Wine, cheese, and longtime friends

It is a rainy day. We do nothing until departing for our social event on the other side of Paris.

The taxi makes it 90% of the way in about 15 minutes. The last 10% takes a half hour and makes us late. As we are exiting the taxi at Printemps, CJ answers his watch. It is the evening's host, Valerie, asking if we are coming. She is holding the start for us!

We arrive to a cocktail party with a great view.

Attendees are surprisingly about 40% English speaking with at least two couples from Adelaide. We arrive to this starter plate of cheeses and accompaniments. 

Valerie and Laurent take turns presenting. Laurent speaks in French, Valerie translates to English. When Valerie speaks, she speaks in French and her assistant from Adelaide, the woman standing next to the door, translates to French.

They open by promising many surprises and they deliver. One is a young French cheese monger currently in Australia teaching cheese making. Others are servings of cheeses not on the plate such as fondue on a stick. Another is this lady. She is a distiller from South Australia and arrives with an incredible honey liquor. How good is it? She has one extra bottle and we purchase it to take and share with Didier.

Another surprise is the young woman seated at the adjacent table. She was the winner of the best pastry chef in France award. Her business is in this same building and we end we one of her incredible creations.

The event was billed at 5-7. Our taxi caused it to start fifteen minutes late. It runs delightfully long. They wrap up at eight mainly because the building closes at eight.

We thought we would need to waste time to arrive at the home of Clarisse and George at 8:15. Between the meeting running long and traffic, we are late arriving.

We spend two marvelous hours with them in their home on Rue Charles de Gaulle. They update us on their little children. Gabrielle, their youngest, is now 19 and at university. Blanche and Paul both grown with jobs. When we first met Clarisse, she wasn't yet married.