There were three days left of the “Holiday” and Christine and the children had understandably had their fill of walking around old houses and trudging through fields. I however knew, that if we didn’t find something that week, the likelihood of us joining the thousands of others, that look for that dream “French country house” and give up because they don’t find it first time round, was a distinct possibility. After all with two teenagers, there are only so many times you can afford to holiday abroad, in a year. I also believed from the research I had conducted, that there was still some growing to be done for the French property market and thought that another six or twelve months delay might be quite costly, financially. I am also a strong believer in doing it whilst you can, if the possibility is there. It is better to have tried and failed than to live a life of regret (Sorry, getting a little carried away with the philosophy there). So the following day, I left everyone by the pool and I trawled the estate agents again. It was at one of them that I met “Annie”, a very nice French lady, who’s English was much better than my French. Annie took me to three plots of land , which again just didn’t fit the bill. I had one more plot to look at that day and that would probably have been just about it, for the holiday.
There are moments that occur in every persons life, that, on reflection, they know they will remember for eternity. One of these moments was about to happen for me. Just around the corner from the last plot we’d seen, we were on a hillside, winding up a country road when Annie, who was driving, suddenly stopped the car. She didn’t say anything, just started getting out of the car. I assumed we had arrived at the final plot and as I alighted the vehicle I looked to my right. The open space to my right sloped away from the small “Voie communal” we had just driven along. The view was stunning. I looked at Annie in disbelief. The plot was a little more expensive than the others at 53,000€, (About £36,000 at the time), but it was so “Out of this world”, I thought surely she had made a mistake. I asked her “Are you sure this is the right one”. “Yes“, she said “Of course”. Goosebumps ran up my arms, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. The “Terrain” sloped down into a gentle valley. There were vineyards running up the valley opposite , a small wooded area in the foreground, the odd farmhouse dotted here and there, farrowed fields, and even a church on top of one of the rolling hills in the distance. It was as near to perfect as I knew we would ever get. The words “Location, Location, Location“, sprang to mind. This was it . This was the plot I’d been looking for. Pictures or photo's never quite do justice to those beautiful moments that we ocasionally come across in life do they. This picture doesn't do the view real justice, but it gives you an idea. This is the view that I saw that day -
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