Fraytet & personal thanks

My dearest child,

Thank you so very much for your gift in lieu of the holiday money. I cannot tell you what a relief it was to receive it. This not only enabled me to pay my rent and other pressing matters but to get my fax machine repaired and to acquire a Freeview box which will allow me to receive many television channels other than the four I receive at the moment.

Because my scanner is not working properly I am unable to scan the material you want, so I will be sending it instead by Fedex tomorrow morning, together with a copy of the original running costs of the property in 1993 and a statement by my French lawyer that it is free of all mortgage. As you will see, together with the architects fees, the total outlay came to 18,250,000 French Francs, ie. at the time, 1,800,000 but that is without any of the interior decorations such as curtains, Mexican tiles etc. It is certainly worth over a million pounds now and anything less would be unacceptable. You will see from the various estimates that on the whole it has kept its value and has been well maintained accordingly.

Thank you in advance for whatever you can do to try and sell it for me. It is very much a sellers market at the moment and the great buyers of property in France are the British, the Belgian, the Dutch and the Swiss. More recently the Germans have returned as well, since property in France is still cheap compared to what they pay in their own country.

I am also sending you a copy of the letter I originally sent to Gerald Westminster which gives you more details if you want to pass it on please omit his name from the top of the letter.

Your ever loving
Maman