Leaving France via Hong Kong.

Our three years came to an inevitable end and we packed up our ‘new’ antiques and left our beautiful home with Channel, and the cats, Shatzi and Mitzi. On our way home from France to Ontario, we visited some friends in Hong Kong. Bob had been with the company, Quebecair, but left with his wife Judy and three kids, to pursue a career piloting with Cathay Pacific. We had minded their children for a couple of weeks  in France and they gave Don a t-shirt, as a thank-you, I guess.  They kindly invited us to visit them in Hong Kong . It seemed fitting to take them up on it and so we decide to go on our way home.  

Hong Kong was hot and humid, but it felt good on the bones. Bob and Judy lived on an Island off Hong kong so we ferried back and forth to go to the city to poke around, sight see and shop.  One day we saw massive numbers of containers floating in the harbour.  We bristled as our containers would be transported by ship as well.  You mean, THIS can happen?? Egad.

We decided to invite then out for dinner, with their three kids, to a Chinese restaurant in the city that was actually a huge three story Chinese boat, afloat in the harbour, painted bright red with all the fancy paintings and lights. It was also Judy’s birthday.  Bob had decided we would all meet that evening at 6:00.  He must have ruled over her with an iron fist or something, because I never suspected this ultimatum was a life or death warning.  But it must have been because of what happened that afternoon.  

Judy and I went to the market after lunch. It was a market that spanned several blocks.  I felt I was in a different world with all these fascinating and interesting things.  Judy had an agenda, so we decided she could go ahead and get her things and I would mozey on, on my own, and we would meet at the market entrance at 5:30.  This would give us enough time to drive to the restaurant and meet up with the gang.

I was about 8 minutes late even though I tried my best to get out of there and find the entrance on time.  I stood at the entrance of the market with all my shopping bags, waiting.  I figured she got tied up somewhere… easy enough to do in that place.  As the clock neared six, I started to suspect she wasn’t here.  It was getting dark and I had to make a realization, was she here or not?  I decided she wasn’t.

I was soon to find out that in this part of Hong Kong, no one spoke English. I approached several cab drivers who couldn’t understand me.  I’d go to the next one.  I was getting a little frantic and I even beseeched strangers to help me, but they didn’t speak English either. Finally one driver caught the word ‘water’ and even if he didn’t understand what I meant for sure, I had to take a chance that he knew I meant the harbour.

I was so relieved to see the familiar sight of the water and ferry station, even in the dark. I got out of the cab and started looking for another one, one where the driver spoke English. It wasn’t hard as most of them did. I described the restaurant and the driver knew right away which one I meant.  I guess it was pretty popular.  Sure enough, he got me to the right place, because even though I didn’t know the name, I knew what it looked like and this was it. What luck!

I was greeted at the door by a hostess who was expecting me.  I thought that was a nice welcome.  However, when I arrived at the table, there they were, all sitting around, with an empty chair for me, (how nice of them to remember me), finishing up their dinner. It was like the Twilight Zone.  Don saying, “Oh we knew  you’d find us,” and everyone else acting like this was perfectly normal.  I didn’t know what to feel.  I was bewildered, shocked almost, that Judy left me like that, and now I was in disbelief that my absence didn’t seem to affect them in any way. I had a couple of bites of left overs and that was it.

Now it was time to get home. Don stayed for a few more months to finish his contract and I flew home with the kids to meet up with our furniture. We were fortunate with the sale of the house as we doubled our money in the short time we had it. Twenty years later it was worth 5 times that!  The money gave us a cushion when we came home as Don was out of work for one and a half years.  His company, Quebecair, closed their doors with the end of the contract in France.   

There were a few complications to getting our stuff back.  There was the holding back or our belongings because we had been suspected of using the company for commercial reasons. The company refused to ship the containers until Don relinquished $10,000 of his severance.  The stuff sat in the heat at Le Harvre on the docks,  with 200 bottles of wine, until all this was settled. This caused a lot of stress on Don who was now on his own living in one of the apartments in the house.

Hunting in France

Hunting in France up to the time of the Revolution was just for the elite.  Once the French got the rights to hunt, they weren’t going to give them up easily.  M. Robin, Monsieur le Mayor, landowner and our land lord, used his land to profit from the large hunting fees.  Men paid thousands to hunt.  It was pure forest across from the house. Some of the land belonged to us, but most of it was M. Robin’s.  Martine had stories of lead from bullets soaring through her open shutters and landing on her bed.  

This one day the kids were playing in the woods with some American friends who were visiting.  They came in with stories of bullets flying by their ears.  This caused quite a stir and next thing you know, the game warden, the police and all the neighbours were sitting in our living room discussing the issue of hunting so close to the houses.

They wouldn’t budge.  Nothing could be done to interfere with their right to hunt.  I was livid.  I tried to point out that if a kid had been killed our conversation wouldn't be the same.  They agreed.  But no body was produced, so no change in the rules.