I was wrong about the children's reaction to moving. Well, not completely, initially they were very disappointed, but I managed to soften the blow with a few bribes that we would move nearer to where nanny was living, and that they would be able to have a bedroom each, and we would have a garden. In the shop's apartment we had been we had all been crammed into a kitchen, a living room and 2 bedrooms. There was a toilet downstairs and a sink upstairs when we arrived, so we had to build a bathroom in our bedroom cupboard and as you can imagine with the children growing so fast it was pretty tight! We quickly put the shop up for sale, privately and with agents, and we sat and waited. And waited, and waited. Nobody wanted to buy a food store with all that competition. Fortunately we had a lease where you could turn the shop into any commerce, with a couple of exceptions; disturbing the peace, anything illegal, discotheque etc...But unfortunately nobody could see the potential it had as another business, or at least nobody that came to view. We had quite a few viewings, a hairdresser, an estate agent, somebody wanting to open a restaurant. But the worst was a little man who turned up from out of the blue. He was very interested, to the point where, after several viewings, made us an offer which we accepted. Everything was set, the signing date, the notaire, the contract was all drawn up, and then one day he just disappeared into thin air. We went to his address, a tiny apartment in a very shoddy part of the city, but nobody had heard of him. We never saw him again.
Just when we thought we had burned every bridge, a young man turned up at the door one evening. He and his partner had heard we were for sale and had been looking to buy a leasehold in that very village for some time. He liked what he saw, and went to discuss it with his partner. He said they were opticians and already had several shops in another town. He told me the name of the shops, a small chain, so being wary of the last experience, we went to check his story out. We sat in the car and staked out the opticians. Sure to his word, out he came at lunch time, and back in again at 2pm.
He did come back but this time with his partner, and he liked it too. The notaire was very quick to get in touch with them, assured us they were bona fida and drew up a contract. Within 2 months it was signed, and because of French laws, they couldn't withdraw from the contract with out losing their 10% deposit. We were finally out of there. In just a few months we would be packed up and on the road again! Time to panic again....where were we going and what were we going to do? I felt a plan B coming on......
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