More new contacts

Everyday seems to bring new opportunities. Some arrive by pure chance and some are part of a momentum that, I hope, is building about the business.

This afternoon, I went down to see Pierre at his shop and give him some of our postcards to hand out to people if appropriate. I was stood chatting to him when the man in charge of regenerating the bastide town came along - and so I was introduced and now I have an appointment with him on Tuesday next so that he can view the apartments and tell me how he can help me and the benefits of being involved with the 'Mairie' and the association of businesses in the bastide. I am sure there must be benefits of being involved - not least there is a benefit of being seen to be involved and part of the system rather than trying to operate independently.

A few weeks ago I met a woman, Nathalie, who had sent me an email telling me how lovely our apartments were. I replied, she visited and subsequently invited us for an 'apero' at her house.

We really didn't know what to expect. What we had was a fabulous evening, in a beautifully designed and decorated house, with her very dishy (Debrah's words) husband, Fabien and her friends Xavier and Charlotte, who both work for the Hotel de la Cite. Nathalie is a cook who has had several cookbooks published in France, and is also a designer, which was evident from her lovely residence. She has two dogs called Ralph and Stella - both names after fashion designers - you can work it out for yourself.

Xavier was very interested in our apartments from a professional point of view - he is in charge of marketing up at the Hotel. It may prove to be a useful contact if he considers us a suitable venue for overflow guests when they are fully booked - let's hope so.

Debrah's i-phone proved to be a hit with Nathalie and her daughter - I feel an imminent purchase coming on round there. They were all really lovely and we had a fabulous time - so much so that we stayed longer than we intended and were too late for our restaurant booking at La Roulotte - when we got there they had closed and gone home, which made us feel very guilty and left us wondering where we were going to eat. We ended up having a run-of-the-mill steak and chips at La Magnac, which wasn't what we had been expecting at all.

When we got home I had an email exclaiming 'I met your wife on a plane!'. I wasn't quite sure what to think at first, but it turned out to be a lady lawyer who commutes to London on a regular basis who had exchanged details with Debrah and was just getting in touch - sounds a bit mad but that's ok. She seemed happy to push business our way too.

Please keep it coming everyone.