Stephanie Branchereau
Stephanie got involved in this through good fortune - she is the daughter of Mr. Branchereau, a clerk at the office of the notaire who handled the purchase. She was brought in early in the negotiations as someone who could speak English, and we were surprised to find that she not only spoke English but American English. She has been invaluable throughout this whole hellish process, and has translated mountains of documents from French to English and back again. She has also gone along with us to various official meetings and has been a great help in penetrating the armored layers of French bureacracy in order to actually get things done. Her real job is in the exportation of local French wines of the Loire valley, and she travels a lot between France and China. With luck, she will eventually be sending some wines to the US also.