Poppy’s Place in the Sun: A French Escape. Lorraine Wilson

      

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      HarperImpulse

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      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

      Copyright © Lorraine Wilson 2018

      Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers 2018

      Cover illustration © Shutterstock.com

      Lorraine Wilson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008285289

      Ebook Edition © April 2018 ISBN: 9780007544080

      Version: 2018-03-19

      This is for Holly, aka Squeakerdog, who sadly died while I was writing this book. It’s also for her best doggy friend Poppy, my first ever rescue mutt.

      Table of Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Prologue

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

      

       Chapter Five

      

       Chapter Six

      

       Chapter Seven

      

       Chapter Eight

      

       Chapter Nine

      

       Chapter Ten

      

       Chapter Eleven

      

       Chapter Twelve

      

       Chapter Thirteen

      

       Chapter Fourteen

      

       Chapter Fifteen

      

       Epilogue

      

       ‘Only Dogs and Donkeys’ by Peanut the Chihuahua and Poppy Kirkbride

      

       Acknowledgements

      

       About the Author

      

       About HarperImpulse

       Prologue

       Daydream Designs – Poppy’s Blog

       ‘My Place in the Sun’

       So, it’s official. No more watching A Place in the Sun and wishing it were me. Tomorrow it will be me – I’ve found my place in the sun and I’ll be making the last leg of the long drive to Saint-Quentin-sur-Aude. It’s a smallish village in the Languedoc, a region in Occitanie in the South of France. It’s Provence’s lesser known neighbour and as a result it’s not as posh, it’s not pretentious and, thankfully, it’s not too pricey. I’ve only had to empty my bank account, not sell my soul to gain a piece of it. According to Vogue, it’s the “true South of France – and one of the country’s best kept secrets”. Having toured Provence and the Cote D’Azur I can say the region of Occitanie is every bit as gorgeous, with chateaus, picturesque hilltop villages and vineyards stretching all the way across to sandy beaches and the sparkling Mediterranean Sea.

       Imagine a kaleidoscope patchwork of sunflower fields and vineyards, bustling markets brimming with fresh local produce and wall-to-wall glorious sunshine – then you’ll get the picture. What’s not to like?

       Soon you won’t need to imagine anyway; I’ll post my journal sketches on the blog. I fell in love with the area last summer. Listening to the audiobook of Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth as my other half and I walked along the cobbled streets