Season's greetings to you, friends and family!
Gosh I love this time of year where you get to wish people a 'Merry Christmas'! Gives me a smile every time! And now we are back in England we can do it in a language that we know for sure the person we're talking to understands! Though it was a bit of a strange sensation to arrive at St Pancras station in London after catching the eurostar from Paris- we have been in non English speaking countries for 2 months, struggling valiantly with trying to speak French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch and Czech (epic fail when it came to Czech) so once we handed our tickets to the English conducted I froze and couldn't remember what language to greet him in, and Adam burst forth with his very best 'merci, au revior'! ahhh travelling.....plays havoc with your mind!
But back in the UK we are after a lovely lovely week in Paris. Eurodisney continued to be fabulous- my birthday was great from start to finish and once we returned the day after to the city we had a few days of the most beautiful weather for sightseeing and general wandering. We were a bit loath to return to England, being as the continent had been so good to us- and we very nearly missed our train to be honest! We arrived at the station with plenty of time with our e-ticket in hand, and then thought, since we had so much time before we departed that we would have a coffee and people watch. As the minutes ticked down towards our departure time I thought it a little odd there was no sign telling us which platform to depart from, nor were there any PA announcements etc but didn't think too much further into it.....then discovered- much to our dismay that when catching the eurostar from paris to london you have to clear security and customs- exactly like at the airport! And here we were sipping coffee and wasting valuable time! So we RAN with our packs (thanks ponch and ange!), filled out immigration cards like the speed of light, then of course set off EVERY metal detector known to man (why, oh why is it always when you are in a rush?) so after a friendly frisk and pat down we zoomed toward the duty free area- only to be questioned by the custom officials as to the nature of our relationship- they didn't want to accept 'dating' as a nature- they wanted us classified as 'family' or 'friends' which stumped me a little- i set forth explaining that we have been dating for 6 years and now travelling together but no, not married or engaged, but definately more than friends etc etc..... (oh yeah- all this explained in a combination of English and my VERY poor high school french - what a hoot!) anyway, long story short (or shorter) we ran for the platform and found our seats a good 2-3 minutes before leaving the station - what a rush!
And now it's back to the charms of England, and the very exciting countdown to Christmas. We are in Devon at the moment visiting friends but will zoom northward today and hang out in Oxford until Christmas where - joy- they are forcasting a white christmas!! Hurrah! Fingers and toes and all else crossed!
Hope the lead up to your christmases is stress free and enjoyable
until the next post
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
love
Lauren the lightfoot and Adam the astronomical clock
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