"Anybody who makes cheese like this is my best friend."
Journal Entry
 |
| Our Guides |
On the grass we quaffed back our lunch and what each of us had brought for a picnic and then pretty much uniformly as a group in not many minutes later were ready to move on. Some of us stood around pointedly and a bit restlessly. One thing was immediately apparent. This was Canadian. Our French guides were taking their time. They were not moving. "Every group is the same," Thierry shrugged. "By the end of the week, you will be drinking wine and slowing down. You will see." We watched fascinated as Thierry used his curved French knife to cut skillfully into a tomato to accompany his baguette. Suddenly it seemed apparent to me I wasn't giving this "picnique" planning the justice it clearly deserved. Our guides needed their petit cafe so then we had to go look for an expresso. You could tell we were starting to get the hang of this. Shops were all closed, tourists or not, and there we were sitting back, enjoying a tisane, an expresso, perhaps a pastiche, or a draught beer on tap. We listened to the languages around us, enjoyed the view, and relaxed into the art of conversation and exchanging pleasantries as the afternoon sun gathered heat beyond shuttered windows. We savoured the moment enjoying ourselves. We were learning.