# [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

[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!"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Have you ever been outside France? Before now, I mean."

[futaille]

"Had a trip to Genoa when I was young, so I've been to Sardinia. Other than that, no."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

What is it with Lancelot's gentlemen callers and specifically referencing cities Susan knows primarily for how they were decimated by the war? "Very good," she says. "I shall limit my prompts to places you've never been."

[futaille]

"Excellent. More of a challenge, and will make it inevitably more interesting."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I shall expect accuracy and detail."

[futaille]

"I can certainly promise you detail!"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan watches him for a moment, then nods to herself, decision made. "I know we're not close, but I was worried," she confesses. "That you might come to resent me, during Dark."

[futaille]

He looks honestly perplexed by that statement. "Why would I have done that?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I grew up in a time of deprivation. I know how rationing tends to go."