Matthew and the Stone

by Bob Blanton

  “Thanks,” Alex said. “It was easy since my parents are real wine connoisseurs.”

  “They have to be with all the dinners they have to host,” Emily said.

  “Yeah,” Alex said, “I have to listen to them talk about what years are the best, which region had enough rain, got hot enough to sweeten the grapes, stuff like that.”

  “Hey, that’s great,” Jason said. “Do you get to taste the stuff, too?”

  “Sure, we have wine with dinner all the time, but only a small glass. The wine is supposed to complement the flavors of the meal, not make you drunk.”

  “Did you read up on this place like Mrs. Jefferies told us to?” Emily asked. “I want to do well on the test at the end of the trip.”

  “Oh no,” Jason’s face turned pale, “I forgot about the test.”

  Everyone had been having so much fun in France, they had forgotten that this was really a one-credit summer class in French plus one credit in European history. It had sounded like such a great deal last spring, two extra credits and a trip to Europe. But now, as the reality of the test loomed, they weren’t so sure.

  “What are you worried about, Emily?” Alex said. “You always ace every test.”

  “That’s because I study, unlike some party animals I know.”

  Alex stuck her tongue out at Emily, then said, “I could really use the boost to my GPA. I was hoping to do well on the test.”

  “Yeah,” Jason said, “plus having two fewer hours to take for graduation wouldn’t hurt.”

  “Oh bloody hell,” Alex said. “This is going to ruin the rest of the trip.”

  Jason’s face lit up. He put his arm around Matthew. “Not to worry, my man Matt here has memorized all the material already. He’s been a regular tour guide the whole time. Haven’t you, Matt?”

  “Sure, whatever you say, Jason.” The tips of Matthew’s ears turned red at the praise and out of concern at being labeled a nerd. “Just don’t drool on my shoulder,” Matthew pushed Jason away.

  “Hey, maybe we could study together,” Alex said. “What do you think, Emily?”

  Emily had perked up at the mention of help studying for the test. “Hey, that’d be great. We need to start right away so we can catch up on the material.”

  “That’s right,” Jason said. “We’ve only got a week before the end of the trip.”

  “I’ve been just enjoying myself,” Alex said. “Gosh, I’m not sure I even remember where we’ve been.”

  “Matt, did you really memorize all the stuff?” Emily asked.

  Matthew blushed a bit, and then shrugged, “Yeah, I memorized most of the stuff before we left.”

  Jason clenched his fist and said, “Like I said, he’s our man. We’ll be rocking on that test.”

  As they walked through the monastery talking about the architecture and the lives of the monks, Matthew thought about having regular study sessions with Emily, “Man, life can’t get any better than this,” he whispered.

  . . .

  That night they met in the dining hall to study. Matthew was able to highlight the key points in plain language, and reinforce it based on the memories they had of their tour. After reviewing what they had seen and learned that day, they went back and reviewed the first days of the tour.

  “Our first stop, Minerve, was a heavily fortified village. The village was destroyed in 1210 by Simon de Montfort,” Matthew said. “He used four catapults to attack it and try to penetrate the fortress walls. The well was destroyed, after which it was obvious that the situation was hopeless and the mayor surrendered the village.”

  “Why are we talking about that old village so much?” Jason asked. “We only spent the one afternoon there.”

  “Maybe because it’s one of the six highlights Mrs. Jefferies used in the flyer for this trip,” Matthew replied, “and she was totally excited when she talked about it during the tour.”

  “Matthew’s right,” said Alex. “She did look like she was going to pee herself when we were there.”

  “After he took the village, Montfort burned 140 parfaits when they refused to renounce their faith,” Matthew said. “It was the first such act during the Crusades.”

  “Ugh, what a bloody awful thing to do,” said Alex. “It must have been horrible.”

  “The Crusades were a study in horror and human abuse in the name of religion,” said Matthew.

  “What is a parfait?” asked Emily.

  “They were Christian priests of the Cathars, one of the breakaway Protestant sects in France,” said Matthew. “Their subjugation was one of the primary motivations for the Crusades of the early 1200s.”

  “How silly to burn people at the stake just because they worshipped differently than you,” Alex said.

  “Well, in the Dark and Middle Ages people fought and died over religion all the time.”

  “Let’s keep moving here,” Emily said. “Mrs. Jefferies will be by in a few minutes to send us off to bed.”

  “Okay, now Minerve was an ancient community,” Matthew said. “The first records of it show up in documents from the Tenth Roman Legion early in the fifth century.”

  Mrs. Jefferies walked in, “I’m glad to see someone studying, but we’ve got an early start tomorrow. We’ll be leaving at 7:00 a.m. to catch the TGV to Paris,” she said. “Then we’re off to Versailles for the afternoon, so off to bed.”

  “We’re just trying to get ready for the test,” Jason said.

  “Well, you can study on the train tomorrow,” Mrs. Jefferies said. “Now go.”

  “Okay,” Emily turned to her friends, “Let’s make sure we’re sitting together tomorrow on the train. We can review the material on the Roman conquest of Gaul.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  “Sure, see you tomorrow.”

  They broke up into two groups, Matthew and Jason heading aft to their stateroom, while Emily and Alex headed forward to theirs. Mrs. Jefferies had carefully separated the girls’ state rooms from the boys’, with hers and Mr. Jackson’s two staterooms in between.

  . . .

  The next morning the students ate breakfast then parted company with the barge and its crew. They boarded the van Mrs. Jefferies had hired to chauffer them to the train station; they were taking the TGV to Paris.

  “Hey, I thought this was the bullet train,” Jason said.

  “It is, but in France they call it the Train à Grande Vitesse,” Alex explained as they boarded.

  “Hey, let’s sit here,” Emily suggested. “There are two seats facing backwards and two forward.”

  “Great,” Jason agreed, “we’ll be able to see each other. I forgot they did that on trains.”

  “Sure,” said Alex, “that way you can play cards or, in our case, study during the trip.”

  “Let’s get cracking,” Matthew said, “we’ve got to cover the aqueducts, the ancient village of Agde and the history of wine making.”

  “Why so much,” Jason groaned and clamped his hands around his head. “My brain can’t take it so fast.”

  “We’ve got to get caught up this morning. We’ll need all of the time we have before the test to review what we’ll see in Versailles today and the Louvre tomorrow.”

  “He’s right,” Emily said, “the Louvre is huge. We could spend weeks there, much less one day.”

  “All right already, I get the picture.” Jason hit himself on the side of his head with the heels of his hands. “Just don’t go too fast.”

  Matthew and Emily gave Jason a hard stare while Alex reached over and gave him a hug. “There, there, I’ll help.”

  Jason smiled as he sat up straight, totally pleased with himself. “Okay, I guess we’d better get started.”

  They studied diligently during the ride to Paris. They wracked their brains, trying to point out a specific detail that Mrs. Jefferies had stressed; something that she’d been especially excited about discussing in the lecture before the tour or in comments during the tour.

  “Are you sure Mrs. J
efferies will ask that on the test?” Jason asked. “It doesn’t seem to track with the rest of the stuff.”

  “You can never be sure,” Emily said, “but remember during the semester she always had some off-the-wall question on the test.”

  “Yeah,” Matthew said, “that’s right. There was always one question where I’d say, where did that come from?”

  “There were lots of questions where I asked that,” said Alex.

  “Yeah, me too,” said Jason, “like half the test.”

  “Well if you think about it,” Emily said, “whenever she went off on some odd tangent in class, a question about it would appear on the next test.”

  Suddenly the train rocked back and forth and there was a loud whooshing sound.

  “What was that?” Emily asked looking around. All she could see was the moving countryside.

  “I don’t know,” Jason said.

  “It was another train,” Alex said.

  “No way,” Jason said. “I didn’t see it.”

  “We’re going 160 mph,” Alex said, “The trains pass each other so fast you barely see them.”

  “Are you serious?” Emily said.

  “Sure,” Alex said, “I’ve ridden on the TGV before.”

  “Just think about it,” Matthew said. “If we’re traveling 160 mph, two trains passing each other have a relative speed of 360 mph, if the train is 1600 feet long, that’s one third of a mile. It would only take . .”

  “What are you a calculator?” said Jason.

  “Quiet,” said Alex, “let him finish.”

  “360 mph, divide that by 60 for minutes and 60 again to get seconds is 0.1 mile per second; so, 0.33 miles divided by 0.1 miles per second means it takes roughly three and a half seconds for the train to pass our window.”

  “That sounds right,” Alex said. “Daddy and I timed them last year when we were here.”

  “Here comes another one,” Jason said as a second train passed them rattling the windows on their train. “One, two, three,” Jason ticked off the seconds, “Right about three seconds.”

  “Okay,” Emily said, “now that we had our little distraction and fun, let’s get back to work. Where were we?”

  “You were saying that Mrs. Jefferies likes to ask questions related to her lecture tangents.”

  “Oh yeah, you’re right,” Emily said. “Like that bit about Louis XIV holding court in his bed chambers.”

  “Or that part about how he sowed the seeds of economic recession when he chased the Huguenots out of France,” Jason said.

  “That wasn’t a tangent,” Matthew said. “That was half a chapter and a twenty-minute lecture.”

  “Well at least he was paying attention,” Alex laughed.

  “Wait,” Emily said, “she did mention the Huguenots when she was discussing the Crusades against the Cathars.”

  “Yeah,” Jason said. “That’s the tangent I was talking about.” He jabbed the air with his finger.

  “Okay, we’ll give you that one.” Matthew grabbed Jason’s finger. “Just put that thing away before you poke someone’s eye out.”

  Jason folded his arms over his chest and leaned against Alex. He wore a totally smug look on his face. “See they don’t give me credit for paying attention,” he murmured to her.

  Alex gave Jason a peck on the cheek, “Nice save, now back to studying.”

  Later when the girls went to the bathroom, Jason leaned over and pointed to Tyler. “Matt, did you notice how lonely Tyler is?”

  “Yes, nobody wants to be too close to him.”

  “Now’s the time to drive the stake in. We need to put it in his head that it’s the sports drink.”

  “Gotcha.” Matthew got up and headed toward the restroom. As he was passing Tyler he said, “Whew, Tyler you’ve got to lay off that sports drink, it’s giving you big time B.O.”

  “What would you know?” Tyler hissed at Matthew.

  “Nothing, but I’m not the one sitting by myself.” Tyler tried to kick Matthew as he skipped by. When Matthew came back the bottle of sports drink was gone.

  Jason gave Matthew a wink as he sat down.

  The foursome went back to studying. They were so engrossed in their review that the next thing they knew the train was pulling into Paris.

  It took twenty minutes to gather their luggage before the students could pile into the van and head off for their hotel.

  “Geez, these streets are barely wide enough for one car, how do they get two down them?” Matthew asked just as the van moved over to the side, driving halfway onto the sidewalk. “Well, I guess that answers my question.”

  “Isn’t it neat how the buildings have so much individual character,” Emily said. “Each one is just squeezing in beside its neighbors, but they’re individual in style.”

  “I was thinking it was just bad planning,” Matthew said. “But I guess it is quaint.”

  “I think you had it with bad planning,” Jason said. “I’m always amazed at how crammed everything is in this city. The roads run off at all different angles and there’s never any parking.”

  “Then I’m sure you’ll love London,” Alex gave Jason a dirty look.

  “Oh, I love London, the people are so nice; the women beautiful; and they have such nice accents.” Jason gave Alex a little kiss on the cheek. “It’s the French that are so difficult.”

  “You’ve only got one more strike left,” Emily said. “If I were you, I’d try to make it to the hotel before I used it up.”

  “Look we’re on the Champs Elysees,” Matthew looked over his shoulder. “There’s the Arc de Triomphe just behind us.”

  “Is this your first time in Paris?” Emily asked.

  “Yes, my dad and I were in London two years ago,” Matthew said. “But we didn’t have time for Paris.”

  “Well, you know that they say if you sit at a café on the Champs Elysees long enough, everyone in the world will eventually walk by.”

  “That’s what they say,” Jason said, “but it only seems that way. That is the most crowded street I’ve ever seen. People are everywhere.”

  “Now Jason, be nice,” Alex said. “Matt, you can see the Tuileries over there, and that’s the Louvre at the end.”

  “Thanks Alex,” Matthew said. He was trying to not look so excited among the three much more experienced world travelers, but he couldn’t help it.

  “Good, we’re only three blocks from the Tuileries,” Emily said as they pulled up in front of their hotel.

  “Yeah, we’ll be able to walk to the Louvre tomorrow,” said Alex.

  “I’m going to get up and run around the place tomorrow morning,” Matthew said. “It’ll be awesome. I hope they don’t close everything off.”

  “No, you’ll be able to run right through the courtyard,” Emily said. “I’ve done it before, it’s really special.”

  Everyone piled out of the van and gathered their luggage. Mrs. Jefferies and Mr. Jackson paid the driver and led the way into the reception area of the hotel.

  “Once you’re checked in, take your bags up to your rooms,” Mrs. Jefferies said. “We’ll meet back here at noon and go out for lunch. The tour bus for Versailles leaves at two, so don’t dawdle.”

  “Don’t dawdle, Matt,” Jason said as he grabbed his bags, snickering. He went over and picked up the key from Mr. Jackson.

  “We’ll see you at lunch,” Matthew said to Emily.

  “Do you want to sit together and talk about Versailles?” Emily asked.

  “Yes, let’s,” Alex chimed in.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Matthew said over his shoulder as he headed to the elevator to catch up with Jason.

  . . .

  As the foursome gathered for lunch, Jason asked, “What’s Mrs. Jefferies’ favorite tidbit about Versailles?” as he took his seat next to Alex.

  “It’s got to be about Colbert and Fouquet.”

  “Who are they? I thought Louis XIV built Versailles.”

  “He did,” Emily said.<
br />
  “Sure, but why he built it, that’s what’s really interesting.”

  “Pray tell, do explain,” Jason made a circling motion with his arm bowing toward Matthew.

  “It’s pretty easy; Fouquet was essentially the Finance Minister under Louis XIV. It seems he was a little more interested in his friends getting rich along with himself than in the finances of state.”

  “Sounds like politicians today,” Jason said. “A dollar for the people, one for my friends and one for me, that’s their motto.”

  “Sure seems that way when you watch how they bicker in Congress.”

  “Yes, and the British Parliament’s no better.”

  “Sure, they all like their pork. So much that it seems they put more importance on whose district the funds will be spent in than they do on whether the project is really needed.”

  “Yeah, and that’s especially true with military spending, close any base except the one in my district.”

  “Yeah, and build that ship at the shipyard in my hometown, even if the Navy doesn’t want it.”

  “Harrumph,” Jason tapped the table. “We digress; Professor Matt, please continue.”

  “Anyway, Fouquet was so full of himself that he built this huge palace called Vaux just south of Paris. It was the most elegant palace in France; when it was finished, he had a huge housewarming bash and invited the King since it was the King’s birthday.”

  “Nothing like trying to show the King up, pretty stupid of him!”

  “Yes it was. Anyway, Colbert didn’t like Fouquet’s economic policies, and he used the extravagant party and the extravagant palace to enrage Louis. Colbert told the King that the palace was built with money pilfered from the treasury.”

  “Sounds like it was.”

  “Probably. Anyway, when the party was over, Louis had Fouquet arrested and imprisoned.”

  “But to satisfy his ego, he had Versailles built,” Emily said. “Typical male response-- mine’s got to be bigger and better than yours.”

  “Whatever,” Matthew groaned at the psychoanalysis. “Anyway, it gets more interesting. Colbert really fostered mercantilism, the use of commerce and trade to further the nation’s power. That really improved the lot of the Huguenots, which increased resentment against them.”