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In the quiet streets of post‑war Paris a modest flower shop bursts with colour, its green façade and fragrant pots offering a brief spring amid the city’s lingering shadows. Antoine, a weary soldier turned horticulturist, steps inside seeking a simple bouquet, only to meet Francine, the determined florist whose eyes hide stories of loss and resilience. Their conversation drifts from casual pleasantries to a shared memory of a vanished comrade, hinting at the lingering ties that bind strangers together.
As the dialogue deepens, Francine reluctantly reveals the painful chapter of her past—a marriage to a man who vanished, leaving her to raise three children alone. The encounter becomes a delicate dance of confession and curiosity, where both characters grapple with the weight of forgotten promises and the hope of new beginnings. The scene sets the tone for a series of tender, bittersweet encounters that explore love, regret, and the fragile rebirth of life after conflict.
Language
fr
Duration
~5 hours (308K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
Paris: Ernest Flammarion, 1918.
Credits
Laurent Vogel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
Release date
2024-01-29
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1874–1941
A French writer of dark, strange tales, he moved between decadent fiction, crime writing, and popular storytelling. His work also reached the screen, linking the worlds of early twentieth-century literature and cinema.
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