Problems with the Drains

The cottage has no sewerage, so we have to apply to the water company to get permission to put in a new system.

We need a soil test. So we contact a water company engineer. He takes measurements, produces an nice dossier, complete with plans of where the new system - the fosse septique - will go.

I send in the paperwork and a few days later we get a stern letter warning that our application will be refused because I have not included a servitude. Oh heavens, what's that?

Apparently the (relatively clean) outflow from the fosse septique has to go somewhere - in our case over our neighbouring farmer's land and he needs to give us permission (a servitude) to do that. Serge is nice, so we think that won't be a problem. Ah, but it is!

Serge is trying to sell his fields and he thinks a servitude will make the sale more difficult. So he has another proposal - buy a chunk of his field and then we can do what we like. Before he came, I'd asked Tod to be nice to him (to smooth things over). Suddenly I see the two of them smiling and shaking hands - apparently we are buying a hectare of Serge's field. I hadn't expected to be that nice!

Another visit from a water company engineer and it is agreed we will have a gulley running across our new field into the ditch on the far side which will take our waste water into the local stream. The water company are happy. I'm wondering if we can find a way to use our grey water to irrigate our new field - seems an awful waste to have it just running away to the stream.

And what is the water going to be irrigating?