Belgian Board Game Creators and French Intellectuals

Okay, Belgium continued! Catherine and Brigitte (also from the Prix Farniente) met me in the lobby of my hotel at 7 am on Thursday.Off we headed to the train station, and caught a train to Liege. It was a perfect day, beautiful blue skies.

We were met at the station by Anne, who runs a huge children’s bookstore in Liege called Parenthese. It’s an incredible bookstore, on three levels. I did a visit at a school across the street where I was presented with incredible gifts afterward, including chocolate, special Liege syrup, and a little wooden coal miner named Tchartches (he his their mascot). In the afternoon I had two more sessions in the bookstore, with classes from another nearby school. Dimitri Ferriere was my translator – he works at the bookstore in the games department, and not only was he a great translator, I also found out that he has developed his OWN board game with a friend, which will come out in September and hit Canada about a year later. It’s called “Keep Cool” and it’s a word game. I will definitely buy it!

The sessions were great – the kids had amazingly thoughtful questions about my book. And lunch was a highlight – they’d bought about 8 kinds of Belgian cheeses, 4 kinds of Belgian meats and a whole pile of Belgian beers! (No wonder I was a little bit silly at the afternoon session). Everyone I met at the store, Maxime, France, Benjamin et al, were really great. Merci to all of you! Then it was back to Brussels, for a final Belgian beer with Catherine Jottrand in the train station before boarding my train back to Paris. I can’t express how much I appreciated all that was done for me by this wonderful woman and her team! I slept most of the way back and took the metro to our hotel. After a quick turnaround, Husband and I went for an aperitif in Place Saint Sulpice, near our hotel. This is the Magritte-like sky at 7:30 at night.I think my favourite activity in Paris is people-watching. We’ve been able to sit outside for aperitifs every night here, and it’s wonderful. French men really know how to pull off both scarves and colourful pants. I even got Husband to try on a pair of bright red pants today, but – well – he isn’t French. We also watched quite a chic couple pull up in this car, and park it right on the corner where, in Canada, it would get immediately towed. But who could tow this dinky toy? We then met Gilberte and Valerie for dinner again because honestly I can’t get enough of these two. I adore them, and now Husband does, too. After supper I suggested we do one of the most touristy things possible: Have a digestif at Les Deux Magots. The thing is: It’s really worth it. Sitting where Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Hemingway, among others, drank, is pretty freaking cool.  The space is beautiful. The staff just such typical, professional French waiters. And even though there are obviously tourists there, there are also a lot of French people. Case in point: When we arrived, Valerie told us there was a “famous French intellectual” in the cafe, named Gonzague Saint-Bris. I absolutely love that that can be your title in France. I said that no one in Canada would ever be able to say, in answer to, “So what do you do?” “Oh, I’m an Intellectual.”

We ordered digestifs. I had eau de vie again, Poire William. Loved it. We talked a lot about Francois Hollande among other things. I said all I picture is him on his moped in his helmet, puttering up to his mistress’s apartment.

I will really miss these two.

Today – our final full day in Paris – Husband had work in the morning, so I just wandered St. Germain des Pres. Sat in Luxembourg Gardens, then just got lost in the maze of streets. Came upon this plaque.

And I bought myself a treat: A pair of rather expensive (for me, anyway) sunglasses. That’s something else I notice here: EVERYONE has nice glasses, sun, reading, prescription. We also went to the Musee Eugene Delacroix. To be honest it was pretty underwhelming, although it was in the apartment where he lived and had a beautiful hidden garden. It also, oddly, smelled strongly of PEE.

Tonight Husband and I will wander to the right bank to a restaurant called Spring, recommended by my director friend James Dunnison. It’s been a truly exceptional trip and I have a lot of thank you notes (or e mails) to write.