ON a crowded Tube train yesterday evening ...

...a kind young lady offered me a seat. We got chatting, and her accent revealed her to be French. We started to talk in that language  (haltingly, on my part - haven't used French since last visit a couple of summers ago)  - and she suggested that I might be interested in the lectures held by a group of French academics in London, which she attended regularly.  The next  happened to be on Saturday, and on the subject of the Hugenots: would I like to join her there?  I gave her my email and she promised to send the information to me:  I didn't think I would follow it up but when the email arrived, it  sounded interesting so I thought I would go.

The lecture was at More House, in South Kensington...the name was immediately familiar to me as a  Catholic chaplaincy residence  for the University of London. The French group meeting there has no Catholic connection - but More House is near the French Consulate, and the Lycee, and so it's  a convenient place. The room - under the solemn gaze of Thomas More, a large bust of whom stood by the door - was packed, and I squeezed into the last available seat. I couldn't see my kind Tube passenger. The lecture was fascinating - the Hugenot story is a grim one, but there  are many fascinating aspects including John Henry Newman's Hugenot  ancestry, a subject that I have actually coincidentally been researching...

When it came to questions and discussion, I  explained how I had come to be there....but the young lady from the Tube was not present! Much amusement. "Un ange, Certainement!"  I've now been warmly invited to attend future lectures.

On arrival home, I emailed my Tube friend...and have just had a cheery email back: at the last moment she had been unable to make it to the lecture. But some day we'll meet up....

Sometimes London feels like a sort of village...