Page 124 of The Holy Grail
Seven years later
Malcom glanced around at all the people enjoying themselves as they sat in booths and at tables in his restaurant.
Feast.
After opening two years ago, it had beaten the odds of failing in its first year, and even managed to turn a nice profit.
It had motivated him to expand and launch a new, smaller location, which was officially opening for business in one week, and would be devoted strictly to off-site catering, aptly named ‘A Moveable Feast’.
Evan had come up with that name as well.
The four years Malcom, Evan, and Jules had spent in France had been one of the greatest experiences of their lives.
While Malcom attended école Ducasse—and when time allowed—the three of them had gotten to know every corner of Paris, visiting the Eiffel Tower and having picnics in the Champ de Mars park at its base, the Arc de Triomphe, the Moulin Rouge, the Grand Palais, Opéra Garnier, the Palace of Versailles, Luxembourg Gardens, and the Paris Catacombs.
Despite not being overly religious, they also toured many churches, such as the Sacre Coeur Basilica and the Sainte-Chapelle church, simply for their stunning beauty and rich history.
Because of the devastating fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral a few years prior, they were only able to visit after it had been restored, shortly before they left to return home.
They spent time at Normandy, and also at the historic Pere Lachaise Cemetery, visiting the grave of Jim Morrison .
Hours were devoted to walking the city streets, rain or shine.
Among their favorite streets were the Champs-élysées with its luxury boutiques, theaters, and historic landmarks, the Rue Montorgueil, a pedestrian-only street in Paris, boasting fruit markets, seafood stores, bistros, and pastry shops, as well as Avenue Montaigne, a high-end shopping street, home of Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Valentino stores.
They also regularly frequented the Rue De L’abreuvoir in the hilltop neighborhood of Montmartre, full of ivy-adorned houses, cobblestoned streets, and Paris’s only vineyard, Le Clos Montmartre.
For evening fun, they ventured into the historical district of Le Marais, with its art galleries, bars, and amazing restaurants, and spent many Friday nights in the east end of Paris in the trendy Oberkampf district, known for its festive atmosphere, bars, clubs, and live music venues.
It was in one of these clubs that Jules was able to cross French karaoke off her Bucket List.
On lazy Sunday mornings, with coffee and croissants in hand, they would stroll one of the thirty-seven bridges spanning the River Seine.
They were all beautiful in their own way, but their favorite ones became the Pont Neuf (the oldest one, dating back to the 16th century), Pont Alexandre III (the most ornate, with sculptures and majestic arches), and the Passerelles des Arts (often called the ‘Love Lock Bridge’ before the locks were removed, due to the added weight causing structural damage to the railings).
They went sight-seeing in the Latin Quarter, visiting the Panthéon atop the Sainte-Geneviève mountain, which served as a mausoleum for some of France’s most notable figures, such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie, and was also home to Foucault’s Pendulum.
They had even gone to the French Open twice, having so much fun it was ridiculous.
During Malcom’s scholastic break times, when they had a few weeks of free time, they traveled to other countries with their Eurail Global Pass.
The first little trip was to England, taking the Eurostar, the high-speed train through the undersea Channel Tunnel (aka the Chunnel), which connected France to England in less than two and a half hours.
By the time Malcom had completed his three-year Bachelor in Culinary Arts program, they had been to Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, even making time to get to the town of Corleone, in Sicily … because to not go would have been blasphemy .
However, instead of returning home right after receiving his diploma, with the support of Jules and Evan, Malcom decided to stay another year and get two more diplomas, one in French Pastry Arts and the other in French Chocolate & Confectionary Arts.
Unfortunately, these two courses weren’t offered at the Paris campus, so they had to pack up and move to Yssingeaux, a small town in the Auvergne-Rh?ne Alpes region, where the école Nationale Supérieure de Patisserie was located inside the beautiful Chateau de Montbarnier, which looked more like a castle than a culinary school.
It was much different than Paris, and most of their activities involved the outdoors, like hiking in the summer, skiing in the winter, and walking around Yssingeaux, dining in the local restaurants, bakery and pastry shops, and strolling through the Farmers Market.
It was a quieter life, and in many ways helped them prepare for the return home.
Once those last two diplomas were in his hand, Malcom, Jules, and Evan said au revoir to France and flew back to the United States, equal parts sad and happy that their adventures abroad were at an end.
France had been good for Malcom, in more ways than just learning to be a master chef. The culture, so open and tolerant, had allowed him to flourish and attain a higher level of self-confidence in all areas of his life.
For Jules and Evan, it had mostly been like an extended vacation, although they both managed to obtain part-time jobs, after procuring work visas.
Jules got hired to help with the books in an art gallery, while Evan found employment as a weekend bartender in a fairly popular gay club in the Oberkampf district.
The two men became very fluent in French, more so than Jules, who never quite nailed the accent. However, because she was very attractive and charismatic, and could turn on the charm when she wanted, most Parisians were fairly tolerant of her ‘American’ French … especially the men.
There had been numerous visits from family.
Beverly came several times—once at Christmas—while Evangeline, Richard, and Edie were only able to come twice.
Paige and David also visited two times, once without kids and once with them.
Martin even made the trip with Isabel, staying almost two weeks, with much of that time spent being shown around by Jules and Evan while Malcom was otherwise occupied with school.
It gave Martin a better understanding of the triad relationship and also led to a respectful friendship with Jules and Evan.
The first thing they did when they got home was to spend a few weeks getting their house put back together. When that was finished, they paid a visit to the local animal shelter to adopt a cat, since Beverly had become so attached to Dawn Corleone, it didn’t seem fair to split them up.
They ended up getting two cats, instead, who were apparently littermates and needed to be placed in a home together.
They were both male, brown tabbies with slightly different shades of green eyes.
One was a little overweight due to his penchant for stealing food from his brother, and was given the name ‘Clemenza’, in honor of the portly ‘caporegime’ in The Godfather.
The second, thinner cat was named after Don Corleone’s other ‘caporegime’, the tall and slim Tessio.
From there, life went forward with a purpose.
The first year, the three of them worked together to bring Malcom’s dream of opening a restaurant to fruition, scouting existing restaurants for sale, to find one with the best location, good parking, architectural charm, and plenty of usable space inside.
They were with him every step of the way, and he couldn’t have done it without them. Nor would he have wanted to.
In a strange twist, the restaurant they ended up buying was the one he had stopped to look at after reading his ‘Fuck You’ letter to Monroe at the cemetery.
They’d had to do a fair amount of remodeling inside, which had turned out to be a lot of fun, as they pored over design options for the dining room, kitchen, bar, menu, and logo.
They flipped through books of wallpaper swatches, looked at hundreds of paint chips, countless linens, chair styles, lighting fixtures, silverware patterns, dishes, glasses, staff uniforms, and a thousand other things needed for a restaurant.
The plan was to create a place both elegant and comfortable (with whimsical touches to make it fun), serve excellent scratch meals, and have a great bar—a combination that would hopefully keep people coming back.
Now, as Malcom looked around from his seat at ‘his’ table, which was the closest to the kitchen and used almost exclusively by him, Jules, and Evan, Malcom surveyed what the three of them had created and felt immense pride because their vision had turned into something extraordinary.
The floor had been laid with wide-plank, gray tile that looked like wood flooring, and the walls were covered in a gray and cream striped wallpaper, with tiny pink pinstripes for unexpected pops of color.
Black leather booths with high backs offered a little bit of privacy, each having their own tiny, crystal chandelier hanging overhead while larger chandeliers were hung around the rest of the room, providing the majority of the light .
Every table was laid with a crisp, buttercream-colored tablecloth and vibrant pink cloth napkins, which were rolled and placed in a silver napkin ring decorated with little, sparkling crystals, all of which created a nice contrast with the glossy black chairs.
All the trim and woodwork in the restaurant, including the wainscot in the hallway to the restrooms was painted to match the chairs, and ‘LADIES’ and ‘GENTLEMEN’ had been stenciled in bright pink, cursive letters on the bathroom doors.