THE STORY SO FAR
Elaine is in her 80s and, while sitting in a cafe with her niece, Issy, she sees a young man on a moped. He looks like someone Elaine met a long time ago. Issy wants to know more, so Elaine tells her story… It’s 1959, and Elaine arrives in Paris to work as an au pair for Audrey and Charles Weston, an American couple with a two-year-old boy called Sebastian. At a party, Elaine meets Jack, a Beat poet from London, and suggests they meet for a coffee. Jack seems flustered at the suggestion and flees. Audrey then tells Elaine that Jack has a possessive girlfriend called Brigette. Back in her room, a dejected Elaine hears Jack calling from the street. He wants to meet up the next day. Elaine asks him what Brigette would make of their rendezvous, but she decides to go. After all, she came to Paris for adventure.
The journey to Montmartre by metro was tricky. Negotiating the steps down to the platforms with Sebastian in his pushchair, or stroller as Audrey Weston referred to it, had been a task, even with the help of some friendly locals.
The area leading to the cafe where Jack had suggested meeting could only be described as seedy. Though Elaine felt a thrill of excitement as she passed the Moulin Rouge, with its famous red windmill and lurid artwork of scantily clad, high-kicking dancers.
The cafe, thankfully, was in quite a pretty street. She took a seat outside and
