church clean-up

Went along to the local church this morning. Not because I'm a church-goer but because the mayor's office had organised a clean-up of the place. It's closed for most of the year and only opened up for special events. There were lots of us and dad even appeared with Elizabeth and Marie-Claire at one point. The girls helped me clean the statue I was bringing back to life. It was Saint Theresa and she was covered in dust and bird dirt! We used linseed oil once we'd cleaned her up and she came up lovely and shiny. There were other statues too including Joan of Arc and there were a few of us who worked solely on them. Everyone else was doing general cleaning: polishing, sweeping, mopping, cobweb removal (my dad was up a massive ladder getting rid of webs from the ceiling and walls of the building!).

It was great to be part of a community event like this. Sometimes social gatherings can be a bit awkward whereas this was really good as we were all doing something! We had a joint purpose and we all chatted whilst we worked.

There was a free apéritif afterwards out in front of the church, sous la Halle, and the girls and I made the most of the crisps and Tuc biscuits :)

A few more pics here. One of the organizers made a little slideshow of the morning's events too :)

Pierre's mum and dad left in the early evening.