I got up at 4:45 this morning and Mary and I had a sleepy breakfast at her kitchen counter of hot chocolate and bread with peanut butter. We sat and chatted sleepily for a while before heading to the Gare, only to find my train was to be ten minutes...fifteen...twenty-five...half an hour late, "SNCF de merde," Mary said, "it's always like this." We waited in the 6 a.m. cold on the platform until the train finally arrived. I put my bag on the train and hugged Mary goodbye, "Thank you for coming and changing your plans to do so!"
"It was my pleasure. Thank you for letting me stay."
"That was my pleasure. I guess it's my turn again, to come in Australia."
"Yeah," I said, "I guess it is. Sorry my turn was so short."
"Don't be," she said, "you came and that's what matters. I'll see you soon." She said with a big smile and we hugged again and kissed cheeks goodbye, "Twice in Bordeaux, three in Montpellier, don't forget!"
"I won't. See you soon." and we waved as the train pulled away.
On the train in the early hours of the morn and they turn the lights off briefly for me to see the thick fog bounding either side of the train. There are farm fields covered by it that appear to be the setting of a bad horror film if the script could only get off the ground. Just underneath the fog is a thin layer of snow covering everything in a thin layer of white which makes everything look not quite real.
She sun has come out on another sunny French day and to my left is the blue sky and yellow and green fields stretching towards fairytale, snowtoppes peaks of the mountains beyond - of which mountain range, I cannot be sure - and on my right there is a thick layer of cloud that just seems to stop over the border of a farm a few kilometers out, hanging just below the mountains and stretching as far as the trainline.
I arrived at Gare de Montpellier at just before 12 and wandered around for some time trying to find Annie. I was 2 hours late and I honestly hoped she had waited. As I wandered through the station I suddenly hear, "Jordan!" from the bench beside me. I'm sure as I quickly turned my head, my curls must have swished impressively. I saw Annie sitting there, but some things were very different about her from last time I was here - admittedly, that was 4 years ago, now. Her face had more lines and her hair was short, cut just above the shoulders. She even seemed smaller. She smiled broadly and marvelled at how tall I'd gotten and how long my hair was. We walked out of the station into the beautiful sunlight - my second day of sun in Europe.
As we walked through the parking lot I noticed the same old van sitting in the parking space and I knew where we were going. I loaded my bags in the trunk and we got in.
"So, what's new?" I asked, and Annie began regailing me with tales of her retired life and how Andre seems a bit more tired these days and how Benjamin was out with a long-term girlfriend with a steady job and that he'd bought himself a house.
"And Guilhem?" Here, her face fell.
"We've been having trouble with Guilhem." She explained to me how, since he failed his Med School course, he had dropped all interest in study altogether and how he was planning a trip to India - for what, she didn't know - and this worried her. She also recognised, though, that is must be hard for him, having none of his friends around as they are all at university in different parts of France, but was worried because he barely leaves his room. He just sounded lonely to me.
We got home shortly - pulling into the familiar area of St Georges D'Orques - and I deposited my bags in my old room. In Benjamin's old room. I went downstairs with the intention of calling my parents - after I had called Thibault to arrange a time to see him; 2 p.m. that day - and ran into Andre as he was coming home. He, indeed, had changed. From what I remembered as a big, impressive man, was now a much slighter man with slightly less hair. What hadn't changed, however, was his impressively loud voice with slurred Southern French accent - which I couldn't understand for the two weeks the first time I met him.
Not long after him, Guilhem came home and he had barely changed at all. He was still thin as bones, but he had shaved down some of his beared and tamed the incredible wildeness of his shot, blonde, curled hair. He asked me how I was and what I had planned for my stay and told him about my plans with Thibault later that day and he said that was cool as Marie was picking him up to go to the city soon and they'd drop me off at La Comedie - Les Trois Graces - to meet Thibault at 2, and that later that night they had a small evening planned with Alice and Armand. I told him that sounded great and that I would like to go see them.
Soon, we had lunch and what was once a table of animated discussion was now shrouded in an intimate and bizarre silence, as if everyone at the table knew something the others didn't or wanted to know, including me. Afterwards Marie showed at the door and we left in her car - to connect with a tram - into the 'city' of Montpellier. Marie left us here for a meet and Fuilgem waited with me until Thibault came and then headed off on his own to a meet of his own.
Thibault had changed, if only a little. Physically, I found he looked older, more mature, and his hair seemed thicker, it was shorter. But his accent when he spoke English hadn't changed - still the same mongrel of French and Irish, as he had spent 7 years in Ireland.
"How are you, dude?" he asked.
"Man, I'm doing great." and we hugged. We began walking towards the mall and walked through it to the gardens on the other side where a copy of Winged Victory stood, just near the "Outback" Australian club/bar. There we sat and filled each other in on our university lives and our love lives and just our lives in general, gushing off fountains of information to each other, trying to fit 4 years of info into a few hours.
"How're things with your girl? Did you sort it all out?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah, in the end. But I feel more blank about her, you know? After he wanted to break up and regretting it, I feel..weird," and I nodded, "and you? Tell me about this girlfriend." So I did.
We got up and walked back through the gardens and the mall, "Where we headed?" I asked.
"I'm just gonna show you 'round a few places." He took me down the small alleys of Montpellier and we talked about nothing, "If I shaved off my eyebrows, would my face be a lot colder?" I asked. He laughed, "Jordan in France, asking the big questions." He said, and we laughed some more. He took me to the bottom of a hill where there lay the oldest and best medical school in France for the past THOUSAND years. It was a beautiful, castle of a building, complete with sundial and towers. After marvelling at that for some time, we walked up a hill to the Henry III park and just over that to the ancient Roman building that still stands in a quiet area at the centre of the city. We sat there and talked for a while before I walked Thibault to his dentist appointment, "Meet you out here in 20 mins?" he said.
"Sure thing." I said. I wandered through the nearby streets, buying another sugar crepe and then leaned against a wall to wait and eat. It was strange to note how many people make and kept eye contact with me as I stood there, leaning against a wall.
I also noticed a black kid wearing Jamaican colours, a young Jewish kid with a faux-hawk and prominently displayed Chamsah and an Arab kid all walking together in the street - world peace in 3 small children.
"J'ai besoin d'un euro dix...he to donnera un joint si tu veux..." [I need one euro twn...I'll give you a joint if you want.]
"...desole, j'ai rien avec moi." [Sorry, I have nothing with me.] Was what interrupted my reverie as a homeless beggar asked for change.
A half hour later Thibault emerged from his dentist appointment and we continued our walks, "Sorry I'm late, bro." he said.
"No problem." and we walked through the tiny streets.
"This is what I like doing," he said, "just walking aimlessly, calmly, through the streets, talking to a friend. Few people enjoy this."
"I find the same." I said. He took me to a narrow alleyway that was lined wall to wall with cards and art to buy - it was even carpeted, "The carpet is different every time I come." Thibault said. I bought a couple of postcards and then we headed back to the Roman aqueducts and photographed the sunset. Soon after we walked to the bus station and made our farwells, "Well, I'll see ya, dude." He said.
"Yeah, man, soon right? You gotta come to Australia next time." and I smiled.
"Yeah, next time. I just wanna thank you for coming and seeing me, dude."
"Hey man, it was my pleasure." I said and stepped onto the bus after we hugged.
I think I slept on the bus ride back to St Georges because when I opened my eyes we were at the city centre and I had that taste in my mouth of having just slept.
When I got home I headed up to my room and ended up having a nap just before dinner. We ate amongst animated conversation and then, at around 21:30, we jetted off out the door to wait in the cold for Alice to come pick us up.
She pulled up within a few minutes and we got in. Alice had changed a little, too. She was basically the same, but her hair was longer. And it seemed she smiled more, and was a bit more talkative. It was good to see her again, too.
"Mais, c'est trop fort son accent, j'avais oublier!" [Woah, but it's so strong his accent, I'd forgotten!] She said as we headed to Armand's house.
"Oui, trop Quebecois, non?" [Yeah, too Quebecois, no?] Guilhem agreed, smiling cheekily, "When we get to Armand's," he said, "greet him with something really Quebecois, that'll get him so good."
"Top shape, mon big." I said as I walked in the door, shaking Armand's hand, and he burst into tearful laughter. We then spent the night chatting, and writing pastiche songs for their friend's birthday and we ended up getting home and to bed at around 1 a.m.
- from The Journal December 22nd 2008
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