The year was 1964 and the pretty girl was teacher's college student Amanda Taylor-Ace. The meeting at a private party in an Auckland hotel was to change her life, as she had an "overpowering" urge to leave New Zealand and go "far away, to colourful, crowded places, eat exotic food, seize life and milk it for every little pleasure". And she did.
Taylor-Ace was probably influenced by her parents, for her mother was French and her father English, and so she took off on her 1960s OE. Some 30 years later, in 1996, she decided to try living in France for a year and left Auckland again for Europe, this time with her 14-year-old son, Piers.
Neither spoke French but, 12 months on, both were fluent and when the pair returned to New Zealand, it was so Amanda could sell up in Auckland and live permanently in France.
With her daughter Sam, the former restaurant owner searched her favourite areas of southern France for a large house she could develop into guest accommodation and a small cooking school. Buying her first choice fell through because the owner, a Middle Eastern sheikh, refused to deal with a woman. In retrospect, Amanda says, it was a good thing, as she found her dream property in the medieval town of Uzes, between Avignon and Nimes.
My French Affair tells in lively prose the trials and triumph of renovations, the development of her business, her latest lover and above all, Taylor-Ace shares her love of her new home. It's almost enough to want to follow her example.
