To distract myself some more, and to satisfy some meaty cravings, I had a lovely lunch in the winter sunshine, after which I played with a soft pug with a muzzle of wet charcoal called Freddie.

I haven’t been to Paris since I was a student and never with A. It’s the bother of getting a schengen visa. Though we have been eligible for British citizenship for some time we have not applied for it. Having a British passport would make taking the train across the channel so much easier. Another reason for not going there for so long, for me at least, has been the fear of racism.

I don’t encounter racism everyday in England, it is every now and then, but when one goes on holiday, one wants to be 100% sure that such things will not happen. Paris has always welcomed me with open arms and I’ve loved my times there. But it has not been so kind to others and A, having had a bad experience in France as a boy with his family, didn’t really look forward to returning for a holiday, though he visited R1 there while she was a student. So on our holidays so far we have tended to go outside of Europe, save for a very short trip to Spain, quite a few years ago.

I’m really looking forward to this trip. When I was alone in Paris all those years ago I thought that I had to come back with A some day since it was such a romantic city-every cliche about it is true. I sent him a series of postcards from the Rodin museum, each one showing sculptures of lovers entwined…!

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