I was recently sitting talking to an artist about her work in a café, supposedly we were having lunch though I don’t think I finished the lentil soup or the glass of water for that matter, when it became obvious the place shut at 5.00pm and we had to leave. On a very wet day we found another café a few doors away which did not close until 6.00pm. Now I know in the cities you can sit in a café all day but here in Cornwall there seems to be a lack of places friends can drink and talk unless it is in a pub, but pubs are not to everyone’s liking.
And it is strange that in Cornwall which has a healthy tourist trade even in September that places close early and even stranger that they were not very busy. I have always thought the sound of French society where people sit al fresco and talk (a tradition all across the Mediterranean) to be fascinating. But I get the distinct feeling that in the UK they feel those are places where revolutionaries traded ideas and great writers began their careers and that’s quite enough of that, thank you.
It is one of the joys of friendship to sit and talk and have places to meet especially when one has to travel an hour to get around the county.