FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2008

Friday had a few rain showers throughout the day so we could not go through with our original plan of finishing the Île St. Louis. So instead, we went off to the FNAC again amidst the rain drops. We picked up a book for a friend called St-Exupéry, l'Ultime Secret which is an investigative study of the disappearance of Antoine de St-Exupéry, the famous French author (le Petit Prince) and French World War II pilot. We also picked up a detailed map for our trip to Normandy and Brittany next week. We decided to go down to the St Germain des Prés area for some hot chocolate. We couldn't decide whether to go to the Deux Magots or the Café de Flore,

both equally good.

We decided to try de Flore first and it was a good thing we did. As we were looking for a table outside, I heard a voice calling "Erwin". I looked around and spotted Anh Molloy and her husband, Marshall, sitting at a table. As luck would have it, the table next to them was available so we joined them. Anh is a fellow member of the Masterwork Chorus in New Jersey. She and Marshall had been here for several weeks and were getting ready to go home the following day. I have been saying that we had been in France for over 6 weeks and we had not run into anyone by chance that we knew. And now Anh and Marshall had made it happen. Everyone was so surprised and happy to meet this way. We chatted for an hour or so before going our separate ways. Quelle surprise!

We took the bus back to the Monoprix(like a Walmart) near our home, did some shopping, went to the market for a few things for supper (wine, cheese, and olives, the staples of life) and then back to dinner at home. For the rest of the evening, we couldn't get over our luck this afternoon.