On occasions of expressing my delight in discovering the opportunity to speak, read, watch or shop in English in Lille, I get one of two responses. From those who have never lived in a country foreign to their own and in which a different language is spoken to their native tongue, they can barely stop the rolling of the eyes. In their mind if they were given the opportunity to live in a different culture they would immerse themselves 100%, they would recoil from anything familiar and embrace in every moment everything new and foreign. For those that have lived, not travelled, but lived in a foreign speaking country the empathy is palpable, they know that immersion is exhausting without respite. So while most days I cant believe my luck and today as my bike bounced along the cobblestones and my baguette and bottle of Bordeaux threatened to escape my panniers I was painfully aware of just how much I’m going to miss France when the time comes to leave. But other days it is relaxing and very much needed to be in the apartment with a cup of tea and some vegemite on toast listening to Radio National or reading The Age online or watching Claudia Karvan in the fabulous Love My Way on DVD and being totally oblivious to being anywhere foreign at all.