LesBellansOfLondon

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope 2019 was a wonderful year for all of you.

in 2019, Thomas (now 21) & alice (now 19) continued with their students’ lives in CAnterbury and EXETER, both moving homes and sharing houses with new friends. WE are getting used to having them visit from time to time…and It is great to have them both for christmas in london. AS PART OF EXETER MEDiCINE PROGRAMME, Alice will do her years 3 and 4 in Truro, so we expect to explore cornwall next year.

LAurent is in his 7th year leading Eurostar information technology. EUrostar & thalys have just announced their merge, and we fully expect some changes in 2020, although the shape of the future combined organisation is still unclear. I am in my second year at amazon, still going through a steep learning curve discovering the retail business, and having changed roles already twice in my short tenure. I am debating wether I like my new gig or noT. I am fully aware that i would be unlikely to learn so much about the Amazon play book and dive so deep in data and customer insights elsewhere, which make my journey worthwhile. I now lead consumer electronics & entertainment media, having (Sadly) dropped books from my portfolio following some internal changes.

WITH my co-founder stephanie, we are getting our impact project ellpha off the ground, and we made huge progress in 2019, building our prototype, expanding our network of supporters and reach, and recruiting our first client. we have just created a uk branch to serve uk clients and on-board local investors.

In 2019, we have kept on exploring the world and we have travelled, together or separately, to BArbados, munich, budapest, georgia, seville, croatia, bordeaux and the amalfi coast, in addition to visiting our families in france. we love travelling, but we have decided to be thoughtful about our carbon footprint; in 2020 will offset our flights carbon footprint through impact projects, and we will also take more trains and sailing boats…

This year, we also have been continuing to learn and build new skills; thomas is perfecting his cooking and has created a few signature dishes, usually spicy and of asian inspiration; alice and I did a glorious one week creative writing course at Cambridge university in august, and Laurent, Alice and I took our RYA sailing competent crew course this summer in Croatia, which we ALL loved and inspired us to continue our rya training to become skippers in the future.

WE are grateful that my parents’ and Laurent’s mum, in spite of a few health issues in 2019, are still going strong, respectively in the alps and in provence, and to have all you, family and friends, sharing our journey, in europe, the uk, the us, canada and asia.

we wish you all a very happy 2020.

The bellans’ of london.

Laurent, Brigitte, Thomas & ALice