Allez-go again!

My week ended sadly with the departure of Marta who, contract finished, left us to return to Spain. We're really going to miss her and it signifies the start of the end of everyone's time in France, with me being the next to go, in a mere 3 weeks. On the plus side, it's been wonderful meeting people from around the world and knowing that if I ever want to visit Spain I have a guide waiting for me! Fortunately Miguel and I had a busy weekend to look forward to!

There was lots more "allez-going" this weekend as we went to London on a trip with a group of 25 the French people from the foyer. For a lot of them it was their first time abroad and many more had never been in an aeroplane, so it was fun to be observing them discover new things. The trip was eventful right from the start as 2 were nearly prevented from leaving by border control, one for an absolutely battered ID card and the other for an unresolved criminal record (you wonder the type of people I live with!). But we safely made it to London and found the youthhostel no problem.

The French are obsessed with the fairytale concept of a British pub so we headed straight out to sample the London nightlife. Fortunately there were some decent pubs in the area so they were not disappointed, although they were highly surprised that last orders was at 11pm and that clubs may shut as early as 2am. It certainly took me some time to get used to the later hours here! There were a lot of merry revellers around and I think they were a bit taken a back by this too, La Roche is just so quiet and many have hardly left the area, so London on a Friday night was a completely new experiece for them.

On Saturday we were up early and ready for a day of sight-seeing and in typically French style they were utterly disorganised in what we were going to do, the attitude was one of "we're here in London, now where is everything!". Luckily I had anticipated this so, although not knowing that much about London, I'd done my research and was able to lead the troops around! I felt rather like an official tour guide, the only thing missing was an umbrella for them to follow. I even impressed myself with the knowledge I was able to bring out to tell them, it's amazing the things you subconsciously know, but never actually have to se, chiefly because you never expect to be leading a group of foreigners across London! At the end of the week they gave me all of their loose change, the reason being that you can only swap notes back to euros, but it felt more as though they were tipping me for my work!

Speaking of coins it was very funny to see them all trying to master pounds and pence, most of them have never seen them before, even those who have been abroad usually stay within the Eurozone. What's more, and something that I'd never noticed before, is that pounds and the new coins don't actually have their value written in figures on them, only in words. So they found this really difficult and added to the fact that the size of the coin has no relation at all to its value, paying in shops took quite some time!

So we I marched them round all of the main sights on Saturday: London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Harrods (where we saw Chelsea ex-coach Scolari!!), Picadilly and finally Oxford Street! Cameras were permanently out and hundreds of photos taken, I however, took 6 throughout the whole weekend, and all of non London related things!!! We took a lot of busses as they are enchanted by their colour, the adverts and of course, the top deck! Almost every time one went past (roughly every 2 minutes!) someone took a picture! They also loved the taxis and were bemused by their shape and that they're all identicle.

On the whole I think that they loved sightseeing and it was great to see the things that they found interesting. They were fascinated by the guards at Buckingham Palace, it was a shame that there was no changing of the guard, as I'm sure that would have been a spectatcle they would have loved. The flag was flying at Buckingham, so they made many jokes about her waiting to have a cup of tea with them, and I can't count the number of times they did a queen-like wave during the day!

When we arrived at Oxford Street we dispersed for some shopping. As I knew they were all on a tight budget and were keen to do some clothes shopping I figured Primark was a good choice and went there with my group. They were liked the prices (obviously!), but were utterly overwhelmed by its chaos, its nothing like the pristine French shops, where everything is neatly folded and there are assistants to greet you and respond to your every need.

We also spent a lot of time in the "tourist tack shops" that I have never been into before and hadn't really considered that this is the stuff that tourists, like them, really LOVE!! I think that every single member of our group bought a t shirt with "I love London" written on it and that was just the start. You can buy the most ridiculous things there. I knew that Marta loved hearing "mind the gap" at the station, but I didn't realise what an international phenomenum it is, you can buy everything from mugs to t-shirts with it written on! Crazy!

That evening once our feet had recovered from all the walking we went into the city centre to discover the nightlife a bit. What with it being Saturday night, it was busy and they really were amazed by how London comes even more alive by night. Compared to Paris, let alone La Roche, it's quite impressive. I think they were also not expecting quite such an onslaught of British culture. They were, as the teachers at school had been, awed by the clothes of revellers (above all the mini skirts and severe lack of coats!) and the general merriment spilling out of pubs into the streets.

The next day we headed up to Camden Market, which they thoroughly enjoyed, the crazy clothing being right up their street! We passed the morning browsing the stands and then enjoyed a very good, proper British Sunday lunch in a pub, the hearty beef and ale pies went down very well! An example of British food really not being as bad as they thought it would be!

As we would be travelling for most of the afternoon and evening, it was thought that it would be a good idea to pop to Tescos and stock up on things to picnic on for the return journey. We found a Tesco metro and were told that we were each allowed to spend 7 pounds on food (it was a prepaid trip, everything included, so this was what was left per person from the budget). It was absolute bedlam! Imagine a small Tesco metro, 25 French people and baskets grabbing everything and anything off the shelves! It was like supermarket sweep, the staff had never seen anything like it and we cleared them out of a lot of things, including their complete range of croissants!!! I was in high demand as, of course, not speaking English, most had no idea what half the things were so there was a lot of noise and excitement! And this was before we even made it to the tills! Explaining to the checkout staff (whose English was also very limited) that all 25 of us were having our food paid for by Cécile and thus had to go on the same receipt was a challenge and the staff were in disbelief as our tab went well over 100 pounds, being a Tesco metro I don't think they've ever had anyone spend so much there! We had bags and bags full of things and everyone was very content with their purchases, especially me, I got some great deals on yummy food to take back with me: party rings, ginger beer, chocolate digestives, yummy!

We safely got to the station on time and our return journey by Eurostar was thankfully smooth and uneventful. I think everyone had a great weekend and I especially enjoyed seeing them discover London. What was funny was being in London, but continuing to speak French, I just couldn't speak English and often said pardon to people. At one point in the Tesco I accidentally spoke French to the poor checkout girl and that confused her even more! Another interesting observation was that the French do as many British foreigners do if misunderstood: repeat again in French, but just much louder! It never helped and I think that they were glad of my presence to translate!

So I'm now back in La Roche and looking forward to seeing just how many photos of red double decker busses have been taken!