# [closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan has devised another activity to occupy her days. By the calendar's reckoning, the start of spring is roughly a week away. Between her and Tress, they've got the outline of a plan for the next Dark, and Susan is happy to rely on people who've got greater interest in and skill for growing things insofar as agriculture goes. But the growing season here shall be longer than usual, and Susan should like to have some idea about what that might mean for the ecosystem,

This is her flimsy excuse to pardon the latest stack of books she's currently carrying out of the library. There is a marginal off-chance that preparatory reading on soil biota could, potentially, be useful. Perhaps she might even talk someone else into reading on the subject as well, so that they might discuss it.

Comments

[futaille]

"You look skeptical. Which, in fairness, I generally support."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It seems to me that many here value your opinions."

[futaille]

"I suppose that's true enough here. Strange thing to get used to, admittedly."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan is halfway through interpreting this in a way that once again discredits Enjolras and his social comportment when she realizes that Grantaire mightn't mean in that way. "Oh?"

[futaille]

"I've always been a frivolous man. Not exactly the type one looks to for advice on much beyond where to get the best food and entertainment in Paris. But admittedly very good at that."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I might argue that's an essential skill."

[futaille]

"It has slightly less utility here, I think."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"No? Supposing the next calamity is one where an intimate knowledge of the best boulangerie in the third arrondissement is the only way to overcome whatever might be going on?"

[futaille]

"... Oh, please, mansion spirits, let that be the next calamity. I would be uniquely suited for it. Provided you ask for information accurate to the proper era."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"What would your answer be?"

[futaille]

"In the third? I think Père Chouinard's. His brioche is exceptional."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And if you were charged to identify the best pain au chocolat in the fourth?"

[futaille]

"I'd give it to Marchand's, I think. Consistently delicious."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And the best wine in the second?"

[futaille]

"The best overall selection I would give to a shop called the Trellis. But if you want to sacrifice available variety for quality at the upper end, then Moreau's shop just off the Rue Saint-Joseph."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I suppose I shall have to take your word on all of this," Susan muses.

[futaille]

"It does seem likely, and it's subjective in any case, but my opinions are nonetheless firm."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Have you got a ranking system?"

[futaille]

He shakes his head. "Oh, not in the least."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"And so you base your conclusions on...?

[futaille]

"Wanting to avail myself of the best places, or at the very least to know what to recommend when asked. But making a system out of it makes it entirely too much like actual work, which is a terrifying prospect, as who wants to make work out of entertainment?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan, to her own surprise, laughs. "I rather enjoy systems," she says. "But very well. I shan't add creating a rubric for every bistro in the Latin Quarter to your box of lecture possibilities."

[futaille]

"I deeply appreciate your merciful nature."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"London, on the other hand," says Susan, "I imagine might be fair game?"

[futaille]

He laughs. "Oh, absolutely!"