Solid as our "Rocs

Grands Rocs and Vieux Rocs lunch at the Vin & Marée restaurant on avenue du Maine in Paris, on October 2, to celebrate the arrival of autumn.

I was finally able to go, since it's been fifty "piges" since I left Les Pins, with a tear in my eye, ready to live a life I'd never imagined.

So I've become Grand Roc, pushed along in spite of myself by the years, even if I still think, like my sainted mother in her day, that when someone says: "Kids, go wash your hands, we're going to the table", I have to obey right away.

It would seem that I'm not the only one with this mindset, since the 16 Grand and Vieux rocs surrounding me at the table were as mischievous-eyed, greedy-lipped and tongue-tied as rascals in costume.

It would seem that, in this age of all-out vaccinations against influenza, Covid, Monkeypox and so on, l'Ecole des Roches, before the CNRS, has found, perfected and inoculated its former students at a very early age with a sort of antidote against old age and its inconveniences, at least at the table. The rest is history!

It was a sight to behold in this cenacle, where after a flute of Kir, the good or bad pupils of Les Pins, Les Sablons, Le Vallon, La Prairie, Coteau du Petit Clos or Clères would return to their old selves. In front of the amuse-bouche mussels, there were revived hundred-meter champions, distraught admirers of Max Dervaux, guests in mourning for Madame Cacheux, Latinists, former TP cinemas, those who passed on news of so-and-so, and all those who had shared a dormitory.

Philippe Blanc and Marinette, the Boussions and Faure Beaulieu were present in words, Tahiti was no longer at the end of the world, and our deceased teachers were not dead, since they had enabled us to succeed, in banking, finance, commerce, journalism or television. Then, over sauerkraut from the sea or medium-rare meat, we didn't talk about Lebanon, Iran or Hezbollah, but about highly sensitive subjects such as who were the perennial cup winners in swimming, field field hockey or basketball. Or the verification of certain legends whose secrets no generation has been able to uncover.

As you can see, this lunch of Grands et Vieux Rocs was more of a youth gang reunion than a gathering of readers forbidden by age from reading the adventures of Tintin.

Oliver Michel
(Pins 71-74)