HELEN FRYER is a student from Covingham who is spending a year in the French city of Lille, working at the Pasteur Institute. Helen, 21, is a student at Keele University, where she is studying French and Biology.

LAST Saturday, I visited Arras, about an hour from here by train. It's classified, with Reims and Verdun, as "une ville martyre", since 95 per cent of its houses were damaged by the German artillery during World War I.

Now the restored 18th century facades seem almost to glow with pleasure in the autumn sun.

In the mornings, all the town squares are taken over by the market, where you can buy anything from skinned rabbits to second-hand books.

I got my Granny some homemade jam and then wandered off to the bus station looking for a bus to the Vimy Ridge battlefield.

There I met a Canadian backpacker who had lost a relative to his wounds from Vimy, so we went to find it together. Thousands of Canadians fought at Vimy during the Great War, so the land has been given to them and a stupendous white memorial built, surrounded by the original trenches.

My new mate hadn't spoken to anyone for three days since he spoke no French, so he was in the mood for deep conversations about life, the universe and everything. He talked, I listened, but he was very sweet.

That evening, I went to a party with a Thai friend we danced stupidly with a lot of random people. One of her friends invited us and some others to his flat to continue the party. It took an hour to walk there since the Metro was closed, so we ended up flopping on his sofa and falling asleep.

There wasn't a single French person there but we all chatted away in French anyway have you ever heard it spoken in a Thai accent? Most peculiar.