Colette

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Michelina Vinter. Colette

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1. Paris, Summer 1938

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19. Le Vivier sur Mer, July 1947

CHAPTER 20

About the author

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I dedicate this book to my grandparents, Raymonde Vinter, Roger Vinter, Michelina Zambelli, and Antoine Zambelli, who never hesitated to give of their time to help me grow and thrive.

Colette was concentrating on watching a lanky, brown-haired boy holding a checkered flat hat in his hands hurriedly cross the street, when her view was obstructed by a very tall figure. The man in front of her must have been six feet four, at least. He looked very distinguished and not at all at ease in this environment. As a matter of fact, he looked kind of lost. His blond hair was shimmering in the sun, and his angular jaw made him look very masculine. Colette could not quite make out the color of his eyes but decided they must be blue. “What did this man want?” she wondered. At that very moment, he approached her, and in a very approximate French attempted to ask for directions to the Boulinier bookstore, after he introduced himself as Adam Walker. Colette was charmed to hear such an accent and figured that he must be a tourist from the United States of America. Since she was at the top of her class in English, she thought she would help him in his own language and spare him the indignity of having to stumble through the conversation in French. And instead of explaining to him that he only had to walk toward the boulevard Saint-Germain and stop about three blocks before he reached the Seine River, she opted to take him there herself.

.....

Adam thanked him profusely and left with Colette at his side.

From the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre, they walked together and talked incessantly. They laughed. They even held hands. And this time Colette did not recoil. She even seemed to really enjoy the physical contact. Adam told Colette about his family. He talked about his five brothers and his baby sister, and he told her about their family home in New York, where his parents still lived with the younger members of the bunch. He talked about his job as a university professor in California, about his life in general, and the fact that his mother was pushing him to give her grandchildren. After all, he was the oldest. He should really marry first. But nowhere in their numerous conversations did Adam mention his other activities.

.....