Author(s): Tony Hawks

Travel Writing

'If you had to pick two things you wanted - if you had to - what would you pick?' I hesitated. This was a bigger question than usually got asked at these post-match debriefs. 'I suppose the honest answer would be,' I said, still accessing the last pieces of required data from a jumbled mind, '- meeting my soul mate, and finding an idyllic house abroad somewhere.' Inspired by breathtaking views and romantically dreaming of finding love in the mountains, Tony Hawks impulsively buys an idyllic house in the French Pyrenees. And here, he imagines, he will finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, all the while overlooking spectacular views as the troubles of the world pass by unnoticed. Tony's hopelessly ill-prepared stumbling into the world of overseas home ownership is perhaps best read as a useful manual of how not to go about buying a house abroad. He flirts with the removal business in a disastrous attempt to take his piano over to France in a dodgy white van; foolishly elects to build a swimming pool himself; and takes his experience of relationships to a new level when he finds himself co-habiting, not with a beautiful French woman, but with his old mate Ron the builder from West London. Yet as Tony and his small group of friends haplessly attempt to integrate themselves into local village life, they learn more about themselves and each other than they ever bargained for. And for at least one of them, love is found at last, in the most unexpected of places.