"Who's she?" I reply. "Lady I stayed with every summer as a child. In Vouvray. The one who saved Uncle Harry". "Pardon"? "You must have heard the story"? "What story"? "How in the war Harry and his mate crash-landed in a vineyard, were scooped-up by Madeleine and her Dad, hidden and sent home via the Resistance, and how we've been friends ever since"!
"I've been visiting Vouvray from nearly 40 years, and I swear I never knew that story"! "You must've. You're getting past it old cousin!" Maybe.
Call our Loire agent and Philippa Sydney tells me "Everyone knows of the story in Vouvray - it's quite a legend! I have just spoken to one of Madeleine's grandsons Fabrice and he would be delighted if you were to contact him ... His grandfather (who is no longer alive) apparently used to speak a lot about 'Arry' the English pilot who was shot down in the vineyards of Vouvray! Today it is Fabrice and Laurent the grandsons who run the vines, with father Marc in the background".
I will do that. Fascinating. And you never know ... maybe they'll have good wine. I'll report back.
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