A Lady in London

When I was a child my favorite musical was Into the Woods. The plot borrowed elements from a number of Brothers Grimm fairy tales, while the cast was plucked from stories like Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel. Stir it all together, add an enchanted forest, and you have yourself several hours of entertainment.

I bring up this particular musical not because I saw it, but because I actually experienced it. My boyfriend and I spent Sunday afternoon in the New Forest, a National Park about two hours south of London.I spent Sunday afternoon in the New Forest, a National Park about two hours south of London. We were expecting to spend the day walking through the trees and admiring the fall colors, but instead we found ourselves thrown into the mix of a strange and enchanting fairy tale.

In the opening scene, we arrived in the town of Lyndhurst. With its quaint clutch of thatched-roofed cottages and its tiny historic high street, Lyndhurst was straight out of Hansel and Gretel.

It was noon and we were hungry, so we found a place in town where we could get some lunch. When we walked in, I noticed a girl sitting at a table in the back corner sipping a cup of tea. The strange thing was that she was dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

Before I had time to wonder why a Disney character was sitting in the restaurant, the Little Mermaid walked up and asked if she could seat us. Suddenly Tinkerbell floated up from behind the counter, followed shortly by Pocahontas. Minnie and Mickey Mouse served our food while Captain Jack Sparrow took orders. Bizarre.

The enchanted New Forest had more on offer than just Disney protagonists, though. In the second scene we took a two hour walk through the woods. We spotted a huge group of deer and a frolicking herd of wild ponies, all of which were plucked right out of a scene from Fantasia.

As the scene continued, the holly trees showed off their bright red berries while parasitic ivy wound a cage of vines around almost every tree in the woods. If not for the plethora of North Face-clad walkers in our midst, I might have thought we were on the set of Little Red Riding Hood.

In the next scene, we stopped quickly in Brockenhurst on our way to the lovely village of Beaulieu. The place was complete with a huge old stately home, quaint historic buildings, and a beautiful lake full of birds. Overcome by an enchanted spell, my boyfriend chased after a pheasant with the same fervour displayed by The Little Mermaid‘s Louis the chef as he ran after Sebastian the crab.

In the closing scene, the afternoon sky darkened and the rain began to pour. Feeling like we were under Maleficent’s curse from Sleeping Beauty, we drove out of the enchanted New Forest as quickly as we could. As soon as we were outside the boundaries of the park, the curtain of rain mysteriously closed behind us, ending the production and leaving the cast from our fairy tale day in the woods behind.