The story continues.....

Well...........Maxim is both shocked and stunned. I don`t think anyone has ever said "no" to him before. He now is obsessed with Veronique because she is something he cannot have. His mother is absolutely incensed by Veronique`s audacity to turn down the offer from her 'wonderful' son ...and has even telephoned her to tell her so.

Veronique`s mother Ann-Marie, too, is appalled at her daughter`s attitude. Ann-Marie is the typical rural Normandie farmer`s wife, always wearing her apron, a hand-knitted cardigan and wellington boots. She has felt so honoured, proud ( and optimistic!) of the tenuous link she has with the chateau from the start of her daughter`s romance. She has held her head high at all the village functions ,and has enjoyed the whispers and knowing looks from the other farmers' wives at the market. She has told Veronique  that, as she is nearly 30 now, she will never get a better offer and her biologocal clock is ticking away.

There is still some quite old fashioned thinking out here in deepest rural Normandie and the older generation of men still feel a woman should stay at home at the kitchen sink. None more so than a workman who called 'on spec' at the house to ask if we needed any roofing work. I told him that we didn`t as the roof is in perfect condition - but he ignored me with a condescending smile and  insisted on asking to speak with my husband or "le chef" as he called him. I called Mark who gave him exactly the same answer!  -  and I returned to the kitchen sink. Shame.....he will never know how close he came to having his beret clad head stuffed in the sink with the tap running!

So..... the pressure is on poor Veronique from all angles. Her mother and Maxim have joined forces and the plotting has begun. When Veronique returns home from work she will find Maxim sitting at the kitchen table chatting with her mother. He's been invited to many family meals and get togethers and everything is being engineered to get them back together. Anne-Marie is currently not even talking to her daughter! Veronique's phone is constantly ringing with texts from him but his offer never changes. It still involves having to live with his "Maman".

And now Veronique is having doubts and wondering if what her mother says is true. The only other options she seems to have is to choose a husband from here in a very rural community. Is she prepared to accept someone who stays out all night hunting, shoots anything that moves, comes home in the morning, slaps the kill on the table and then asks for it be skinned, gutted and prepared for his supper later that day?

But that is not all................more tomorrow.....