Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
12
The First Property ― At Last
As we walked to the square at Mirepoix for our appointment, ItsWill telephoned. Somehow
he'd heard about our disastrous night and wanted to make sure we had survived the 'ghastly
carnage'.
After listening sympathetically to my account, he assured me that this was an ex-
traordinary 'almost historic' event and would never recur. He ended his soothing reassur-
ances by promising us a memorable day. I thought this was a very professional gesture and
mentioned as much to Jack who merely responded with a grunt.
The person designated to look after us was new to the
immobilier
trade and very young.
At a guess Nicole looked about fourteen years old which was hopefully wrong but her youth-
ful appearance did cause Jack to do a sceptical double-take. However, she was deadly earn-
est, keen to please and spoke English extremely well.
Before setting off we were invited to 'take coffee' with her and her boss in the café
adjacent to the office so that we could browse through the blurb and have a full briefing. Al-
though a nice idea, it was a little weird because we ended up being wedged between several
steaming piles of hailstones which had been shovelled into heaps around our table. In fact it
so closely reminded me of sitting in a mountaintop ski café in the Alps that I wouldn't have
been at all surprised if we'd been offered a glass of
glühwein
.
Nevertheless, the coffee was welcome and, as we chatted to Nicole, I couldn't help but
overhear her boss speaking on the telephone to our man, ItsWill. When it comes to the mat-
ter of clearing one's throat, his method was unique. He seemed to be issuing instructions to
ensure that our day went smoothly and it sounded extremely efficient. Good! I decided that
we were now nicely back on track with everything going according to plan.
We were then given yet more details for the estate which looked promising. Even Jack,
who previously hadn't bothered to read the first lot in detail, seemed to cheer up. This was
especially true when he read the bit about the available wildlife and hunting potential. Yes,
it ticked most boxes. I reminded him that some level of compromise would be inevitable be-
cause, on the down-side of things, the house was much bigger than we wanted.
