First we had a date for an early lunch with Jonscott Turco, an international business consultant and a good friend of the builder who lives on our street back home, and whom we met at Martine's, a Scarsdale cafe, a few weeks before we left for France. He told us he goes to Paris and Istanbul regularly for business, and we realized that he would be in Paris when we are here, and so today was the day we planned to meet up. We sat in a very expensive cafe near Place de la Madeleine for a bite to eat (about 25 euros a person), and talked for about two hours about a million things, business, travel, relationships, politics, kids, life. It was fun and we felt like we had known him for a long time.
Then it was off to the Jardin de Luxembourg, with the gardeners preparing for spring, and the statues, the gendarmes on their beat in the Jardin (tough duty!), and the people playing chess, until we got to the Musee du Luxembourg. Our mission here was to buy tickets ahead of time for the Chagall exhibit for a few weeks from now when our friend Gail will be here. We want to avoid the long wait on line later and today we have time, so we waited in line for about an hour, and didn't mind as we had no other plans for the afternoon, and it's great people watching...the ladies group (dressed to the nines) meeting for a guided tour, the adorable little kids playing hide and seek.
Background: Irene was Jill's first friend in Paris in 1968, with whom she spent just about every day, walking Paris, taking care of new-born Justin, and NON-STOP conversation...we had so many experiences and cultural things to talk about (and still do!). Irene was married to Francois at that time, a Frenchman and a bit eccentric, but a sweet and generous guy. He still lives here in Paris and we had hoped to see him for dinner tomorrow night, but as it turns out, he is in London dealing antiques...they're all in the antique business...Hal had been dealing with Francois for years and that's how Hal met Irene after her divorce from Francois. But they're all still friends...Francois still goes to England every week for business, and their daughter Caroline lives in London with her three children, so he dines with all of them often. We don't know Hal all that well because Irene met and married him long after we had left Paris. We had visited them in their charming home in Brighton about 15 years ago and now we have lots of catching up to do. Hal is a sweetheart of a guy. Pictures of their current bigger flat are amazing, with stunning antiques throughout...it's their life.
So at about 5pm we met Irene and Hal at their hotel just round the corner from our apartment and took them to our favorite local Cafe Nemrod for a drink, and talked for a couple of hours. Then we took them back to one of our favorite restaurants on this trip, Chaumette, which they loved as well...it's what we all like (I had one of my favorites, ris de beau fricassee ...sautéed calf pancreas ...rich and yummy), and then back to our residences for a good night's sleep.
It's such great fun to meet a really good friend after so many years, and pick up just where you left off...another highlight of our trip, among so many other highlights!
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