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Mallory Towers
On a breezy day in July, Whiz, Horace with friend, Queasy, Mavis and I set out for our first foreign holiday since Mavis’s birth. We had rented a villa in Poitou, Western France which we planned to share with Whiz’s sister, Fret and her husband, Fender.
The place was called a villa and not a gite because it was not owned by French people. This distinction did not affect our choice as we were more interested in the number of bedrooms and the swimming pool “shared with the owners”.
After a long ferry crossing and several hours’ drive we turned onto the track of a beautiful old house in its own grounds, resplendent with swimming pool and boules pitch. A vegetable patch bursting with tomatoes, courgettes and other more exotic vegetables dominated the lawn and all we could see for miles and miles were fields and gentle hills. (more…)