Between Wendy's departure and Adam's arrival we played host for five brief hours to Professor JAH, or Hickman as we have of late come to refer to him. He drove up from Montpellier where he and his wife have the advantage of an apartment, but he came alone as Nathalie was at work in Paris where they mostly live. I last saw Hickman in 1963, that’s an eye watering sixty one years ago. He and I went to the same third rate grammar you see, but he being 18 months my senior, we hardly knew each other at QEGS (although we both took part in at least one school opera production). When our esteemed English teacher at the school died a few years ago both he and I wrote obituary contributions at the request of a mutual acquaintance (another Prof: see below) which is how we started communicating. So here he was in Sablet after some previous still-born attempts to meet up.
This is not the place to air the animated range of matters we discussed, the revelations made or the shared enthusisams for France, music, art etc, but it was all uplifting, delightful, humorous and friendly. As if we had been close friends since back in the day. John brought a shocking wet day with him so we had to eat indoors at L' As de Coeur but the place was buzzing and he professed to being a keen fan of the simple plat du jour. Thankfully! After lunch we went up the hill in Roaix (to Rabais-Sud) to watch a storm approaching over Ventoux… John ended his visit to us after the only authentic but short thunderstorm we experienced this visit… he couldn’t stop, he had to get back to Paris on the morrow! So, short and sweet. We slipped him a bottle of Plan-de Dieu as he left – he indicated it was a favourite rouge of his, so…
Anyway QEGS can’t have been all bad: Professor Hickman got going there in science and certainly has made a considerable contribution to advancing cancer research in his distinguished career; it is a privilege to know him, pull his leg, swap outrages and enthusiasms. Not that he was saying much about his professional activities: we read him up on Wikipedia, après, as one does when one suspects one might be conversing with someone with top form attributes. Crumbs! Retired, but only in part, he is still moving and shaking –enthusiastic scientists never completely quit. We are planning to meet again, and hopefully Nathalie his wife aussi… plus re-acquaint with our (me and him) mutual associate back in the UK – Professor Brian (or Eric, take your pick) Wheeldon, no less. He set this thing off really. I won’t say watch this space but, well maybe I’ll report further, who knows?
QEGS? that’s the school I frequently hold responsible for the lamentable levels of the Fr language I have: Queen Elizabeth (the first) Grammar School, a much better place to get educated nowadays no doubt, rather than the patchy education I got there (even though English was A1, as I have intimated). My schooling was good in parts, in other words, and got better towards the end. But Fr? mais non. Neither did it manage to cure me of my underlying laziness, not in all aspects of getting on you understand, but in matters of human endeavour, hmm…… I fall short. Let's leave it at that.
