Nearly everyone in the village has a wood fire but it hasn't been easy to find a good supplier so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Pascal has yet another string to his 'jack-of-all-trades' bow.

It seems he owns or rents some woodland nearby and has a large enough supply to sell some logs to other people.

"It's good wood," he assured me,"you won't be disappointed."

"The garage holds 4 steres" I told him so he took Jay in his van to collect one stere (cubic metre) at a time.

They unloaded the first lot and it took up half the space. When they came back with the second batch it filled the wall from floor to ceiling and there was still a little pile left over which Pascal put on the floor in front of the car, plus a box of smaller logs and bark for starting the fire. 

"We'll never get two more steres in here" we agreed.

So the previous woodmen have taken advantage and charged for four steres when they only delivered  a maximum of three - being kind and assuming the garage was completely empty.

We have now agreed that Pascal will be our regular supplier. He charges 32euros a stere and his measures are generous. Jay helps with the loading so we don't pay any extra for delivery and we know we will get some wood within days of asking.

As soon as Pascal starts his Christmas holiday from work he is going to start cutting more wood in his little forest.

"Will your son be on holiday too, so that you'll  have someone to help?" I asked.

"No, it's hard work felling trees and chopping logs. No-one wants to do it." he replied.

So he's a lumberjack in his time off, despite having a bad back.

Tough chap our Pascal - and what a worker!