An Almost Romance

Today, I went down to the River Loup to see if some wild Irises were blooming. I planned on looking for them on the way back, after I walked to the end so the dogs could have a swim. The day was glorious. It was about 65 degrees. There were butterflies everywhere, in fact I saw a creamy yellow one with orange triangles on the tips of his wings. The trees were throwing out tiny bright green flames of leaves that glowed in the sun.
The dogs had a great swim, both of them over their head in a beautifully clear pool at the end of the formal trail. I threw sticks into the water for them for about 45 minutes. When we started walking back, I saw a man coming towards me. To me, the whole scene looked like an old French record album, or perhaps a clip from a film by Godard. The man was coming towards me with no shirt on. He had his shirt thrown over his shoulder and was casually walking in my direction taking in the beauty of the day.  It seemed an  odd sight. You don't see American men do this type of thing. American men have too much stress to be so relaxed.  As he walked by, as with everyone, I said Bonjour, he said Bonjour. I noticed he had on jeans, was in his 40's, had no ring on and his hands seemed rough liked he used them to work. He looked well off to me.
The dogs and I headed back to find the irises off trail. I turned around a few times looking for the man as he was at the very end of the trail when I saw him. tThe irises had not yet bloomed so we walked on towards the car.
I looked back and there he was, coming towards us, softly humming. I wanted him to be humming La Javanaise that I had just heard in the car on the way to the river.
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AigzXRKTtCxZGRr1s_I17HObvZx4?p=serge+gainsborough+nous+vous&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-900

( do check it out! worth a look)(watch both!) and then watch him sing it 20 plus years later in 1985 as he smokes!

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AigzXRKTtCxZGRr1s_I17HObvZx4?p=serge+gainsborough+nous+vous&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-900

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AigzXRKTtCxZGRr1s_I17HObvZx4?p=serge+gainsborough+nous+vous&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-900

Anyway, he caught up with me and asked me if I was English. . Then he asked me if I was from Texas. He told me that he had lived in Vence and now Nice and had never known that walk along the river was there....and a bunch of other small talk. He spoke in French some, he did it for me, I could tell.
I spoke in French some, for me.
We walked to our cars, I was shy, I kept my eyes down, he didn't know what to say and we parted.
An Almost Romance.