Alice is training to be a teacher and everyone thought it would be a marvelous idea for her to teach me a bit of French every day, seeing as Camille’s promise to teach me turned out to be a false one, and it would be good practice for Alice as well. It’s not so much Alice’s strictness that’s the problem as my impatience and frustration with myself at trying to learn this new language which seems so impossible to grasp. Having regular lessons is only making me more aware of the vast task of trying to master it.

“English it is then. I don’t mind. I need it for my job and I can do with the practice,” Dominique says, as if her job is any old job.

We all sit, more wine is poured, and I have to take a few sips before my brain can process that I’m sitting in the beautiful French countryside, drinking an indeed excellent wine, in the company of the woman I fell in love with, the president of France, and her sexy, mysterious girlfriend.

We recount the story of how we met to great glee from our hosts, and for a split-second I wonder whether it would come across as totally ignorant to ask about Dominique and Steph’s first ever meeting, but then I remember Camille’s words from earlier: this is not an interview, all questions are valid, and no matter our individual levels of greatness and accomplishment, we are all just people. So I ask them.

Steph stretches out her hand to Dominique, and says, “Even though I’ll never forget the day she walked into the meeting room at the office, it feels like it happened in another lifetime.”

“My life would have been so much easier if your bosses hadn’t brought you in to seduce me into hiring their firm for my PR. They should have known you were trouble. I mean, look at you, mon amour. It’s written all over you. It still is after all this time,” Dominique says.

The passion between them is striking. They both seem totally relaxed. Maybe these are the only two weeks of the year they can be like this.

A young woman comes out of the house, and says, “Didier et Lisa vont se coucher maintenant, Madame.”

“Ah.” Dominique rises from her chair. “Time for bedtime stories. Please excuse me.”

“I’ll just give them a quick kiss and get dinner ready.” Steph follows her inside and when it’s just Camille and me on the terrace, I consider how relaxed the atmosphere is, how completely different than I had expected.

“Is she all you imagined she would be?” Camille asks with a smile on her face, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek.

“They are so normal and… in love.”