He looked at me and his mouth twitched a little.
‘Hardly.’
Well, not much chance of witty, excited traveller’s conversation to be had with him, I guessed.
I took a couple of sneaky looks at him. He was quite nice looking actually, or he would have been if he hadn’t had such a cross expression. I shifted away slightly to show I wasn’t bothered and looked out of the window. I hoped I wouldn’t need the loo any time soon, otherwise I would have to ask him to move, and he didn’t look the moveable type. I was already beginning to regret the coffee I’d had at the station.
Across the aisle a girl was clutching a massive, insulated water flask and sucking at the straw. You wait until you’re my age, I thought, you won’t be so keen to keep hydrated then.
Even when we were getting close to the Channel Tunnel the man next to me didn’t stop typing. Occasionally he looked thoughtful and rubbed one hand through his grey hair, which was quite thick.
I tried to sneak a look at what he was doing, leaning towards him slightly. It was a report, something about customer experience and travel delays, and then – aware of me and my inquisitive stare – he shifted his screen a bit so I couldn’t see.
Opposite me, Anna had been convincing Harriet that she had definitely turned off her cooker and reassuring herself that Rupert had more than enough ready meals in the freezer, then they noticed what he did and both pulled faces at me. I rolled my eyes and looked back out of the window, looking forward to catching a first sight of France.
My phone buzzed with a text from my son.
Ben
When are you home?
I’m nearly out of milk.
Me
Then you’d better buy some more.
All my travel details are on the fridge door. I’m on my way to France. Remember?
Honestly, he was old enough to have an ex-partner, a good job and a fancy car; surely this sort of thing wasn’t beyond him?
Perhaps I had been overprotective of him. I didn’t consider myself a helicopter parent, but maybe he needed some time on his own too, time to grow up and sort all his stuff out just as I did. This was a positive step for both of us, and maybe he would begin to see me as a fully formed adult too, not just his mother.
We passed houses and building sites and at last went into the long darkness of the Channel Tunnel and I think we all tried not to visualise the millions of tons of rock and water above us.
When we got off in Paris, the man collected his belongings, storing everything into a rather stylish suitcase on wheels – so he wasn’t travelling light either – and darted off to be lost in the crowds.
* * *
We spent that night in a very modern, characterless but perfectly acceptable hotel near the Gard de Nord railway station. There were three single beds, a bathroom with plenty of space and breakfast included. It was the first time I had shared a bedroom with someone for nearly eight years and it felt very strange.
‘It was nothing like this last time,’ Anna said the following morning as we went downstairs to the breakfast area. ‘Last time we slept in a rather disgusting place and there were police sirens wailing outside all night.’
Interesting, this also didn’t fit in with the sunny, fun-filled expedition I had imagined all those years ago.
‘I remember,’ Harriet said, ‘and Paul got horribly drunk in the rooftop bar. We went to see Montmartre and he had to stay behind in the hotel that day to sleep it off. Such a waste.’
‘Well, we won’t be doing that today,’ I said, checking my copy of the paperwork yet again, although by then I had looked at it so often I should have known it by heart. ‘We have only got a few hours for some sightseeing before we get to the Gare Austerlitz this evening. Just think, this time tomorrow we will be in Nice!’
‘We could get a taxi to the station?’ Harriet said.
‘Did we do that last time?’ Anna said. ‘No, we didn’t, and you know, if we are trying to recreate the whole experience of being in Paris with hardly any money, shouldn’t we do some walking?’
Harriet rolled her eyes. ‘Well, I didn’t promise that bit, and anyway, we couldn’t afford it then, but we’re a bit older now. Think of my poor knee.’
‘If you can drag me around the Bicester Outlet shops looking for the perfect white T-shirt for two hours, then you can manage an hour walking through Paris,’ Anna replied. ‘And we can stop off along the way to look at things and get refreshments.’
‘Oh, okay then,’ Harriet said, mollified, ‘if you promise. As long as it doesn’t turn into one of your forced route marches.’
