“Love to!” Nora replied.
Chloe told her about some of the excellent patisseries and fromageries as well as specialty shops. “Locals shop here, and you can see it is far less touristy. We love working in this environment.”
“That’s dad’s van,” Olivier said, pointing to a white van with a few dents in the back.
“Do you mean the one with the boot on it?” Chloe asked.
Olivier swore, seeing what she pointed out. “Merde! Oui! Now he will be really pissed!”
“What are you talking about?” Nora asked.
“Do you see the yellow clamp on the front wheel?” Chloe asked.
Nora nodded.
“Well, it’s called a sabot de Denver here, don’t ask me why. It means a Denver boot. Police put it on illegally parked vehicles. Mon Dieu.” She ended with a groan.
Just then a police vehicle arrived. The officer stepped out with a good- looking man Nora recognized. She did a double-take and gasped with surprise.
Chloe moved Nora and Atticus toward the door of the building while Olivier spoke with his father, who was scowling.
Olivier came back and explained his dad had just stopped in the no-parking zone for a few minutes. “In fact, he left his flashers on. Then he went inside to … um, uh … use the bathroom. He came back out and found the clamp. He said he was furious. He looked up the closest police station on his phone and saw it was a block away, so he walked there to get someone to remove the clamp.”
“TMI,” Chloe muttered.
“You two should go inside and not watch. It’s not going to help his bruised ego, and it’s too cold to stand around anyway,” Olivier said.
As they left to go into the studio, Nora took a backward look to confirm what had shocked her. Pierre was the man she’d nearly bumped into on Friday evening as she exited the elevator on her way to meet Luc.
She told Chloe what had happened.
“Hmm, I wonder if he remembers.”
“He absolutely did not look like this at your wedding,” she added in a lower voice. “The Girls would say he’s a hottie.”
Chloe rolled her eyes.
Nora continued, amazement on her face. “He looked completely different at your wedding … long hair and a beard. And what’s funny is that when we nearly collided at the elevator I thought he looked like an older version of the boyfriend from Emily in Paris ... Gabriel.”
Chloe rolled her eyes again. “I didn’t know you watched that.”
“All the Girls did!” Nora replied.
Chloe chuckled and said, “Right. Well, he was still struggling with his divorce and not a happy camper when we got married.”
She put an enormous key in the keyhole on a tarnished brass escutcheon. The tall wooden door with faded green paint looked like it had many stories of its own. She opened it and they walked into a spacious courtyard.
“Wow, what a secret space,” Nora said, gazing at the surrounding ivy-covered stone walls. A bicycle rack was full and a young couple were standing next to it smoking.
“One of the few places smoking is allowed, from what I read these days,” Nora said.
Chloe nodded. “France has rigid non-smoking laws with more coming. The country is serious about the health issues. Pretty good, huh?”
They walked through the quiet space to a paneled door with a sign that said, “Atelier Moreau ~ entrez doucement.”
A soft light poured in from north-facing windows and a skylight above. Canvases were on easels or leaning against the walls—some unfinished and others covered in layers of rich color. There were strong smells of paint, turpentine, and coffee.
Nora smiled with pride at Chloe, who said, “This is where the magic happens.”
