Muggles in a magical world~
WARNING: many Harry Potter references and possible movie spoilers in this entry…
Mais oui, I am in love with France and French. However, please allow me a momentary digression (just as I allowed myself one) into the world of owls that deliver mail, broomsticks that fly, and a language that sounds a bit like my native tongue but that is at times more difficult to understand than French. With that, we arrive at my weekend in London, specifically to see the newly released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, more generally to experience the city.
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| Christmas already... |
First impression: London prepares early for Christmas, and the Tube is particularly difficult to navigate, especially compared to our two way, one track métro in Rennes. Sometimes first impressions are correct. London already was decorated (this was the 19th of November), Christmas lights illuminating the streets at night, and Christmas trees gracing nearly every restaurant and coffee shop with their presence. Next to the Tower of London (quite the entertaining, if rather gruesome, site to visit with a beefeater as a guide), we found a man selling roasted nuts…and a Starbucks that was already offering its seasonal Christmas drinks. The Tube, however was one of the more annoying yet funnier parts of the weekend. The first morning, full of big ideas, we stepped onto a train with the best-laid plans. Wondering why we stopped for so long at the first station we came to, we considered getting off but then decided that we were just used to the French metro, which must be more efficient. Little did we know that London is doing construction on several lines, thus the rest of that particular one was closed. You guessed it: our train took us right back to where we started. We were more careful from then on, but the closures meant the crowds were at times horrendous. We waited through about 5 trains at Picadilly Circus (the theatre district) just to squeeze on one before going to the musical, Oliver (much better with a real British accent than an imitated one). The last morning, full from the lovely breakfast of eggs, sausage, tomatoes, potatoes, tea, toast, jam, and cheese provided by our hotel, we took a turn around the London eye, regretfully viewing all of the sites that we had not had enough time to visit. I have a feeling we will both make it back there someday.
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| HARRY POTTER!!! |
To conclude with that which governed our weekend, Katie (my fellow fan and trip companion) and I began our journey into Harry’s world on the airport shuttle, which was of course the Knight Bus taking us to Diagon Alley. Arriving at a proper looking neighborhood with particularly well-manicured lawns still relatively far from London proper, we realized that we were “on Privet Drive,” and there kept an eye out for Harry around every corner. We saw an illustration of a phoenix that bore a strong resemblance to Fawkes and finished with a stop at platform 9 ¾ . We did all of that without forgetting to take an emotional ride through the first half of J.K. Rowling’s final novel. It is now my favorite of the Harry Potter movies, being more authentic to the novel and the real world than the others and including the mature acting of the well-seasoned trio, Harry, Ron and Hermione. However, after sobbing at the death of Moody, Ron’s abandonment of Harry and Hermione, and the death of Dobby, we were very ready for some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, conveniently sold inside the theatre itself.
At the end of the weekend, we were ready to be back “chez nous,” even though we only had had a taste of London. Stepping off the airplane in Paris, we looked at each other and exclaimed: “Le français?!!!” Back to the wonderful and magical world of immersion…
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