la maison aux pilles

Picnicked down by the river at lunchtime today. It was so lovely and warm and the water was very inviting!

Went on a wild goose chase for fishing accoutrements in the afternoon. Then coffee with Steph and Martine at the Palmiers. We saw Agnes there. She's the reason we came to this part of France in the first place when I was only 5. She was the French assistant at my dad's school. We came to visit her and dad fell in love with the region....so much so that he bought a house here in 1998 and, well, we've all been coming and going to Les Pilles on holidays and stuff for years. Until about ten years ago when my sister and her husband moved here. Then mum and dad a year or two later and, finally, me - the last one - just last year. It's all Agnes's fault!

She grew up in the house I'm living in now. We came here on holidays and stayed in what is now my home. I'd already slept in most of the rooms in this house before I moved into it as a renter.

My earliest memory of it is when I was 5. Mireille, Agnes's mum, had a dog called Maya. At that time, I was petrified of dogs. Mireille would be constantly telling the Maya to "va te coucher" (lie down!) so it would leave me alone. Eventually one day when she wasn't there to tell the dog to lie down, I turned to my dad and said "please could you tell Maya to va te coucher?" My first French words at age 5 thanks to Mireille and a morbid fear of dogs!

I remember being here in later years and playing French Monopoly with Mireille's grandson, Benjamin. I always thought I might marry him. He had a constant cheeky glint in his eye.

At around the age of 16, I was holidaying again with my family here in this house. It was the time when I couldn't go for five minutes without speaking to my friends. It was a nightmare being away from the gossip and VERY IMPORTANT STUFF that was going on with everyone at home. I phoned my friend Ross one night from the phone box out the front of Mireille's to hear how it was all going back in Belfast, only to be told that my boyfriend (of about a week) had snogged Gillian, a girl I knew from round our way. I was devastated!

Back to the café this afternoon and seeing Agnès...she was meeting her ex at the Palmiers to sign their divorce papers! I hadn't seen him in years, so we did the three kisses and the two of them went off to order a drink each and to sign out from nearly 20 years of marriage. They were laughing about ordering a bottle of champagne and it was all very civilised. Sad to see it end.