A visit from my parents

Hi all,

Following my trip to Besançson, Mum and Dad came to visit me from Monday lunchtime to Wednesday evening. They came on the Eurostar train from London to Lille and they said it was a pleasant journey. On the Monday afternoon and early evening, we chatted a lot, ate and went out for a walk to what I thought was going to be a lovely big park, but which wasn’t at all, to our disappointment. Thankfully Mum and Dad were very understanding!

On the Tuesday, Mum and I went shopping for boots and Dad took himself off to an art gallery which he found was closed. We crossed paths and decided to go for a coffee together. As a treat we decided to go into a really posh, old patisserie. There was a staff member on the phone who waved us on past into a pretty, but deserted, tea room (except for a few used plates and cups on a couple of tables), where we proceeded to wait without any sign of even being given a menu for 15 minutes!! There were plenty of staff busying themselves attending to the shop and goodness knows what else. There were even some who looked like they weren’t doing anything at certain points. It was weird, as if we’d been forgotten, even though we were in plain view. A French couple walked in after we’d been waiting a while and sat down. After they’d waited for about two minutes they got up to leave! At this point we were separately coming to the same conclusion, so there were 5 of us who walked out at the same time, with Dad saying a rather loud “Pas de service, Monsieur?” on the way out! So we went somewhere else and were definitely ready for a drink and a bite to eat by the time we got there. Afterwards, Mum and I carried on with the boots search (and were successful, returning to the very first shop for Mum!) and Dad had a wander round elsewhere. In the evening we had a meal out which was lovely. Mum and Dad ate mussels and chips and I ate roast duck with chips and salad.

On Wednesday mid-morning we went to the local market. We all like going to the French markets but Dad loves them. We bought a roast chicken for lunch and the roast chicken man asked if we wanted a loyalty card for his stand...I thought this was quite funny - to have a loyalty card for one little stand - but it makes sense, as he’s not the only man who sells roast chickens! In the afternoon I had my French class and Mum and Dad occupied themselves. Afterwards I met up with them for a light meal and we popped to the supermarket, then back to the hotel for their suitcases before going to wait for the train in a freezing cold station!

I had such a great time with them. It was good to chat about so many things and for them to get a better picture of where I am and what I’m doing. Their visit made me miss England and my family and friends more, but that’s something that can’t be helped I think.

Thank you for the post and electronic messages you’ve been sending recently, I really appreciate them and feel very loved!

Back soon with post-holiday tales,
Fiona x