Farewell My French Love by Nadine Williams

Author:Nadine Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd

NINE

THE MAJESTIC LOIRE CHTEAUX

‘France cannot be great without greatness.’ General Charles de Gaulle

We take a taxi to Gare du Montparnasse, buy breakfast, order takeaway coffee, get the International Herald Tribune, check our tickets, find the correct platform and take our seats on the TGV fast train to Tours in the Loire Valley.

If someone had told me five years ago that I would be travelling independently around France in an accomplished manner, I would have replied with a swift ‘never!’ Olivier was in charge of our travels in the glorious country of his birth and I was the happy passenger. It did not occur to me that he would die and that if I wanted to experience France the way I had with him, I would need to organise it myself.

From Barcelona to today, without mishap. I’m chuffed with my organisational abilities. Now we are beginning a three-day, two-night escorted tour around the châteaux and wineries of the Loire, staying in a medieval château. Joy of joys—it includes nightly gourmet banquets.

Bucketloads of wonderful honeymoon memories flood my mind as the train pulls out of the station. I want to relive some of the fun moments we enjoyed in the Loire, although we never dined in a château. But lurking in my mind is a niggly fear that my dear friend Jane has an eating disorder. She is very thin. Dare I put my fears into words? Over the past week of evening meals, I have only seen her eat two bowls of soup. The other nights she has not eaten with me. And our lunches have been on the meagre side. As if half a baguette feeds my body!

Should I say nothing? Why don’t I simply settle into our glassed-in enclosure and admire the countryside I love? After all, we only have four more days together. But then she folds up the newspaper and hands it to me.

‘Jane, if I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t care, but I’m really worried that the way you eat isn’t healthy.’

She stares are me, but doesn’t ask ‘What do you mean?’ or any other indignant reaction. Instead, she says, ‘Well, I’m worried about your eating habits, too. You are eating far too much and almost deliberately fattening yourself up. That is very unhealthy.’

I cannot believe what I hear!

‘What size were you when we had that weekend holiday in Mornington? In 1998, you were 75 kilograms if I remember correctly. Might I ask what you are now?’

I hadn’t expected anything like this reaction and now I should be on the defensive, but I push forward my case.

‘This isn’t about me. This is about you. You are far too thin. And you simply don’t eat!’ I say. ‘How many evenings have you eaten dinner with me?’

I don’t wait for her answer. ‘The evening when we met the stranger in La Méthode and that other night at the pub at the end of Rue Lapange. You ate French onion soup each time.’

‘Are you keeping records?’

‘It’s hard not to when I sit eating alone every other night.

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