The ten days we spent in France were very intense. Even though we were only able to watch three days of filming quite short scenes I'm sure we all have fond memories to look back to.
The first day was quite disappointing as we figured out the actors will only arrive a week later. There weren't many people yet (I suppose most people knew about them arriving late) so I thought it'd be easy to hand over my book. Getting the news they weren't there yet was frustrating. So we waited impatiently in the hotel on Friday, in Compiegne's center on Saturday and then again another day in the hotel on Sunday.
Sunday morning we sat down in front of a hotel joking about the cast and/or crew staying there. I wanted to stay seated for the bench was near a beautiful river, but my husband dragged me back to our hotel. Later I found out through another fan that some of the crew/cast arrived there just on Sunday. It'd have been fun seeing them arrive and a welcome contrast to the boring white walls of the hotel and French TV we didn't understand... but oh well...
Monday, full of hopes we went to Pierrefonds again - only to figure out the crew was just preparing the set and we couldn't see a thing of it for the castle was closed.
Well, the time of waiting was good for getting used to the places and correcting a few mistakes in the book, but other than that it was torture. An expensive one on top of that.
Of course Tuesday when they arrived had to be accompanied by awful weather which wasn't exactly helpful for the short dress I was going to wear. I had to wear the long one with tights to not be cold. I felt it made me look weird so I was uncomfortable. Naturally, even though I had a jacket with me everyday I didn't on Tuesday. I was freezing cold and lucky I didn't get ill.
We were waiting in front of the castle for some of the cast to arrive/leave. The first one we saw was Eoin who was leaving the castle, the second was Angel getting inside. She received a gift, but it was carried away for it'd probably be in the way while filming.
I then hoped Colin would get out of the castle so perhaps he'd at least take a short look at my gift while he was in the car. Then again it wouldn't matter as long as he'd get it.
There were so many fans literally crazy about Colin Morgan - I didn't even think I'd ever have a chance to give the book to him. When another fan told me he was getting out of the castle I was startled.
My heart started racing but I tried to stay calm. My head was just repeating "Now or Never! Now or Never!" So when he was close I stepped to the front and said "Hi, I have a gift for you."
The poor guy had his hands full and I was so worried about giving him yet another thing to carry. But he turned to me, grinned widely and said "Oh, thank you very much!" while taking it. I was extremely surprised for the biggest thing I expected was a "Thanks." without looking at me.
There he was, this sweet man, with his hands full even giving me a heart-warming smile while I was bothering him. When my role model was smiling I had to grin as well. Hell, I was overjoyed! As soon as he turned away I gave free rein to my happiness. I had only two weeks to translate the main pillars of my story from German to English. At that time my parents announced their divorce, my grandmother had a stroke and lots of other stressful things pulled me down. I've literally spent my last money on it. But you know what?
When he smiled I had forgotten all of it. My gratitude is endless.
I don't know if he'll ever get to / want to read it or if I'll hear from him. But I don't expect it. Of course, it'd be my greatest dream come true, but facing reality this looks unlikely. I just know that, as an actress-to-be he'll always be my role model. And he was my inspiration for a character. There's no way I could've written this character if it weren't for being able to picture Colin's amazing performance of emotions. I'm telling you he's the best and most versatile actor I've seen in a long time. Especially among the ones his age. I feel very honoured to have stood in his presence and even more to have received a smile from him.
The next days have been awesome. I've gotten to meet many interesting fans of Merlin. Among them Mariella, Isolde, Lucie and her aunt, Ricarda, Irene and her mother... just to name a few! Thank you for all the laughs that we shared and awkward autograph hunts we went on. It led me to taking a picture with Richard Wilson ^^ Thanks Lucie, for your enthusiasm! Also thank you Mariella and Isolde for the nice comments on my book.
Richard Wilson by the way is a very polite and charming man. Even though we were bothering him he'd ask us questions, smile widely and shake our hands when saying goodbye. Thank you, Mr. Wilson!
We had a great time in France and we're sad it's over. The only thing I regret is not getting an autograph from Colin and that we didn't see Katie.
Well, at least I got a smile I'll never forget ^^
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