The England of France

As I write this, I am sitting in my tiny room, wrapped from head to toe in whatever blankets, sweatshirts, scarves and hats I could find. To be honest, I've got a scarf wrapped around my face, and a hat pulled down so far over my forehead, it is a bit hard to see the computer. So please excuse the typo's!
As my friend Naoma (catch her blog here )and I have been discussing, Picardie is truly the 'England of France'. ie. That it is cold, wet and windy most of the time. However, today is truly special.

Today is the first day I feel like my fingers are going to freeze off the second I go outside. I can truly tell that winter is coming.
It seems a bit strange, it feels like only yesterday I was dealing with suffocating heat of Boston during the summer, and now I am shivering indoors, while I watch the sky absolutly chuck it down outdoors. Not much of a transition. The last time I was this cold I was in Raon L'Etape, huddling under all of Emily's blankets for warmth.

This makes me a bit jealous of all of my friends who are living towards the south of France, towards Lyon. One of my friends said 'Oh it was great, we were sitting by the river last night drinking wine until 5 in the morning, and no one had to wear a jacket.' Another friend said 'Oh, it is a bit coldish here'. First of all, if anyone in Amiens were to go by the river and drink wine this time of year, not only would you be covered from head to toe in some sort of warm fabric, you probably would not be drinking the wine, as it had probably frozen by the time you got to the riverside. Oh I long for the days of 'coldish'.

However, this weather reminds me that Christmas...and my family are on their way! I have quite a few adventures coming up...First, in a couple of weeks, I am taking a weekend break from the cold, and heading down to Lyon to see one of my other English besties, Jemma. A few girly nights and some sightseeing should be good fun. Then, a few weeks after that, I am headed to Raon L'Etape (to freeze my butt off again!)and to see Emily. We are going to Strasbourg to see the legendary Christmas market! Finally, when winter holidays roll around, I will make my way to Belgium, where I will be spending Christmas with the family. We will be making a bit of a tour of Bruges, Bruxelles, and coming back here to Amiens, so they can catch the spectacular light show at the cathedral, and see 'my town'.

So, long story short, as much as cold weather sucks, it reminds me that there are definitely good things to come!