Around the World in 80 Days
Day 78: 11 December

In these unpromising surroundings we come across a restaurant which serves us a superb five-course lunch and which is by extraordinary and suitable coincidence designed like a railway train. It is family run and cramped in the French style, and we wonder if it's to save space that the patron employs his tiny son as a waiter. Nigel asks the boy his age. He looks about eleven but turns out to be even younger.
'He's seven,' translates Nigel after a brief conversation.
'No . . . no!' the boy protests vigorously. 'Seventeen!'
We don't stint the wine, and drinking the likes of Sancerre and Gigondas after all we've been through is like finding a waterfall in the desert. The walk back to the Leda Maersk seems much shorter and more convivial, and though none of us is admitting it, this unscheduled lunch in Le Havre had a definite celebratory air.
Choose another day from Around the World in 80 Days
PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Around the World in 80 Days
- Day: 78
- Date: 11 December
- Country/sea: France
- Place: Le Havre
- Book page no: 248
Bookmarks will keep your place in one or more series. But you'll need to register and/or log in.
RELATED LINKS
- France
- Chapter 3: Paris
- Hemingway Adventure
- Paris, France (first day)
- Hemingway Adventure
- Paris, France (second day)
- Hemingway Adventure
- Booze
- Day 5
- Full Circle
- Day 2
- Pole to Pole
- Day 2: Peshawar
- Himalaya