, and then some.

There’s no easy way of putting it other than to say that Bordeaux is VERY car unfriendly. It has a superb public transport system comprising dozens of fantastic new trams and buses and there is also a myriad of extremely well-used cycle lanes that, unlike in London say, where cyclists have to run the gauntlet with other motorised vehicles and frequently end up paying for it with their lives, are separated from the roads and tram tracks by concrete barriers.

This is all great for the local residents, but not so great for the occasional visitor, like myself, who has arrived in the city by car, especially if, like me, they are also relying on their satnav to get to their destination. The problem is that so many changes have been made to the road layout to allow for the free passage of the public transport, many roads have been barred to other traffic that satnavs just don’t know about.

And so it was that I kept arriving back at Place Stalingrad, where there’s a bridge linking the right and left banks that my satnav obviously wanted to take me over as it was only 3 minutes from my ultimate destination, when access was barred to all traffic other than trams and buses!

I eventually solved the problem by driving ten minutes downstream along the quayside to the next bridge – twice actually after I’d convinced my satnav lady that it was the sensible thing to do after deciding to totally ignore her advice to ‘turn back where possible’ – eventually arriving at the table seller’s house almost an hour after I said I would, having started from Périgueux with a couple of hours in hand!

We did the deal on the spot and I paid him the full 40€ he was asking as he was a polite student type who looked as though he could do with the money. We then had to carry the table over a 100 metres down the road to the place where, blessedly, I’d managed to find a parking space after which it was time for me to find my way out of the city. This proved to be not much less of a nightmare than getting in in the first place, but eventually I did, arriving home with my prize at about 10.00 pm.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the table before I started work on it, and the following shot that I took a few minutes ago shows it with its top partially sanded. I’m already really pleased with how its coming up but see for yourself what you think.

Because this table is, as you can see, missing its drawer handles, I’ve already ordered four new antique style handles for just over 7€ including delivery from China. This means that I’ll be able to replace the handles that I don’t much like anyway on the other table so they’ll both match, hopefully making them attractive and fitting additions to my salon furniture. I’ll post more pics and info as the work proceeds.

Just a final footnote – the reason I was in Périgueux in the first place on Thursday was for a consultation with my oncologist following the two scans that I had a week or so ago. She greeted me with a broad smile and declared that I am now fully cured and free of all traces of the Lymphoma that has dogged my life for much of the past year.

As you can imagine, this was an enormous relief for me and I’m now as safe in the knowledge as it’s possible to be that I can start making plans again to get on with my life. And that, she told me, is exactly what I should do, bless her 😉