A LANGUOROUS LUNCH OF AUSTRALIANS IN PARIS
Good Friends of mine had arrived from
Melbourne a couple of days earlier, I arrived from Miami via Bruxelles just
yesterday
A warm sunny day in Paris, they have rented
a flat in Ille Sant Luis, a lovely location. We walked over to Marais and
decided to have lunch at place they had a drink yesterday.
We had lots to catch upon. Even though we
have been in regular contact, nothing like face-to-face conversations.
Australians are famous for eating, drinking and unending conversations, at
least from our town of Melbourne.
S was in charge of ordering the food, she
chose Steak Tartare and Herring Salad, and it was truly big enough for the
three of us. I was given the wine list, I ordered Bourgogne Aligote 2011,
appropriate for the time of the day.
We traded news about our common friends,
recollected how we had first met. The last time I had seen them was in
Melbourne in 2008 and the meal prepared by S was superb indeed. The Bubblies
were good too.
J has a fantastic sense of humour. If
someone were to ask me to define who is an Australian, I would say without
hesitation, Australian is a person who has Australian sense of humour.
We were not aware of the other diners,
except to occasionally to the extremely attractive French waitress of African
origin. A group of muscular Brazilians came and performed a capoeira, swaying
to a samba tune. Our conversations touched on a thousand subjects and
countries, since all three of us by choice and necessity have travelled the
globe, and speak at least one other language other than English.
We got up after paying the bill and the
watch indicated 4 30 Oh my god the lunch
had lasted more than four hours and a half.
What a delightful experience, how nice to
catch up with friends with no pressure of time. It is like looking into the
cloudless skies into a distance and seeing everything clearly.
We promised to meet for a Moroccan dinner
two days hence and said our goodbyes at the St Paul metro station.
We can’t tell you much about our lunch;
because we were concentrating on our friendship and things we have in common.
I am glad I chose Aligote as a perfect
accompaniment to our effortless conversation full of anecdotes and jokes and
typical Australian cynical comments… it felt good to be from Australia.
