At the entrance of the restaurant was an iron sign with an angry bull head.

The instant they entered the restaurant, they saw a showcase with a bull head specimen.

On every shelf of the showcase were plenty of aluminum cylinders with seven or eight miniature different national flags in each of them.

The decoration of this restaurant was neither elegant nor too artistic and luxurious. However, it was overall harmonious, thus making them feel at home.

As soon as they walked in, the intimate landlady welcomed them with great enthusiasm and asked them to take their national flag in fluent English.

Long Xi looked around. When she saw a Five-Starred Red Flag, she picked it up and said playfully with a smile, “We were made in China.”

The obese French landlady burst out laughing, for she knew that this was a joke. Actually, Long Xi should have said, “We are Chinese!”

The landlady thought that this girl from Z Country was really interesting.

There were also banknotes from various countries on the showcase, some of which were new, while others were old. Each of them was laid out neatly.

The landlady said while laughing, “Visitors from all over the world leave them as souvenirs.”

Long Xi immediately took out a ten-yuan note and asked Mo Kun to take one out too. Then, she handed the two notes together to the landlady and said, “Please let them stay together for a lifetime.”

The landlady took them with a smile and placed the two notes in the showcase.

They randomly found a place. After inserting the Five-Starred Red Flag into the corresponding socket on the table, they sat down.

They looked at the tables around them and saw the American flag, the British flag, the Argentinian flag, the South Korean flag, and some national flags that they could not recognize.

Mo Kun intended to order the famous bouillabaisse and a dozen oysters.

Long Xi said, “The department stores in Paris serve fresh oysters and also provide spices so you can enjoy immediately the open oysters. Now that we are here, we certainly should try some special food from South France. We'd better order a traditional French black pudding, a locally-flavored apple pie from a town in South France, as well as creamy lobster, beef shortbread, and fresh feta, which I have seen in a book about Provence.”

Mo Kun said, “If this restaurant serves authentic bouillabaisse, the chef will add sufficient ingredients. Based on what you said just now, it should be enough for us to eat. I do believe in you, as you are a gourmet eater.”

The dishes were soon served.

After tasting them, Long Xi said with a smile, “According to a book, gourmets are everywhere in Provence, but the most unexpected people usually possess unique cooking skills. The French people's pa.s.sion for food is like the pa.s.sion of some people from other countries for sports and politics. Such is the case. The author of the book did not deceive me!”

Mo Kun said with a smile, “You are so powerful. Who would dare to bully you? Besides, I'm your guardian angel.”

The landlady was very enthusiastic as she said, “You should walk around the nearby flea market. It is very interesting. Today is the opening day.”

Long Xi and Mo Kun accepted her proposal and succeeded in finding the junk market by following the map that the landlady drew for them.

There was a large number of old-fas.h.i.+oned antiques in the corners of various attics in Provence founded by junk men. There, people could learn about the evolution and development of local history.

Long Xi took a fancy to a vivid bronze statue of Van Gogh and an old photograph of Van Gogh's famous painting Night Coffee Shop. There was a string of beautiful French words behind the photo. After reading them, Mo Kun said, “This must be a photo taken by a man named HUGO. He gave it to a woman named SOE as a souvenir.”

Long Xi made good use of her bargaining talent and got these two nice items for only 20 euros. She was as happy as a small squirrel who had found pine cones.

Mo Kun could not help laughing as he said, “You do like Van Gogh. I heard somebody saying that he was a madman, but others say he was a genius. I heard that Van Gogh lived in a sanatorium in a nearby town because of his mental illness, isn't that right?”

Long Xi said, “Sometimes there is only a fine line between genius and insanity. Van Gogh once lived in a small town named Arles, where he created hundreds of paintings. This is where his favorite blocks of sunflower fields are. It was also the place where he burned the radiance of his life!”

Mo Kun said, “We'll go to Arles tomorrow. I heard that even the balcony railings of ordinary houses were very artistic.”

Of course, Long Xi agreed without any hesitation.

In fact, Long Xi was eager to go to the Louvre again, as there had been too many people there the last time she had visited it. Besides, she had only visited for half a day before, so she had not enjoyed herself.

They planned to stay in France for three more days, so they could go to the Louvre the day after tomorrow.

Then, they went to the most beautiful street in France: Le Cours Mirbeau.

This was also the image that Long Xi had memorized from the book about Provence.

It was the height of summer, so the burning sunlight was “filtered” by the dense foliage of the plane trees on both sides of the street, becoming gentle and pleasant and warming up everyone.

The ratio of trees to buildings and roads was so perfect that whatever photos were taken there could be used as postcards.

They could not miss the cafes on the street.

Long Xi caught sight of a distinctive cafe that looked like a castle in a fairy tale.

When Mo Kun saw her eager gaze, he realized what she was thinking and said with a smile, “I'm a little tired. Would you like to go in to have a drink?”

Long Xi immediately said with great joy, “Great!”

Upon entering the cafe, they saw a huge mural with a mermaid on it that resembled The Little Mermaid in Andersen's fairy tales.

After looking around, they were pleasantly surprised to find that this was actually a fairytale-themed restaurant.

There was a decorative Cinderella puppet with a pumpkin cart and crystal shoes, stone sculptures of Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, as well as mud sculptures of Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs and the Evil Queen. Meanwhile, there was also a tiny muppet of Thumbelina in a pot.

This was a pure fairytale world. The familiar characters and stories from different tales awakened every adult's happy memories that had been long gone…

The chandelier above was shaped like a witch on a broom, and the lucky cat and her boots were made of porcelain.

There was a music box of the Frog Prince on the display rack and a puppet of Pinocchio in the corner…

All these characters, who had existed in Long Xi's beautiful childhood memories, reappeared in front of her now.

She even forgot that she had gone there for afternoon tea. She was holding her cell phone like a child while trying to record everything by taking photos.

“What would you like to eat?” the Pea Princess waitress asked Mo Kun when she came over.

Mo Kun looked at the menu and said with a smile, “A mermaid sponge cake, a portion of Snow White caramel poisonous apple, and a portion of seven-dwarf pancakes!”

When she saw an old master in the store teaching a few children who were full of joy to make seven-dwarf pancakes, Long Xi walked close to them to learn about the whole process.

The old master's patience and kindness along with the children's innocence and eagerness made a profound impression on Long Xi.

They spent one day in Provence and then returned to Paris by train at night.

The trains there were very clean and tidy, and the people were really civilized. They did not see anybody littering or grabbing seats.

In Paris, there were companies that specifically rent cars out. On the second day, Mo Kun rented a car, opened the navigator, and followed its instructions for going to Arles.

Grandma, who was a little tired, fell asleep in the car.

When they drove into the small town, Long Xi was very excited upon seeing large pieces of sunflower fields on both sides of the road.

When she saw a dozen foreigners painting next to the flower fields, she also longed to join them.

She had studied Chinese painting for a few years and was good at meticulous freehand brushwork. However, she had not learned anything about oil-painting before.

She did want to paint the image of the sunflowers in her mind like Van Gogh had done, so she had brought all her Chinese painting tools that day.

Mo Kun, who clearly knew what she was thinking, pulled over the car.

Upon seeing that grandma was sleeping sweetly, Long Xi gave up on waking her up, got out of the car with Mo Kun, and closed the door.

There were male and female foreigners, each of them very young. They were all focused on painting intently, but they would occasionally talk to each other.

When she saw what they had painted, Long Xi knew that they had just started drawing.

Mo Kun talked to one of the foreigners in French and learned that they were students of an art school nearby.

They had gone there for a compet.i.tion.

The owner of these sunflower fields held a painting compet.i.tion called “Sunflower Cup”. The theme was drawing sunflowers. The champion would get a sum of money, and the top three paintings would be placed next to the flower fields for people to admire all the time.

The foreign student pointed to a foreign old farmer who was picking sunflower seeds in the middle of the field and said, “He is the owner.”

Mo Kun greeted the foreign old farmer in French and then asked him, “My friend can paint. Can she partic.i.p.ate in this compet.i.tion?”

The old farmer agreed with a smile.

Long Xi thanked him in English and took out painting tools, including pastels, papers, pens, a drawing board and a shelf, from the back seat of the car.

Although she did not know how to paint with oils, this compet.i.tion did not stipulate that only oil paintings could enter!

Long Xi was so confident that she soon began to draw.

She did not directly draw the flower field. Instead, she painted a cliff at first in an effort to be unique. Then, she added a few awe-inspiring sunflowers.

They were freely rooted in the barren hills between the rocks. Their petals were threatening, while their branches were prosperous, showing their strong vitality.

Then, she blackened the sky, which was dotted with several dim little stars, but did not draw the moon.

The bright yellow sunflowers became more prominent in the night.

She took advantage of the freehand brushwork of Chinese painting to outline the image of the sunflowers in her mind with a few strokes.

The burning sun was high in the sky. Mo Kun, who was standing by her side, kept holding an umbrella for her during all this time.