Inspired by breathtaking views and romantically dreaming of finding love in the mountains, Tony Hawks impulsively buys a house in the French Pyrenees. Here, he imagines, he will finally fulfil his childhood fantasy of mastering the piano, untroubled by the problems of the world.

However, 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 a middle-aged builder from West London.

Yet, as Tony and his friends haplessly attempt to integrate themselves into local village life, they learn more about themselves and each other than they ever thought possible.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Bought the book in a charity shop for a pound. Read it almost in one go. Funny, easy read. Off to EmEli now.

Thank you, Olifant! I usually enjoy Tony's weird endeavours so I'm curious about this one.

I enjoyed the story and it was a good read but I think I liked his other books better. Perhaps because those were a little more bizarre.

Ik heb het boek vandaag rond 15h in OBCZ hotel de Doelen achtergelaten.

I read this years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed Tony's dry humour, and then released my copy as one of my first Book Crossing releases. Since then I have some friends who have been restoring a house in a small town in the Ardennes, and I wished that they could have read it too. My copy has disappeared. and I hope it's still wandering in the wild, but now this copy pops up...

Passing Tony's experience on to some friends in a similar situation...

The book is an easy read.
I found it easy to relate to several of the encounters and aspirations of Tony. Well worth reading.