The World Is Her Oyster

Day 1: Café au lait in Paris

It was a warm Saturday morning in Paris. The bells of Notre-Dame were echoing again after a year being silent. Annabel found a nice cosy café away from the city centre to have her morning café au lait as they said here in France. She was ready to take on a new day of adventures. She had in front of her today's "Le Monde" edition where the front story caught her eye. The title said: "Christophe: the charmer millionaire donated 100 million euros for the renovations of Notre-Dame". Isn't this nice thought Annabel to herself. She had heard also about the man's reputation with ladies and maybe this was his redemption then.

All of a sudden there was a strong breeze and her hat flew away. Annabel ran to catch it but the hat flew now out of her sight to the next street. She had already given up running after the damn hat when out of a blue there was a tall handsome man in a suit standing before her. He seemed kind of familiar, but Annabel couldn't figure out from where. The man had her red hat in his hand and was smiling warmly.

"Here, Miss. I think this one belongs to you, " he said handing the hat to Annabel.

"Thank you, it was really kind of you. I already thought that I had lost it, " Annabel said happily. "Can I make it up to you? Buy you a cup of coffee maybe? In fact, I'm here just behind the corner Au Vieux Paris perhaps you know the place?"

"Sure I know the place. It's lovely. I would love to have a cup of coffee with you, but maybe I could also know the lady's name?" asked the man.

"Oh, how rude of me, I'm Annabel. Really nice to meet the saviour of my hat, but you surely have a better name than that, " said Annabel giggling about her own joke.

"My name is.."

He was hesitating. What was there to hesitate about? You should know your own name at least thought Annabel.

In the meanwhile Christophe was having his own dilemmas. 

She seems like a really nice girl. I'm kind of shocked that she doesn't now who I am considering the news amount about me that media creates every day. I'm really sick of this already. Every woman who happens to be beside me is my new conquest. She seems different. She is so simple and even laughs at her own jokes. There are hundreds of Christophe's in the world I think I can give her my first name but I definitely have to lie about my job.

"It's Christophe. Sorry I was battling with a sneeze that was coming. I'm allergic to pollen. Spring is not as wonderful season for me as it is for all the others. Lets head to the café then, " said Christophe enthusiastically.

The waiter was probably already sure I had ditched and left the bill unpaid when we arrived, thought Annabel.

"Oh, Miss, there you are. Would you like something else. Sir, maybe you? We have delicious macarons, just came from the oven. Oh la-la. Muaah. "

The waiter was the most French man I had ever seen. French love their macarons thought Annabel.

"I would like a cafe au lait without sugar and for me and the lady 6 macrons also. We will share," said Christophe.

He didn't even ask if I want those macrons?! But I must say I love a man who takes a lead and he drinks coffee the same way as me.

"Tell me about yourself, Annabel. What are the things that make your pretty face smile towards the sun?"

Annabel was amazed by Christophe's choice of words and manners that made her trust him.

He is so poetic. Ooh. I definitely can't tell him about my "powers" but I can share my adventures that I have had the pleasure to encounter on my journeys.

"What a wonderful wording! Something that really makes me excited is travelling. To see places that have a long history but also are vibrant and full of life and have conversations with strangers that have different points of views and come with various cultural backgrounds."

"It sounds wonderful, but have you travelled a lot then? Or is it just a future plan?"

"Pardon me. I got carried away. Yes, I can say that my job has taken me to see many different countries and I have had quite many adventures there also. Sometimes funny and others even a bit criminal."

"Criminal?! I'm intrigued now. Maybe you could tell me about your travels if you are not in a hurry, " said Christophe.

"I am not in a hurry. It's a wonderful morning and people should always cherish days like this. That's my moto. I could tell you firstly before we go on with the criminal stuff about a paella competition that I participated once in Valencia. My job is to be a food critic. That's why I travel so much and get to see the whole wide world.

I was in Valencia to rate a restaurant. We always have to be undercover and so I was sitting in the corner and picking out a meal to have when the owner started to go around tables announcing that there was coming up his famous paella eating competition. The customers seemed not really into it. At last a boy who was having dinner with his parents came up. Probably he was bored from the family dinner already. The owner creeped out behind me and said with the most adorable Spanish accent: "Mi cariño, it seems that you would need a bit of paella. You are so skinny, " I laughed at first but then thought what the heck let's do it. 

So Marcelo, the owner, placed in front of us two enormous bowls filled with paella and said that we had 20 minutes to finish them. I had already started to regret the promise to participate when Marcelo shouted: "START". I ate like there was no tomorrow. Fortunately I hadn't eaten all day so I had a little bit of space in my tummy. It seemed that the boy was really struggling. Last 3 minutes were on the clock so I tried to speed up even though I felt how all this rice had started to bulk up in my stomach. At last I had finished and Marcelo was cheering for me. The boy was a bit disappointed but Marcelo gave him some caramels and his eyes lit up. After the competition had ended Marcelo told me that I had been the first woman who had won the paella competition there. So now I'm the reigning champion of a small restaurant in Valencia."

Christophe had watched Annabel attentively the whole time.

I'm amazed how real this girl is. She sees joy in the simplest things as like having a paella competition. Something totally different from the women I have to deal with on daily bases in work. One category of them are gold-diggers and wall-flowers and the others are ambitious devils who go through life like it is a business without having any care in the world if they hurt someone in the progress. Annabel was a new kind. A woman he had not meet in ages. Literally in ages..

"It was a really heart warming story and the way you told it was as though I myself had been there with Marcelo eating this paella," said Christophe.

"Oh, look at the time already. I really got carried away but maybe we could continue this conversation some day? I would like to know a little bit about you also. Can you top the paella champion?" asked Annabel excitedly.

"It's a pity that you have to leave. I really enjoy talking to you. Are you free tonight? I have tickets to see a show in Moulin Rouge. Would you be interested? We can have a light dinner before and I could tell you a bit about Marseille. My favourite city in France," said Christophe having a hopeful expression on his face.

"Moulin Rouge. I have never been there! The tickets are disgustingly pricy. I couldn't refuse the offer, because that's something I have had in my pocket list already from my teenage years. I would also really like to here about Marseille and I'm sure you have some wonderful stories to tell me," said Annabel dreamingly.

"Then it's settled. I will pick you up. Maybe you could give me your number so we can arrange it?" asked Christophe.

"Most definitely, " said Annabel and typed the number to Christophe's phone. "But now I really have to run. See you in the evening and prepare a good story about Marseille," winked Annabel.

Marseille, I had hundreds of stories connected with this place. If she would only know that I had been beside Rouget de Lisle when he wrote the French revolutionary hymn that became the French national hymn "La Marseillaise". It was already more then 200 years ago...