Memories
Their conversation went on, well after they had finished their meal. Solange told Sarah about her family, their root in the Champagne region, her childhood in a village near Reims, her memories of school. She was interested in history and literature, but above all in biology, and her choice of profession reflected her interests, as well as her faith, for Solange was deeply religious, a faith she’d inherited from her mother Elisabeth, a native of Alsace. Her father, Roger, was a native of Metz In Lorraine, who had died a few years earlier.
Plans
Paul suggested they go and visit Elisabeth the day after, and then drive to Chalons. Solange said she was interested in seeing the town again, where she’d been a few times to meet friends. This was agreed and they decided they would meet at their hotel which was not far from Elisabeth’s village and home. They left, and Paul and Sarah drove home. In the evening they talked till late about their Berlin plan, and how Solange would find a place in it. Sarah asked Paul if the name Melissa meant anything to him. They were both silent for a short while, then Paul said that Julian had written a lot about a Melissa, both in his fiction and his journals. Paul said that Melissa, as far as he had so far found out, had been an early crush when Julian was still a school boy in Chalons.
Old woods
They started talking about how they would proceed the following day once Solange had joined them. Paul suggested they drove on the older road through the hills and then the flatland to get to the town. He said he had read in Julian’s journal that it was common, when he was a boy, for farmers to get killed when they ran their plow over unexploded shells from World War One. The ground was chalk, and propitious to grow wheat. Some woods had been planted during the second Empire (Napoleon III) and Julian had written about he and Sarah attending a meeting in a camp located in the woods. Sarah admitted she was puzzled by the loss of her memories. They were silent again, then Paul said he would shower and go to bed. Sarah went to check her mail.
A little later she went to see what Paul was doing: her son was fast asleep on the couch, naked. She knelt next to him, fascinated by his beauty. She was aware of the tinkling in her belly and forced herself to pull the sheet over Paul, and undressed. She thought of Solange and how they would organise themselves when they were in Berlin. Later a doubt lingered in her mind: was it natural for her to have lost any recollection of her travel here with Julian?
Next day
Solange came early to their inn and they had breakfast. She had a road map of the region and agreed with Paul that taking the small road was best to appreciate the landscape. Paul was driving, Sarah was thoughtful. Shortly after they left the landscape started changing, from rolling hills covered with vineyards to a flatter land mostly covered with large fields of cereals, interspersed with small pine woods. Solange and Paul were chatting about the villages in that part of the region.
Solange observed that the whole area had been much more populated in the Middle Ages and up to the Revolution. The Napoleonic wars and then the First World War had changed the demographics dramatically. They drove through several older places, stopped briefly to say hello to Elisabeth who was delighted to meet Paul and his mother, and after a village that stood around a beautiful medieval basilique – Solange said its name was L’Epine – they approached Chalons.
Cathedral
Solange guided Paul to the cathedral. They parked near the hospital and walked to the church. First they walked inside, and admired the stained glass windows. Solange lit a candle.
Sarah felt suddenly very emotional and held Paul’s hand. The three of them rested for a while in the absolute silence. The sun was shining through the window. A little later they walked outside of the south transept, and found the statue of Joan of Arc. Paul had expected an older monument. They stood, looking at the saint in silence. Solange said, she had forgotten how beautiful Joan looked. Paul was thinking of the pages of Julian’s journal where he wrote about that very place as “the portal”, but then Julian seemed to imply a much older statue.
Notre Dame
From the cathedral they walked to the centre of town and had a look at Notre Dame-de-Vaux, another medieval marvel, not far from Julian’s old school, the lycée. Solange explained she had friends at the school, some of them had followed her to medical school in Reims. They stopped at a small café on the market square: Paul said he would summarise some of Julian’s writings about his childhood in the town, and share that with the two of them, and also with his aunt Jane. Sarah was deep in thoughts. Jane also appeared to have lost all memories of the time they had visited the town.
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