Most actives turn into a group even. For some reason, Thursday did not follow that pattern; Molly, Monica and I went to town to look for a cute dinner place. Montpellier is filled with adorable cafes and interesting/creepy alleyways so finding one is not hard, but deciding which one is going to be "the one" is hard. We meandered the streets for about 20 minutes before deciding to sit down at a cafe which "felt right". It had a special going on, and was in an alley with some other cute cafes, which gave it a nice feeling.
A few minutes after we had sat and gotten out menus the owner of the restaurant came up to our table to see how we were doing. He noticed that we were not native French speakers and switched to English pretty fast. He loved it though, he started to talk about his years living in New York City and Canada. I am not sure how it all began but about 10 minutes after some congo he just pulled up the 4th chair at the table (which was vacant) and sat with us. He didn't ask if it was ok or anything like that, just sat and continued talking. It was really entertaining. He told us how he was 57 and that his whole life he has been moving around the world. He lived in Montreal, NYC, Paris, Mexico, and Montpellier…from what he told us. He also started to talk about different countries and politics and history and generations. It was kind of a heavy conversation but it was mostly him talking and us just listening, enjoying the free things he kept having the waiter bring us. This guy was so comfortable with sitting at our table and talking he started smoking and anytime he got up he would leave his cigarettes on the table so we knew he would return. At one point he brought over a worker from the neighboring cafe to talk wine with us. He literally went to the guy, brought him to our table, pulled up another chair for the guy, and gave him a wine glass to "analyze". It was hilarious. I could not believe it. 3.5 hours later and 3 free glasses of wine (champagne and rose) later we finally had finished dinner/dessert and our rather deep conversation. It was something that would have never happened if we had a big group of people with us or even a boy to be honest. It was a great experience.
To end the night I also took Monica and Molly to O'Carolans to show them my favorite pub in Montpellier. I walked in and saw Paul and Tom, 2 workers. They are so nice! They said hi to me and gave me the kisses on the cheek thing French people do. I almost felt like a regular though I have only been there a handful of times. Nick and his other brother were there drinking, not working, so I got to see everyone that helped me my first days here. It was perfect. I am so lucky I had a nice group of people to help me get settled in Montpellier. I know I have said this before, but I don't know what I would have done without them.
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