Читать книгу A Vineyard in the Dordogne - How an English Family Made Their Dream of Wine, Good Food and Sunshine Come True - Jeremy Josephs - Страница 5
ОглавлениеIT HAD BEEN his dream for as long as he could remember. To live in France. To make excellent wine in a vineyard of his own. And to make his home in an elegant château. Was this not, Nick Ryman wondered, many an Englishman’s dream?
From the very first moment he set eyes on it he had fallen in love with Château de la Jaubertie. ‘That’s exactly what I want,’ he said to the delight of the local estate agent. I’ll take it.’ Not yet forty, he was in the fortunate position of being able to buy more or less what he wanted. All as a result of his own hard work, though, for he had spent the previous two decades transforming the family’s small stationery business into a huge success and indeed a household name. Without hesitation he offered the full asking price of two million francs for the château.
The Sauvats, the wily owners, knew exactly how to handle their wealthy purchaser from overseas. For the next two years they were to blow hot and cold in respect of the sale, always managing to put up the price in the process. Nick Ryman had tried to free himself from the magical hold of Jaubertie. So too had his wife Anne. But to no avail, for in their search for an alternative they saw nothing to compare with it. Within two years the price had doubled. ‘Offer four million then,’ Nick told the agent.
On Saturday, 29 September 1973, Nick arrived at a notary’s office in Saussignac, a small village just outside Bergerac in the Dordogne, ready to sign the acte définitif. It was with much relief that he put his name to that legal document, despite the fact that he was paying considerably over the odds for his folie. Then Monsieur Sauvat did likewise. But when it came to Madame’s turn to append her signature, she appeared to hesitate for a while, as if overcome by the emotion of the occasion. Swiftly recovering her composure, she proceeded to give all those present a piece of her mind. I shall never sign for the sale of Château de la Jaubertie,’ she announced. And with those words she picked up the notary’s fountain pen and hurled it across the table. ‘Never.’
