48 Rue de Vincent Moris, Malakoff

Nicole and I met two young french-men (Frederick and Jeremy) "a la marche" who invited us to a barbecue in their garden near our hotel. We walked a couple of blocks, following a hand-drawn map courtesy of Frederick to the cutest chateau with a wooden door and a note: "Ring long time because we are gathered in the back garden". We were immediately greeted by the residents of the building, mostly old people with the exception of Jeremy, his girlfriend Mary and Frederick (the few who understood and spoke english). The night was filled with translating English to French and vise versa, as they hardly knew any English and we were relying on our high school French to get us through. We translated such words as pug (carlin) by pointing at the dog and making snorting noises. We learned how to ask for a light (although had to ask again and again all night and never did seem to get it down correctly). The "barbecue" consisted of two charred wienies in a thick baguette and we were offered ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard. The expression barbecue was probably used more to describe the dining outside in a family-style setting with porch lights and folding chairs. The people were as interested in us as we were in them and although the language barrier was there, we overcame it with silly gestures, finger drawing, and a lot of guessing. I learned that laughter is universal and even if you don't necessarily understand the words, people are quite readable otherwise. It was a fabulous start to the trip and a perfect way to end a LONG day of travel.