assily and Vitaly were Russian, therefore superstitious. If Napoleon had had Slav or Oriental blood, he would have cursed the Neman hare, spat in the wild grass, mounted his horse, and sounded the return to Paris.

“That kind of story can really screw up your plans,” Goisque said.

In the absence of signs and not very au fait with oracles, we stepped on the gas at 8 am on December 2nd, 2012. Nothing could have diverted us from our obsession: to go back home.

still an entertaining short read