So there we were on a Thursday night in Montpellier, at a restaurant where the food struggled – and ultimately failed – to rise above a level of tasteless mediocrity. We asked for the bill, and then proceeded to wait for 30 minutes for the bill to arrive. While it was only half as long as we’d taken to eat the meal, it was more than enough time for the English-speaking woman at the next table to knock over her nearly full glass of red wine, almost all of which landed with a sudden splash on me. And on my mostly white cotton shirt. And light beige linen pants.

Even the most artistic of red wine splashes really did nothing to enhance the outfit.

Ah well. Nothing to be done at that point. The woman was very apologetic, but really, it was an accident, things happen. But there was no way ’round it, it was looking to be a challenge to salvage the pants and shirt. Although, after soaking them with seltzer water in the hotel that night, I managed to get the stains down to light blue polka dots. Well, it was different.

Anyway, the shirt I had on happened to be a new one that I’d just purchased in June in Verona at my favorite shirt shop, Nara Camicie.

As it happened, while on that little tourist-train tour of Montpellier the day before, I’d noticed that there was a branch of that shop in Montpellier, but I didn’t remember exactly where it was. However, the hotel receptionist was able to find an address for me, and we determined that it had a 10am opening time on Friday.  My thinking was maybe I could buy another interesting shirt, as a substitute for the one that had been decorated with all the red wine, in case the polka dots and splash patterns were permanent.

So, Friday morning I headed off in the direction of Nara Camicie. On my way, a pair of shoes in a store window caught my eye, and so I detoured in to buy them. July is the sale season in France, when all the clothes are on sale. I’d been scoping out shoe stores for a couple of days, without finding anything I liked, so it was fun to catch sight of this place and buy something.

Arriving in front of the Nara Camicie store, I discovered that it was still locked up tight, even though it was well past opening time. Ah well, c’est la vie, as they say in Montpellier.

However, I decided to explore the rest of the street that the store was on, since I hadn’t walked down it before, and it looked to have more interesting stores than all the standard shoppping-mall-like stores on the main streets.

As I wandered down the street, I happened on a little shop that sold regional specialty candies and cookies. Going instead, I met the clerk, who was manning the shop for her parents while they were on summer holiday. She was from Montpellier, but studies Japanese at a University in Paris. Her English was pretty good, and definitely better than my French. We chatted for a little while about travelling (she’d like to see the world someday) and languages, etc. And, in the oddest coincidence, it turned out her brother had just gotten married and had just moved to … can you guess? … Tübingen!

It is indeed a small world.

Anyway, after buying some of the cookies and candies in the shop, I asked her if she could recommend a good restaurant for dinner, since our pick the night before had been such an unfortunate experience for both cuisine and clothing.  She explained how to find a little street nearby where she said there were several good restaurants.

So, I sought out that street, in order to scope it out for dinner possibilities. Along the way, I happened on a fancy little clothing boutique. With the prices marked way, way down (remember, this was sale season in France), some things in that fancy shop were in my budget, so I wandered in there. The friendly proprietor spoke no English, but between my mix of Italian and French, and her French, we managed to have a pleasant exchange about the clothes, and I bought a new shirt and a pair of pants there. Fun!

As I was paying, I noticed that next to the cash register she had a business card for a restaurant. I asked her about it, and she pointed across the street and explained that it was right there. She went on to explain that it was a simple cafe, where the proprietor was friendly and everything was made fresh. She said something like, “they have only a couple of different salads – but salads that are fresh and delicious; they also have two tarts [basically quiches] daily, but these are also all made from the freshest ingredients and also delicious. Plus, all the dessert are house made and exquisite.”

With that kind of recommendation, what could I do but go there for lunch, right? Which is exactly what I did.

And … I’ve gotta say, it was even better than her recommendation.  I had the tuna and tomato quiche, which was bursting with flavor, to use a cliché,  with a delicate consistency unlike any other quiche I’ve ever eaten. It was SOOO good. Absolutely fabulous. It was accompanied by a side salad, which was mixed wild greens, olives, and tomatoes, topped with pieces of lox. A small glass with an anchovy vinaigrette was set on the table to go with the salad, and that was just superb. I was the first customer for lunch, and so the owner had to run down the street to get the fresh French baguette (what else?), which was the perfect vehicle for finishing every last bit of that sauce. There were also fresh apricot slices to finish off the plate. A magnifique meal – simple, but each bite a flavour sensation. Sadly, I was too full to try the desserts. The portion was generous, even though by Montpellier standards it was a real bargain (~$10 for the whole meal).

Now, there was a downside to that cafe. It was only open for lunch, and Friday was our last day in Montpellier for lunch, so we had no other opportunity to go there. Darn. Next time we’re in Montpellier, I know where we’re heading.

Anyway, after lunch I popped back into the clothing boutique to thank the proprietor for making such a wonderful recommendation. I’m sure my French grammar wasn’t correct, but I think the big smile on my face conveyed my meaning well enough.

Later, when I walked by that the Nara Camicie store again, it was open. It was staffed by a guy in his 30’s and a woman old enough to be his mother. She asked in French if she could help me, and I replied, in French, that unfortunately I didn’t speak French very well. The guy then turned and, in perfect English, asked if he could help me. I explained the kind of shirt I was looking for, and he said he didn’t have anything like that at the moment, but told me to come back after 5pm, since he was getting in a new shipment that afternoon.

So, after 5pm, Chris and I both went back to the shop. The store now had the same shirt that I already owned (the one with the extra red wine decorations), plus another interesting shirt that I decided to try on – and ultimately did decide to buy. But the most interesting moment in that shop came as I was trying the shirt on. Through the curtain of the dressing room, I could hear Chris’s voice speaking — in Italian.  It turned out the man and the woman — who was in fact his mother — were Italian, not French after all. So, we wound up chatting with them in a combination of Italian and English while I completed my purchase. Too funny.

So, looking back on that Friday, it struck me that all my experiences that day —  interesting conversations with random store owners, fabulous food, and fun clothing purchases — all came about because that British woman spilled her wine on me. Had I not intended to find replacements for those seemingly ruined clothes, I never would have been wandering around in that neighborhood, and therefore I never would have had my serendipitous moments in all those shops.

And it was Friday the 13th, of all dates. Which of course is unlucky in North America. But it’s actually lucky in Italy. A quick search of the internet didn’t reveal a definitive answer about whether or not it’s a lucky date in general in France, though. However,  Friday the 13th turned out to be my lucky day France, as it was my best day in Montpellier on the trip!

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BTW, here are LLM’s official tips for getting out red wine stains:

• If you have soaked it in seltzer water, and then it has subsequently dried, coating the stains with a baking soda paste, and then washing normally, actually removes the stains. Who knew.
• If you haven’t soaked it in seltzer water, you can still try the baking soda paste, but it may take several applications.
• If you have red wine spilled on you and can get to some white wine right away before the stain dries, get a cloth, soak it in the white wine, and then daub away at the red wine stains. I have it on authority that this will work. A friend once used this technique to get red wine out the white part of a black and white satin gown. The red wine that was accidentally dumped on her only landed on the white half of the gown. Naturally. Anyway, all the red wine was removed with this technique. Which I didn’t know until after we got back – or else perhaps I could have asked that British woman to buy me a glass of white wine. 😉