The First Fly in the Ointment

We've had a verbal price to replace the roof tiles - 35,000 euros!......

What we have worked out is that as the contractor has to guarantee his work for 10 years, he does not want to be responsible for the old woodwork so has costed to replace everything.

First mistake.  This woodwork is 150 year old oak and if its not rotten now, it's going to be like iron.  As you can see, it's not in that bad condition.  Also the roof is not leaking, so I'm afraid, he is out of the picture.

Got Miss Marple on the case (Simons nick name for me when I'm rooting out the facts.) and we found a lady advertising on the net in the Allier, who was selling new tiles, left over from her roofing work.  Unfortunately, she hasn't answered my email, so as there was a picture on the web page, I went back to it and wrote down the number of the supplier (which was on the plastic sheeting on the packing.)  It wasn't easy to see, so I wrote down all the possible combinations.  Next step was to find a French equivalent of BT enquiries, which I did and was able to put in the telephone number and 'hey presto'!  the suppliers name came up.  Put this name into google, luckily, they did have a website, so then clicked on the link.  Amazingly, they aren't that far from where La Maison Etoile is.  They're just south of Montlucon which is about 40 mins north.......so I emailed them and am waiting for their reply, on how much the tiles are and what would it cost for a 220 sq meter roof.

There are always more ways to skin a cat........