Autumn 1998,
We just arrived in London and I was looking for someone to teach me Tibetan.
A friend of mine, in Dordogne, told me:"I know someone who could help you. He is very kind and quite eccentric." I called the eccentric one.
"Come and meet us at home! I will pick you at the tube station. You can't miss me, I am tall with wild white hair and I will be in an old small car in front of the station."
I spotted him at first glance, big eyes, big smile, big hug.
"I am Anthony!"
A few days later, Anthony and Marie-Laure invited us for a delicious diner, the first of many others and introduced us to Karma Puntshok who kindly accepted to guide my first steps into learning Tibetan. This diner has been the starting point of our friendship with Anthony and Marie-Laure and of our love affair with Bhutan.
Without knowing us at all, Anthony has been from the very beginning, from the first glass of Bordeaux so warmhearted, curious, enthusiastic, full of ideas and projects, bubbling, bursting, laughing, "en duo" with Marie-Laure.
We discovered their Scottish hide away and the pub of Applecross, we walked together in Queyras, in the French Alps, in the English country side, we went back to Bhutan, we spent many joyful evenings until the very last days and planned many trips to Burma, to Thaïland, to India, to Tibet...
These plans are still in the air and with Marie-laure as a guide and a companion we will enjoy the same curiosity, enthusiasm, energy, generosity, maybe a bit more "zen" than the bighearted "eccentric" one we loved so much.
Anne and Gérard