Click here for the printer friendly version Front door and shutters Unlocking requires both keys, upper and lower locks. To unlock, turn to the left 2 full turns. To lock, turn to the right 2 full turns. Please lock both whenever you are leaving the house. When you arrive the shutters will probably be shut when you arrive. Open them all. It is the French way to close them against the mid-day sun; this keeps the stone house cooler. Please don’t forget to close the all of the shutters when you leave on your last day. Kitchen The oven and one ring (burner) are electric. The others are gas, and they require lighting with a match. If you run out of gas, the gas bottle is under the kitchen sink. Take it out, and you can get a replacement at the village shop. It probably will not run out while you are there; but if it does, please replace it. The dishwasher works well, even for wine glasses. When you arrive, you will find some food staples: hopefully, long-life milk, coffee, coffee filters, olive oil, and (with luck) flour and sugar. Please use what you need and replace what you use. Whatever the case, please consider the next folks and make sure the kitchen has (at least) coffee, filters, and long life milk. Before you leave, please remove all perishable food from cabinets and refrigerator and wipe out the refrigerator. Usually you will find wine left in the house as well. Consider it an introduction to the local possibilities. Use what you want to try, and replace what you use, with some recommendations of your own, if you wish. There are 2 wine openers, kept on top of the wine rack in the kitchen. Electricity The water is heated electrically, and it is stored in two well-insulated tanks in the closet of the master bath. There is enough for about 4 baths/shower. The master switch and circuit breakers are in a wall cupboard in the lounge (living room). The hot water switches should be on when you arrive; but, just in case, the switches are marked. Remember that you are in a small village in rural France, so surges and power cuts have been known to happen. There is a torch (flashlight) on the old sink, just inside the front door. Water The main tap is behind a tiny door under the old sink by the front door. If there is a leak, please turn the water off at the main tap and telephone our house manager, Marie Claude (see under Emergencies). Telephone Your telephone number here is (from the U.S.) 011 33 4 67 96 60 68. From the house, you can make emergency calls: Emergency (SAMU) dial 15 Fire (POMPIERS) dial 18 or 112 If you want to make other outgoing calls, you will have to buy a card (called Le Ticket de Telephone) from the Post Office in the village or at any Tabac, Post Office, or France Telecom Office. This is a telephone credit card with a pin number that you dial before the number you wish to call, either local or overseas. The house is at the bottom of the valley, so your mobile phone won’t work—except on the roof terrace or in the village center, sometimes. Cellar As you walk around the outside of the house, you will see there is a door and window into the cellar. There is no other access, and it should stay locked at all times. The house, by the way, belonged to the village cobbler years ago. His shop was in the cellar. You can just about make out the house on the old photographs in the kitchen. The photos come from a man who has a stall in the Clermont L’Herault market (Wednesdays). Keys to the cellar are in the basket near the old sink by the front door. You will go to the cellar if you need fire wood. Rubbish (trash, garbage) Use the rubbish bins down by the basement door. Put the brown/black bins at the top of Font Basse on Tuesday morning for pick up. Glass is recycled in the large bins in the town square across from the bar; there is also a glass recycling bin across the bridge. Beds, bedding, and towels Your bed(s) will be made when you arrive. You may leave one set of sheets (per bed) dirty, especially if you have an early flight from Montpellier—just take them off of the bed and leave in the bedroom. If you have time, though, we would appreciate it if you will wash sheets and put them on a rack in the attic to dry. There are also plenty of towels, but please leave only one dirty one per person. We do not charge extra for linens (unlike other local rentals); but, since we have to pay someone to launder them, please be considerate about how you leave them. Thanks! If you have a child who may wet the bed, please use the plastic sheet under the bottom sheet. It will be found in a drawer in the small single bedroom. Also, please always use a duvet cover for the comforters. Laundry If you are there in great weather; and it is likely that you will be, then clothes dry on the white racks on the roof terrace very quickly. And, they will smell great! If there is a wind, watch the racks because they sometimes crash over. If it is raining, we dry in the attic/sleeping loft. The washer is pretty self explanatory. After you set it, you must tell it to start: “Marche”; and you must tell it to stop “Arete”. The temperatures tend to be hotter than you would expect, so don’t be surprised if something that has never faded onto something else, does. Use a cooler temperature than you would otherwise, and separate colors well. There is also a safety feature—after you turn the washer off (Arete), it will take 5 minutes or so for the door to open. So don’t try to force the door open! As with other staples in the house, please replace washing up liquid, clothes washing cubes, or dishwasher liquid if you use them up. The next folks will appreciate not having to go directly to the supermarket upon arrival! Emergencies The house manager is Marie Claude Tagliati; she lives about 15 minutes away in Montpeyroux. She doesn’t really speak English, but she is very easy to communicate with. Just say “problem, St. Jean de la Blaquiere…maison en St. Jean”, etc. She will come. She is very nice and knows all the right people if anything goes wrong, like an appliance breaks or whatever. Please call her if there are any problems with the house, any appliances are not working, etc.: 04 67 88 61 71 or, call me in the U.S. and I will call her (and reimburse you.) My number in the US is 1-919-491-9883. Dr. Rousseau: a physician in Nebian (south of Clermont L'Herault, about 20 minutes away), speaks English. The other doctors in the practice speak a little. There are small hospitals in both Clermont L'Herault and Lodeve with casualty departments. Click here for the printer friendly version