ashamedandconfused
They did really turn up uninvited. It was my mum's friend who introduced us to the family. The family were often at my mum's friend's house so my mum would have spoken to them from time to time.
And yes, mum probably mentioned that we holidayed in France. My mum, no doubt, also would have said that she had a holiday home on such-a-such island. However, never in a 100 years did my parents ever imagine that a family would turn up unannounced like they did as a result of her big mouth!
There are advantages of living on an island - a close knit community, where everybody literally knows everybody. The taxi drivers had known me for all my 8/9 years! But therein lies the problem. All that anyone needs to locate a person on such an island, is their name. Even back in the 1980s, we used to joke to people that simply writing our name and the name of the island on the envelop, the mail would get to us.
No doubt, following the fateful visit, my mum was more careful about divulging details of our holiday home, and probably dodged the questions altogether!
The other day, I had a conversation with one of the mothers at school, and they said, "We have a holiday home is Tuscany, where we spend the summer holidays". She went on to describe the area and even named the street which leads to their home. Even though with the details she gave me - if truthful - I would be able to locate her home, in no way whatsoever, did I interpret that as an invitation to stay or come over to visit!