Cocktail Talk: The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
One last stop on our month-or-such-of-Maigret, though I can’t imagine we’ll be leaving our Parisian Chief Inspector (the great creation of great writer George Simenon) for long – we’ve had a decent amount of Maigret Cocktail Talks, and let’s hope it won’t be the last. The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien is another good Maigret read, a very interesting one, as Maigret manages to travel to Belgium, back to France, to history, to many secrets, to Armagnac, all by following a shabby traveler and on a hunch switching suitcases.
Maigret took selfish pleasure in his chilly response, but Van Damme sat down at his table anyway.
“You’ve finished? In that case, allow me to offer you a digestif . . . Waiter! Well, what will you have inspector? An old Armagnac?”
He called for the drinks list, and after consultation with the proprietor, chose an 1867 Armagnac, to be served in snifters.
–George Simenon, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
