Elena a chance meeting

Yesterday afternoon after many hours walking around the city we stopped at a brasserie for a coffee, it was hot so we went inside where it was quiet and empty, planning to go through the information we had gathered. After placing our order an old lady entered and sat at a table close to us – she ordered a pot of tea in perfect French. When her tea was delivered she started to complain (as we couldn’t understand we just assumed she was just being difficult), we quietly continued discussing our work. After some time the old lady leaned over to our  table and asked in an American accent if we were Canadian or British (the alarm bells went off – difficult and American).

We said we were from London working on a research trip (not wanting to give too much info), she was Elena an American (part French) film maker working half the year in Paris the other half in New York. We sat there for most of the afternoon listening to her stories, discussing most topics, then she told us about her admiration for Simone de Beauvoir, and how she had made a pilgrimage to her flat when she arrived in Paris as a teenager, regularly joining Sartre and friends at Cafe Flore. At this point we decided to tell her of our interest in Delarue – she remembered him well – we took out our notebooks and she talked some more. The whole afternoon had disappeared & Elena had to go to a meeting, as she left she told us that she stopped at that brasserie most afternoons and she would look out for us, then she left.