Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
23
ItsWill
Waking up in the depths of Provence - how wonderful! In my heart of hearts I'd always
hoped we'd find (corny as it sounds) our dream home in the Var or hereabouts. After all, it
has the second largest expanse of forest in France, which I was certain must be teeming with
furred and feathered game.
The inland villages and countryside rival the very best the country has to offer and, with
its celebrated year-round temperate climate, what could be better? There was even the bonus
of that world class coastline which would be ideal for the odd impromptu seaside break. So,
with all this potential, coupled with our strangely successful early encounters at the hands of
grand-mère
, I felt relaxed and supremely confident about the day ahead.
“Oh no! What a nightmare!” came the groan from beneath the pillow next to me.
“What's wrong, darling? Are you okay?”
Slightly anxious that the dreaded cavity had started playing up again, I threw off his
pillow and began a detailed investigation of the offending area.
“What the bloody hell are you doing?” he gurgled.
“Oh sorry, I thought you were in pain,” I replied, a little offended by the rebuke.
Jack sat up abruptly, looking thoroughly irritated by my well-meant invasion.
“No, you don't understand,” he said, “the problem is that I woke up from a half decent
kip and remembered that today is the day we finally meet that dreadful estate agent of yours.
What's his name?”
“ItsWill and he'll be fine. But you'll just have to stick with it even if he is a little, er…
eccentric. But I'm sure he won't be,” I added encouragingly.
This then led me to reminisce about the brilliant solution my mother-in-law had al-
legedly used over the years to combat those major 'bat-and-ball' tantrums which had also
afflicted my father-in-law throughout his life.
Quite ingeniously and entirely unbeknown to him, when matters had reached temper
boiling-point, she had occasionally resorted to popping one of her sleeping pills in his cuppa
accompanied by a rich tea biscuit. This had a mildly tranquillising effect and was a tech-
nique she secretly swore by. I could never be sure whether she was joking or not but now
