Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
dreadful sneezing fit which I was only able to stop with a hefty whack between the shoulder
blades.
“Allergies I'm afraid,” I said in explanation to
madame
, as he fought to get his breath
back.
Through tear-filled eyes we penetrated the first billows of incense and saw that the
whole place closely resembled a gypsy caravan. It was long and narrow, as it would be,
assuming that its previous occupants had been cattle, and it was festooned with every type
of chintzy ornament one could imagine.
The window ledges, tables and shelves were heavy with Romany tokens and each di-
van and chaise longue (of which there were several) was positively dripping with multicol-
oured drapery.
As I took in the scene, my hunch that
madame
was an avid fan of eastern scents was
confirmed. There were large numbers of wrinkly dried-up oranges and tangerines every-
where. They had been densely perforated by a variety of joss sticks, some gently smoking,
others ready to ignite.
Madame
proudly surveyed the room and completely ignored Jack's
temporary state of indisposition.
“You like my salon, I think?” she said. “It eez perfect, I know.”
Harry suddenly bounded through the doorway and exclaimed, “This is the salon!”
“Yes, we've gathered that, thank you. Now please muster all of your estate agent dip-
lomacy and show us the rest of the building very quickly. We still have a long way to
drive,” coughed my puce-faced husband.
Nodding energetically, Harry was just about to hurdle a few sofas en route to the next
room when
madame
stopped him short. She snapped a few stern words in French, our in-
terpretation of which was “I'll take it from here.” Our poor young agent was immediately
crushed into submission and meekly followed on behind.
We trailed down the length of the salon towards another guest bedroom. As conven-
tional rooms go, it was pretty ordinary. It was what we found inside that was intriguing.
There was a marked change in décor where the Romany trinketry had been replaced with
Native American-style memorabilia. This struck me as a little offbeat for France. But then
there was nothing too conservative about this property so I shouldn't have been surprised.
The walls were covered with animal skins, which may have been vellum but I couldn't
be sure. Neither could I be sure about the illustrations that had been painted on them. I think
they were meant to be herds of horses and bison, but they were so faded and stained that it
was difficult to make out.
The next decoration that caught my eye was the unusual and apparently authentic In-
dian feathered headdress which was fanned out and pinned next to the skins. It was quite
a revelation to me because I had no idea they were that big. It completely dominated one
of the walls, although somehow worked nicely with the moth-eaten Pendleton-Indian pat-
