Husband and wife team, Elly and Merlot, left England in search of a new life in rural France. They had no idea they would be welcomed with deceit, lies and the abuse of power. The challenges which faced them seemed to have no end, yet amongst the horror of it all, there was humour.

It is right that the credit for this book has been given to their two Labradors, who accompanied them throughout. Ridiculous as this sounds, without them in their lives they would have given up long ago. They became two anchors, which held all steady, when everything and everyone around Elly and Merlot seemed to exist somewhere between fact and fiction.

These Labradors, Paddington and Victoria, were observers, surveying two distinct cultures and many different characters. Their attempts to understand what was going on can only be translated through their eyes. This is their story.