We are not planners ...

... or shoppers, we decided as we drove back from Agen following another panic purchase.

We have known since December that at some point we would need floor tiles, bathroom tiles, bathroom fittings, internal doors, light fittings. Yet somehow we've never got round to doing anything about it. We used up all our shopping energy sorting out the kitchen.

Only when the roof went on and the the builders started plastering and someone said to us in passing: "The tiler will be here by the end of the week and he will be starting on the upstairs bathroom" we suddenly realised how little time we had.

So much of this last week has been spent zig-zagging our way between tiling shops, bathroom shops, DIY shops and builders merchants in Agen, Villeneuve, Tonneins and Marmande, not to mention a quick dash one morning to the kitchen shop because we couldn't really remember the colour we'd chosen and it didn't look right in the catalogue (it wasn't) and we weren't sure it would go with the floor tiles we wanted.

Our local builders merchants saved the day with the tiles they hold in stock, so the tiler could start work. We used the same tiles in a bathroom we had to revamp when we first arrived in France and had a panic then. You would think we'd learn.