Friends in High Villages

We have made new friends here in Uzes in the strangest of ways. My dear friend and Uzes advisor Gail was visiting a friend in New Zealand who had said "you might like this book - it's about a New Zealand woman in France, I can't be bothered reading it". Gail took it away and loved it because the 'woman in France' had bought a property just outside Uzes which she lets out to guests when she isn't running cookery schools and tours. So Gail suggested I read it and I downloaded it onto my phone. The next day I was sitting in a local doctor's waiting room reading all about Amanda's adventures with handsome landscape gardeners and attractive Moroccans, when I struck up a conversation with the woman next to me. I asked where she lived and she said St Maximin. "Oh, what a coincidence," I said. I'm just reading about a New Zealander who lives there". "Oh you must mean Amanda," said the woman (she was English), she's my next door neighbour." What a coincidence! Then I read on and found Amanda was describing a scene where her hypochondriac mother calls the Pompiers and the doctor visits. Which was the very same doctor as the one we were visiting that day. It was all too much and I had to email Amanda to tell her and to ask if I could visit her house somehow. She wrote back immediately and said she was in Greece but her best friend Judy had been instructed to invite me up to St Maximin for a tour of the house and a drink. So the lovely Judy did just that and I got to meet two more New Zealanders  - Derrick and Debra (Debra and Derrick's sister Verna had just bought the house across the road), plus the Deputy Mayor of St Maximin and his lovely wife. Judy has now joined Amanda in Greece but we have caught up with Debra and Derrick since then and they have sweetly invited us to dinner at their Appartements des Jardins on Thursday. Can't wait to see their house.
If anyone is thinking of holidaying in this beautiful part of France or wants a week of cooking and wine tasting in a perfect setting, you can look up Amanda on www.joiedevivre-unlimited.com or Debra and Verna (Derrick's sister who is the co-owner) on stmaxapartments@gmail.com (they don't have their website up and running yet).
Here we all are getting to know each other the new house Amanda has built at the end of her jardin.

And here we are (Danny has joined us now) entertaining Debra and Derrick in our apartment in Uzes