This afternoon, Kathleen and I had brunch at the museum with Jean Ruaud, of Mnémoglyphes – the blogger from a foreign capital to whom I alluded the other day – and his nephew, André-François Ruaud. André is the publisher of Les moutons électriques,  an imprint that he manages at Lyon, and that has just issued Les nombreuses vies de Maigret, a collection of essays and other materials devoted to Georges Simenon’s most celebrated creation. Among other contributions, there is a portfolio of photographs taken by Jean. If you have ever visited any of his sites over the years, particularly Empreintes, his ‘Fotoblog,’ you know that Jean Ruaud is one of the most gifted amateur photographers on the planet. (Actually, with the publication of Les nombreuses vies de Maigret, he is no longer an amateur.) Jean and André are in New York at the moment to collaborate on an upcoming project that promises to be very interesting to fans of another famous fictional detective – and I leave it to Jean to fill in the blanks as he sees fit.

When did I first encounter Jean’s blog at the time, Douze lunes? During the summer or early autumn of 2004, I think, right before I launched the first Daily Blague. Over the years, Jean and I have broached the idea of meeting in person, either here or in Paris, often enough for me to begin to wonder if we might actually ever get together. (At our end, Kathleen has been so tied up with work for the past few years that we’ve only managed brief escapes at Thanksgiving. As it happened, we spent the Thanksgiving of 2003, somewhat before I met Jean online, in Paris, and we were not inclined to revisit the City of Light in late November anytime soon – considering that one of the key points of winter travel for Kathleen is plenty of soleil. In Paris that year, it was miserably rainy the entire time we were there.) In the end, it was probably inevitable that the decline of the dollar ordained that the meeting would take place in New York.

Jean was very generous with his time, for me met not once but twice. How I wish that my French were in better shape! I ventured a few mistake-riddled phrases, but stuck to English out of sheer humanitarian concern for Jean’s sensibilities. Among other things, we talked about Jean’s really very interesting job, which I would describe by likening him, in a way at least, to the subjects of Andrés last and forthcoming books. But when Kathleen turned to Jean and said, “RJ tells me that you’re a detective!” Jean all but hid his head under the tablecloth in embarrassment. Really, he is much too modest. All I will say is this: come to think of it, I won’t. 

Kathleen and I hope that Jean and André enjoyed getting together as much as we did. As Confucius says… I was going to quote Confucius in French, but it’s quite different, and my classical Chinese isn’t up to deciding who’s more faithful, Simon Leys (in English) or Séraphin Couvreur. Compare:

To have friends coming from afar: is this not a delight?

Si des amis viennent de loin recevoir ses leçons, n’éprouve-t-il pas une grande joie ?

Who said anything about leçons? My joie, however, was grande indeed.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
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