Afternoon Tea and the Postal Service

3 April 2008

One of the delights of being on holiday is that we get to sleep in a bit later and can take our time getting ready to face the world. Today, for example, we enjoyed the pure luxury of not getting out of bed until 9.00am which may not sound like much, but for us is practically the afternoon.
The last time we were in Paris we went to a nearby place and had mussels. While they were OK, they were not something to get really excited about. We were told, however, that if we liked mussels the place to go was Leons of Brussels, a chain specializing in this delightful mollusk. Lunch then found us waiting for mussels and they were every bit as good as they had been advertised.

We had two very "French" experiences today. The first was at our local post office from where Virginia, a few days ago, had sent a package to Australia as well as a number of postcards. The gentleman who served her was very kind and spent a good deal of time explaining all the details of such international transactions. But that was the other day! Today she had some more postcards to send and the woman on the counter simply dismissed her saying she would have to go to Le Tabac. There was no way she was going to serve Virginia and no apparent reason for this.

The second experience came in the form of an invitation to have afternoon tea with Monsier Vaucanson who, you will remember, held the spare key. We had actually gotten the key yesterday and with it came the invitation. Naturally it was impossible to refuse so, at 5.00 this afternoon we dutifully presented ourselves. The table was perfectly laid for three with serviettes, etc. all very formal. We actually spent a delightful hour although I had some difficulty since M. Vaucanson does not speak English and my French is pretty awful. Nonetheless it was very pleasant as we enjoyed brioche with our tea. M. Vaucanson est tres charmant!

Having had a hearty lunch and afternoon tea we went up to La Butte with the intention of walking back down which, in fact, we did. I don't need to mention that while there we stopped for a beer and a glass of wine respectively and managed to eat all of the "free" nuts while we watched the world go by for an hour! Quelle Horreur!