The start of day four

Here I am opposite the eglise below the château and the jet planes landing and disappearing from Charles de Gaulle twenty miles away.

At lunch I had a fantastic Portuguese formulae du jour then walked into a downpour along the cobbled part betwixt Le Mesnil-Aubry and Écouen.

Randomly, a gentleman who speaks near perfect English, Oliver, and his wife Alice Mikal Craven(a professor at a university in Paris), took me in for the night.

I briefly looked in on the Mairie, but it was so busy, then I went to the Office de Tourisme, but it was closed (when it was meant to be open), so in desperation I went for a semi secluded piss. As I turned around and was heading towards the eglise, just across the road, I hollered (or was hollered after by a gentleman?) coming towards me. I asked him where I could find the Presbytère, which he didn't know, but instantly he invited me back to his abode, after first consulting his partner.

Now I am composing myself next to the Hotel de Ville with a few chapters of East of Eden before I return to the courtyard behind La Poste and Eglise Saint Acceul and see if I can make amends for my nervousness and rejection of the repase they offered this evening. Two beers should keep me from retreating behind shyness and anxiety again... Oh and it's good beer from Vexin brewed at Ferme brasserie du Vexin, Théméricourt...a third and I am gone - it's six.

I returned to the home of the professors and shared supper. Not large, but I am relieved for that as I couldn't manage another broken nights sleep from overeating the wrong foods too late in the evening. Just some endive stuffed pasta dish, baked in the oven like cannelloni. Divine.

We chatted for a while, but she is recovering from a stroke and was getting tired. I think having a good conversation was entirely necessary tonight? Discussing various topics, which we were definitely interested in, was the ideal accompaniment to repase? Alice is an acknowledged authority on cinema(which I am ignorant of but willing to learn about Jean-Luc Goddard, etc) and he's a professor of philosophy... oh the hilarity of the boundaries I was pushing talking about fate/serendipity etc and it's miraculous quality?

A reasonable night's sleep and now I am in the Boulanger on the corner with a croissant and a strong coffee: no alcohol circulating around my bloodstream. Probably the best night's sleep of the four in France. They were singing Arrondissement 19 and 20s praises so I may stay in Paris until Monday before heading out to Orleans?