A Visit With A Friend

Pages from Jan's Travel Journal: Monday, May 9 2016

I awoke in time to have coffee with Desmond before he left for work. I had a second cup of coffee and nibbled on a chocolate-dipped waffle before straightening the house a bit.

Azur, looking for his friend, Lily.

Just after noon, I meandered across the bridge to meet Arno at his place for lunch. He was cooking when I arrived. He served a nice lunch of stuffed zucchini and roasted potatoes. He is a very interesting person and we discussed many different subjects. When he brought out his collection of polished stones, I was fascinated. I have always been attracted to stones and crystals. I'm particularly attracted to striped stones and have several from different parts of the world. Arno had some rare and impressive specimens. Some of them simply took my breath away! We lost track of time, and before we knew it, it was 4:00. 

We set off to do some shopping. At Eurodif, I bought some bath mitts and a wallet. Just as we were about to leave the store, I noticed that the rain had begun again, so I also purchased an umbrella. Once outside, we happened to run into Mathieu, who was just on his way to get a haircut. We arranged to meet him afterward at Hendrix Pub. It was cozy in the bar, out of the rain. When Mathieu arrived, we ordered a round of drinks. We then received a text from Desmond, saying that he had gotten off work early. He headed our way immediately and we all had fun discussing the events of the day while sipping our drinks. Des always has funny and endearing stories to tell about his students. 

A street in Orléans, during a break from the rain.

Upon leaving the pub, we slowly walked through the rain to Au Bureau for dinner. We all chose salads; mine was a chicken Caesar salad, which was large, tasty, and very filling. The four of us never seemed to run out of things to talk about. It was a lively and fun evening. 

My phone didn't do justice to the lovely sunset.