Once they had opened the doors and windows and explored the house, Franck had a sudden premonition. He quickly went downstairs to get his phone from the door of the car and, to his horror, found that it had no signal. Frantically, he started walking up and down to try to find a connection somewhere, holding the phone out in front of him as if it were a remote control that could turn the world on again. He even walked along the crest of the hill and criss-crossed the whole meadow at the top, and still could not get a signal. Wherever he tried, he couldn’t even get one bar, and surely that was impossible. So, he set out down the big slope in front of him, hurtling down the beautiful meadow that rolled into a valley in the east, a good five hundred metres from the house. He crossed the whole hillside in his city shoes, catching his feet in the tall grass and going faster and faster.

Lise watched him from the window. She saw him rush down into the long sloping meadow, carried forward by momentum. It looked as if he were trying to walk slowly, but the slope was pulling him down. He kept his eyes on his phone without really looking where he was treading, as if trying to revive a small animal.

He turned around when he got to the foot of the hill, surprised that he had walked so far. The house seemed a long way away, or high up at least. At this time of day, the trough of the valley was in shadow, and it was almost chilly. Another hill covered with holm oaks and box rose up in front of him, a mound of dense, sloping woods that would be almost impossible to get into, unless you fought your way through the tangle of bushes and brambles.

Lise took in the valley from above, with Franck impatiently stamping his feet at the bottom. She looked in admiration at the slope in front of him. It was just as steep as the other one, but the thick vegetation and tightly packed trees made it look impenetrable. From the window, the green mass seemed to rise like a wave, especially with the sun beating down on its summit, lifting it up even further. Lise was in seventh heaven. She had what she wanted: all she could see were hills and trees, turning the house into an island in a bottomless ocean of green. She thought to herself that it must be crawling with animals; wild boar and wolves, foxes and deer. She knew nothing about the wildlife around here, but the idea crossed her mind and made her shiver a little.