Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Before leaving us, Nicole declared that she'd been very happy to show us the estate
but, unless she could hire Jack as a driver, she might have to consider a less exciting career.
The poor kid looked as if she would benefit from a lengthy counselling session.
On the way back to the
auberge
I telephoned ItsWill and gave him some pretty sharp
comments by way of feedback. I expressed quite plainly why the visit was indeed memor-
able, but not in the way we had hoped. He fobbed me off magnificently saying that he had
never actually visited the estate and that it did sound absolutely “
ghastly!
”
As for our driving escapades he added, “Oh yes, yes, yes,
YES
, the Frenchmen in that
part of the country can be
too
awful. All rather macho I'm afraid.”
I gave up any further attempts at a scolding and the conversation ended with assur-
ances from him that from now on all specification information would be completely accur-
ate and owners would be thoroughly vetted in advance for signs of sanity.
Back in Mirepoix we took a gentle evening stroll and, as we later munched on our
duck dinner, we reflected on our eventful visit. In short, we felt we could offer the follow-
ing thoughts to anyone who might be interested in buying property in this area.
• It's a lovely, very pretty rural location
• The locals are kind and welcoming
• Mirepoix in particular is a gorgeous little town
• The local food is excellent, there being a distinct advantage if you happen to
like duck and apples
• If one was to buy here, property insurance needs to include natural disasters
• And last but not least:
Never
accept a lift from a man with a glint in his eye,
stuffed animals in his pockets, driving a severely damaged 4x4
This estate clearly was not for us. In the moments before I fell asleep I satisfied myself
that today's mishaps were not the result of flaws in my research process and that we should
put our experience down to a bit of bad luck.
This was surely an unrepresentative example and nothing could
possibly
go as badly
wrong with the rest of our viewings. Could it?
