Jura massif

The Jura massif appears as the setting for a decisive New Year’s Eve between Manolo and Meg Williams: a mountain refuge they have visited before becomes the place where their friendship is pressed toward a more intimate definition.

Setting and Atmosphere

The couple’s hotel lies in the foothills of the Jura massif, on the French side of the border. Its stone walls, slate roofs, mist, and cold are presented not as signs of bleakness but as part of a picturesque landscape. The setting offers a contained retreat from ordinary obligations, with long walks by day and evenings spent drinking by the fireplace.

A Familiar Retreat Made Special

Manolo and Meg have stayed at the hotel on previous weekends, bringing their dogs and following a familiar rhythm of walking and drinking late. They like the place enough that when Meg proposes returning to welcome 1934, Manolo agrees at once. This visit differs from the earlier ones: they leave the dogs behind, and the hotel’s excellent restaurant requires guests to dress formally for its New Year’s Eve dinner.

The Question on New Year’s Eve

The occasion marks exactly one year since Manolo and Meg met. Over dinner, Meg asks whether she appeals to him. Manolo initially takes the question as playful, imagining that she is asking whether she might attract the attention of the waiter or of a bored young woman at another table. He answers that of course he likes her, assuming she means their friendship.

Meg corrects him: she knows they are friends, but wants to know whether he likes her for himself—as a woman he might choose as a partner. The contrast between the hotel’s established rituals and her newly explicit question gives the place its narrative significance. The Jura retreat is not merely a scenic backdrop; on this return visit, a familiar landscape hosts a change in what Meg is willing to ask and what Manolo must understand.