Second best

It has been the most disappointing and frustrating weekend imaginable. It was fabulous to have Debrah here in France for the weekend of course but events beyond our control meant that rather than spending the time excitedly planning a new project together for 2010, we are back to square one and resigned to plan B.

Last Wednesday, the day before Debrah flew out, I had a call from the agent - I assumed the call was to confirm the appointment for the second viewing of the barn that I first looked at a couple of weeks ago - but no, it was to inform me that an asking price offer had been accepted.

Naturally we still went to look at it, directly from the airport on arrival. Naturally it was everything Debrah expected and naturally, it could have been everything that she has envisaged it would be. Our annoyance, frustration and depression could not have been greater.

We called the agent again. "Is there any chance of a counter offer?", we pleaded. In true French agent fashion they kept us waiting over the weekend - stringing out the agony before, eventually, we got the dreaded news that a 'compromis de vente' had been signed and that was pretty much that.

At the same time, in expectation of us moving to France permanently, I had put our UK apartment up for sale. Despite the poor housing market there, we have received an offer. It's not quite enough but it was encouraging.

So, over the weekend we went through plan after plan and scenario after scenario, different options, different incomes, good and bad points of each, searched our hearts and our heads and finally decided that it would have to be back to the initial thinking for 2010.

The one thing that absolutely isn't going to happen for 2010 is that Debrah and I will spend most of the year living and working in different countries - as we have for most of the last four years.

So, the London apartment will come back off the market and I will go back to London at the end of the month when the last of my current bookings has departed. Unless by some miracle the barn comes back or a similar one appears from nowhere, we will spend next year in the UK and the apartments here will be let out on a self-catering only basis, which will work very well no doubt because of their excellent location and design.

There is nothing wrong with plan B - it just isn't plan A.

Check both sides

I am very pleased to report that Katie from Domaine Gayda telephoned immediately upon receipt of my email and put my mind at rest about their policy re vegetarian food at the restaurant. They had offered to make a full vegetarian menu from whatever they had fresh that day in the kitchen, but it appears that, for one of my guests, a pasta dish was what she wanted and that they couldn't do on the day.

So she left, forcing my other guests to leave too because they were dependent on them for transport - they weren't really, I would have gone and collected them, but they felt obliged and probably a bit embarrassed - as were we all ultimately.

My lesson is always to check both sides of the story before jumping to any conclusions and I am very relieved that I can continue to happily rely on Domaine Gayda in the future to look after any of my guest's food requirements.

Meanwhile at 42rvh I had a full house of guests at the weekend and a fridge full of champagne. Sadly it wasn't mine - being a man with many fridges, I was just storing it for a friend's 40th birthday party on Saturday evening - so I had to give it back but I did get to drink some in the end.

Canal boat, pub, nightclub - guests who had arrived from all over Europe it seemed - and a lot of champagne. You can probably guess the rest. I was up bright and breezy for breakfasts but definitely jaded by mid-afternoon and still struggling for energy as I put together the guests dinner I was hosting on Sunday night. I'm not as young as I used to be.

And so to today and my next property viewing - not a pile of stones this time but a barn and a garage on a small piece of land that could make the perfect little retreat for two people. It has potential, I think, but needs a lot of questions answered first. At least it was located roughly where they said it was and for once there weren't a lot of unexpected "Oh, didn't I tell you about that" bits to take in.