Quintessential French man

After a fabulous 2 hr nap yesterday afternoon, I went for a walk down to a park with a beautiful historic mansion that's actually just a few feet from our apartment. The gardens are lovely and there are plenty of benches to relax on. After I had been sitting there for a while, just staring off into the flowers, a grey-haired man dressed in nice slacks, a collared shirt and summer blazer slowly walked by me. A few minutes later he came and sat next to me on my bench. At first I thought it a little odd because never in all my park sitting days (of which I've enjoyed many while in France) has anyone ever come and sat next to me. Even more surprising is that not more than a minute later, he started talking to me! He commented on the beauty of the gardens and I gave him the ole nod & smile. Next thing I know he's engaging me in a whole conversation, in French by the way, and come to find out he's a historian and he continued to tell me more about the mini Chateaux that towered over the gardens. When he noticed I wasn't responding to any of his comments other than occasional nods and "ah, oui" I finally confessed to being American with extremely limited French skills. While I'm pretty sure I understood over half of what he was telling me I couldn't find the right words to maintain any sort of dialogue. He didn't seem to mind though. After chatting for a while, I heard the cathedral bells tolling and realized I needed to get home to start dinner and our nightly phone calling extravaganza to all our family. Upon my departure, he offered to serve as a pen pal to me in an effort to help me improve my French (I had to chuckle because who gives out their mailing address anymore?) and I gave him the "achante" and headed back home.