One year after moving to ‘Mondesire’, Don got an offer to move to France for three years. We anguished over it because we were still excited about the farm. It was hard to leave our lovely home, but we decided it best for everyone to go to France and have this experience. We rented the farm and headed to France with the kids. It was to be the highlight of their lives, just like my living in France as a kid was the highlight of mine. They, too, were grateful for the traveling and for the opportunity to live in another country.
And I hoped that maybe this time this adventure would heal the wounds of our marriage.
Before we moved, I went over to France with a group of pilots and their wives to find a place to live. Everything was rented. It seemed impossible to find something in the time we had. There was a song on the hit parade at the time, “Sail away” and all I could hear was ‘c’est loue”.
Don’s company, ‘Quebecair', had made arrangements for the pilots and their families to stay at a hotel at the airport until they found accommodation. It was smack dab in the middle of a large parking lot surrounded by motorways. There was no where to go in the hotel aside from the lobby. It was disastrous. I couldn’t help thinking… whatever are the kids going to do besides drive their mothers mad?
It just so happened that the real estate agent I was with showed me a secluded, classy hotel, the ‘Hotel Mercure’. It was tucked up in the forest away from civilization and high ways, but not that far to the airport. It had a riding stable, a manor, a pool and a beautiful new hotel all buried in the magnificent old trees. It was luxurious! I was delirious. This was it; this was where the families had to be. I excitedly brought chief pilot Reg Orange and the other pilots over and they concurred immediately. What a find!
It was a great introduction to France where we were to live for three years. We stayed at the hotel for about three weeks and then Don found the sheep barn.
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