Not the right way to do it

This is a picture of something that is all to common in Brittany. This wall is part of an outbuilding to a larger house that I walk past every day to go to my mother-in-law's house to collect the dog for his walks.

This picture shows the wall of an outbuilding. Originally made from local stone (a softer granite) with lime mortar and pointing. In the middle of the twentieth century people switched to Portland cement as it's easier to work with and stronger. After a few years people realised it was a very bad idea as it is prone to cracking, prone to breaking the stone, it doesn't breath properly and once you've put it in, it's very hard to take it back out again. Lots of walls, including our house and garden wall were badly repointed with instant cement mix, and it's very time consuming and expensive to put right.

Today's blip show that people still do it today. The house is a big holiday home and the cars all have Paris plates. Yesterday I saw the bloke doing this and today you can see the results of his work. The pointing is a terrible colour match, hasn't been brushed in properly, and I'm pretty sure it's Portland cement based and not lime based.

When we started work on our garden wall, we did a little research, it's easy to find lots of masons all saying the same thing in France, the UK and the US. If the wall was built with lime mortar, don't go sticking cement in or you will ruin the wall. Locally there is an approved pale sand colour that's recommended, and all the local DIY and building supply firms sell local sand and lime - it's a bit more labour intensive to work with than cement, but the result looks better and lasts far longer...