I started off very impressed

But ended up rather disappointed as I’ll go on to explain. I went off to Sant Astier this morning to pick up my third new ‘tonnelle’ that I found the other day on Le Bon Coin. I’ve not been to Saint Astier before. It’s to the west of Périgueux and only about 45 minutes or so away and I found that it’s a pleasant little town that’s full of narrow streets that have been made into a one-way system. It confused my satnav (and me) somewhat but I managed to find my way to the seller’s house without too much trouble.

She turned out to be a charming lady who having bought the ‘tonnelle’ for her own garden then had a permanent one built for her out of wood by her children. Consequently it had stayed unused and unopened in its packaging and she had only just opened it before advertising it to make sure that it was all there as it should be. And it was, just as she had described. Unlike the other two ‘cheapies’ that I acquired last year, this one is a branded model – Hespéride’ – and is of much better quality with thicker fabric and an all-round much stronger and better made metal frame, and I couldn’t wait to get it home and start putting it up.

Here’s a shot of the framework going together. Although its design is slightly different to the other two, having a proper vent in its roof to let the heat out, the basic principles of its design are the same and it didn’t take me that long to get the frame together. I’m also pretty skilled now at getting it erected single-handedly without subjecting the framework to any undue bending or strain.

Here are a couple of shots with its roof on showing the vent that I mentioned.

And here’s a view of the roof vent from the inside.

The quality of detail is immediately apparent. The metal tubes are much more robust than the ones in the two ‘cheapies’ with good, strong welded joints and care has even been taken with the finishing of the nuts and bolts in the structure with there being one type of plastic cap to cover the bolt heads and another to cover the nuts and the exposed bolt stems.

But it was when I unpacked the ‘tonnelle’s’ curtains, that my disappointment was immediate. The polyester fabric used for the roof and side curtains is thick and of good quality with a nice appearance. The curtains are also suspended from the high level horizontal rails by velcroed tabs so no difference there, but whereas the curtains of the ‘cheapies’ are closed by full length zips, those of the new ‘tonnelle’ are only secured by tie-together tapes, and then only two per edge at a third and two-thirds distance. And whereas the curtains of the ‘cheapies’ are secured to the frame uprights by three tapes, top, middle and bottom, those of the new ‘tonnelle’ only have tapes at their middle points.

This means that in the gusting winds that we had today while I was erecting it, the curtains of the ‘cheapie tonnelle’ were hardly moving whereas those of the new one were billowing madly in the wind, exposing most of its interior and its contents and also leaving much of its floor uncovered and open to the elements.

I find this design lapse not only extraordinary given the attention to detail that’s been applied elsewhere, but also incredibly penny-pinching. It occurred to me that I still have the side curtains from the original damaged ‘cheapie tonnelle’ which are of almost identical dimensions and have survived pretty much intact (one suspension tab’s stitching gave way I think and also possibly one upright securing tape) and I’m going to have a go at swapping them tomorrow. They are a slightly lighter grey than the new ‘tonnelle’s’ fabric but that won’t matter.

I moved the wooden furniture into the new ‘tonnelle’ when I’d finished and laid its floor mat and when the wind wasn’t blowing, it looked OK as shown below.

I don’t want to leave things as they are whatever happens tomorrow. Even if the old curtains do fit I’ll probably end up getting my sewing machine out and modifying the new curtains myself, by adding full length zips and more upright securing tapes. Hopefully if the old curtains do do the trick though, I won’t be forced into doing it straight away as I have other jobs on my list to attend to. As usual 😉