This got a little weird.

So, we’re out cruising around the Languedoc countryside, going from ville to ville, already feeling like unwitting participants in the HGTV show “House Hunters International” … when the second agent we meet is … someone who has appeared as an agent twice before — on the actual show.

Anushka, is that really you?

I concede I didn’t recognize her right off. But Leah did.

Anushka introduced herself, and Leah remembered the name immediately and said, “You were the agent on House Hunters International!”

And Anushka seemed almost embarrassed. Or she is very humble. Or both. She said something like, “Oh, you saw that? I didn’t know what countries it is shown in; it’s never been shown in France.”

My mother is a big fan of the whole “House Hunters” series, and she got us watching it, as well, when we were living in California. At least two episodes have been done in Abu Dhabi, too; my daughter Britt alerted me to the first of those.

The House Hunters premise is simple yet strangely riveting. Get a camera crew to follow around people who are going to buy a house, take them to three locations, listen to the potential buyers discuss the pros and cons of each piece of real estate as they move from room to room “this closet is awfully small”, etc. … then build up to a grand finale in which audiences are teased with a “before the commercial break” sendoff along the lines of “which of the three houses did Biff and Binky choose? The spacious fixer-upper? The ready-to-move-in split-level with the pool? Or the budget-busting beach house?”

Giving viewers a couple of minutes to guess and explain themselves to everyone else in the room.

And then the House Hunters folks pan to the buyers signing documents (presumably loan/mortgage stuff), and they make … an announcement! Ta-da! “We chose the … budget-busting beach house!”

They then talk a bit about their decision, and the show ends with a coda a few months later, when the agent visits the always-happy new home owners to see what they have done with the new digs. (I’m still waiting for an episode in which the new buyers express bitter remorse over their decision; that could have been me, if the cameras were rolling.)

Anyway, Anushka was The Agent in House Hunters International. Twice. Both times for English couples who wanted to buy in the Languedoc.  Her second go-round was released just last month, and we still need to see it.

It may not be clear on the HGTV episodes, but Anushka is an extremely competent and energetic agent with flawless English and French.  She also knows her patch of the Languedoc backwards and forwards. “This village has historical-monument status” … “that village has no newstand anymore” … “and that village has two really nice cafes and a pharmacy.”

So, yeah, we’re doing the HH International thing … except our version is a bit down-market for the real show. Ours would have had a lead-in along the lines of “can two Americans with modest resources find a place big enough to sleep four that doesn’t require massive improvements and a safety net to catch them when they tumble down the rickety stairs?”

Anushka showed us four properties in one afternoon. Three in the same city, a charming little medieval place that offered us three examples very much like what we had said we wanted (small, minimal improvements needed, basic services right there in town). But it turned out, after we had seen these three places with little or no view and lots of steep and narrow (and treacherous) steps … that we were willing to trade “historic and quaint in the middle of town” for “two stories with a decent view and a terrace in a village that might be missing a few services.”

Had this been a real episode, and we, like, qualified for a loan and actually bought a house and had Anushka come back and visited us three months hence, it would have been the final place she showed us. That is, the one she took us to after we figured out what we wanted and she found a place that pretty much matched our preferences.

Luckily, we weren’t on television and didn’t have to decide … because we couldn’t and haven’t. Even the one we like has some issues. (Like, plumbing.) We are seeing more places tomorrow and another the day after. We may end up back with Anushka, who couldn’t have been more helpful and charming … or we may go in another direction entirely — or go back to Paris with nothing at all.

Real life, this would need to be about a two-hour House Hunters International. Six places seen, at least three more to come. And I rather doubt anyone would want to sit through that, even if the scenery is impressive and some of the places pretty exotic in a 15th century “people really live here?” sort of way.