This past weekend a friend of mine and I were walking around the town of Middlebury when we stopped in at the Vermont Bookstore. As we browsed through the books an elderly lady approached us and asked if we could grab the book “Babar the Elephant” off of a top shelf. We handed it to her and then started to have a conversation. It turns out that she was originally from France and that her mother helped Julia Child write her cookbook “The Art of French Cooking.” After the conversation she handed us her business card and then offered to teach us French, the art of french cooking, and how to set a table etc. She also invited us to her home to have tea.

Thursday, after work, we went to her home for tea and listened to her stories! She talked about her travels throughout  France and the US, her life experiences, and how she wanted to get to know us better. As we sat in her garden, I thought about how much it felt like a scene from a movie. She said that she didn’t know why she approached us, but she was glad she did. She also discussed how it wasn’t socially acceptable to talk to random strangers but that because she was old she didn’t care anymore what people thought. I definitely think that she has a point. Imagine how many people we could meet, or how many interesting stories you could hear if you were able to strike up conversations with people that you had never met before. You could learn so much about the world!

Oh, speaking of chance encounters, on the same day that we were in the Vermont Bookstore, we also went to the used bookstore in Marbleworks and ran into Middlebury College’s new president, Laurie Patton.