Travel with us

Sunday, 5 August 2012

Paris, je t'aime

It's been a while; thanks for hanging in there.

Last weekend it was my birthday and, as one does when you live in London, we decided to travel to Paris for the weekend. It's been a childhood dream to go to Paris. I've learned about it since I was about 8 and had visions of a little apartment with window boxes, croissants and coffee for breakfast, lunch at the Jardin des Tuileries, views from the top of the Notre Dame cathedral, and shopping in the Marais. It was every bit as beautiful as I had imagined.

We arrived on the Eurostar on Friday to a sunny, hot Paris and headed to lunch at a classic Parisian bistrot with a singing waiter and lots of Parisians sitting in the sun with a cigarette in one hand and their lunchtime glass of wine in the other. The food was delicious, and was a sign of good things to come. We spent the afternoon wandering the suburbs and eventually ended up at the Musee d'Orsay which has a huge collection of impressionists and post-impressioninsts in an old railway station - and is my new favourite museum. I could have spent all day there amongst the paintings by Corrot, Millet, Sisley, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Monet. They were so evocative of life in the France in the late 19th century.

The other museum we visited was the Musee Rodin, a somewhat dilapidated but spectacular 18th century mansion where Rodin lived for a time, and created his beautiful sculptures. Rodin left the building to the French government to be a museum dedicated to his work upon his death. The gardens were contained several of Rodin's larger bronze works, including "The Thinker".

One morning, we decided to brave the queues and head up to the top of the Notre Dame for the views of central Paris. Somehow, I think this was a better option that the thousands upon thousands of tourists heading up the Tour Eiffel. Paris has such a beautiful skyline, and is particularly beautiful from the Notre Dame with the River Seine snaking though the city. Victor Hugo has done a wonderful job of immortalising Notre Dame with it's huge bourbon bell (called Emmanuel) and other-worldly gargoyles.

Paris is an intoxicating mix of old world charm and gritty, new elements. If anyone has seen Exit Through the Giftshop, the film about Banksey, you will recognise the space invaders below, which we found in Montmartre and the Marais. And although we didn't go into the Pomidou Centre, the outside of the building was enough to make us want to come back for a visit. Which is what we will have to do. Three days just wasn't enough to see everything. I have fallen in love with Paris.

Outside the Louvre

Classic French Brasserie

My dinner date

From the top of Notre Dame

Looking East from Notre Dame

Inside the Cathedral

Notre Dame

The Hotel de Ville

Lunch at the Jardin des Tuilleries

At the Jardin des Tuilleries

Musee d'Orsay

River Seine

Musee Rodin

At the Musee Rodin

The Thinker

At the Musee Rodin

At another delicious Brasserie

Space Invaders!

Outside the Pompidou Centre of Modern Art

Parisian street art

In Montmartre

Sacre Coeur at Montmartre

Place des Vosges

Sunday, 17 June 2012

London's calling

Jubilee celebration bunting

I've been sitting in front of my laptop for an hour trying to work on some lawyerly things but that's hard to do with The Clash's "London's Calling" in your head. I think it was a sign to finally put up some pictures of our day trips around this crazy city.

We've been here two months now. It's been a blink and you miss it kind of time; busy, exciting, and unsettling and I think i'm the better for it. Whilst we haven't seen a lot yet (something I do plan to change), what we have seen so far has been wonderful.

Here are a few pictures of our new home (at least for the next few years). The pictures are all a bit grey, which i'm afraid reflects the weather we've had for most of our time here so far. I wonder how the trees know that it's summer when the sun isn't out and it's not very warm. How do they know it's time to grow leaves and be green again? I'm sure they must do it grudgingly in Britain - as if they know they have to but they want you to know they're not happy about it. Anyways, if it continues to be gloomy, all is not lost. We are off to Paris in 6 weeks, the Amalfi Coast in Italy in 3 months, then Spain for a family wedding soon after. Life is good.

x

Tower Bridge

Jubilee photo overlooking the Thames

Just a flash of red telephone box

St Paul's - I can hear the bells as I leave for work some nights - amazing

Big Ben

Memorial to the men and women who fought during the Battle of Britain

Natural History Museum

Entrance to the Natural History Museum

Trafalgar Square

Beefeater outside St James' Palace

Buckingham Palace

The new Supreme Court

Westminster Abbey (not to be confused with Westminster Cathedral)

The double-decker off to Clapham Common

Outside the Houses of Parliament, Westminster

Thanks, Emmeline Pankhurst!

The Globe theatre - i haven't yet found the CGHS plaque but I will...

Borough market

Rabbit for lunch anyone? At Borough market

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Is there a lion in the meadow?

The beautiful King's college in Cambridge

It's been a while... sorry about that. In between travels around England and working now, I haven't made any time to write about what we've been up to. So, this is a condensed version of our travels since Canterbury - Manchester, Cambridge and Bath.

I'll start with Manchester, which was a fleeting visit to see Jerry Seinfeld live with good friends, Mike and Kristen. Seinfeld was hilarious, and if you get the chance is definitely worth going to see. Even if you know nothing about Manchester's past, it is unmistakably an old industrial city. It feels grittier, with a bit more utility about it. We explored the city centre on the Saturday and wandered around the Museum of Science and Industry, which is a great museum with loads of information about Manchester's industrial past, especially the textile mills and steam engines. Sunday was the Old Trafford trip for Mike and Hamish - very red. I'm surprised a Liverpool and an Arsenal fan were seen dead there, but there you go - it's all about the love of the game apparently. We made a hasty exit from Manchester when the Red Devils ceded the title to their cross-city neighbours in the final game of the Premier League, with Man City taking the lead over QPR in the final minutes of extra time to beat Manchester United on points for the top of the table spot. The streets teamed with people - many of them without their pants on and unable to walk straight. Pretty funny stuff.

Our next trip was to Cambridge to see Emma and Nick - Emma is completing her PhD at Cambridge so took us on a great tour of all the beautiful colleges, including the college she studies at. Nick, on the other hand, took us to a beer festival on Saturday afternoon. The sun was shining, it was hot and Hamish was in the mood to try some proper British ales. When all the beer had run out and the festival was closing, Emma and I headed home and Hamish and Nick headed out to the pub... until it closed too. Good times. The following morning we were off to Granchester and The Orchard, home for a time to Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, Rupert Brooke and E.M. Forster. It was a beautiful spot, and the walk there was just as delightful. It reminded me of the Margaret Mahy book 'A Lion in the Meadow'. We drank Pimm's by the river, had lemonade and scones under the blossom trees at The Orchard and enjoyed another day of amazing sunshine. Nick and Em were amazing hosts and we are looking forward to our next trip!

This last weekend, Queen's birthday weekend, I'm rather ashamed to admit we fled the festivities of London for Bath. But, I'm pleased we did. Bath was like something out of a film set - in fact, I think Vanity Fair was filmed in one of the gorgeous old Georgian streets. The old Roman baths are the best preserved Roman baths anywhere in the world and are really evocative to visit. We had amazing food, wandered through the most delightful streets, took a boat up the river to see the surrounding English countryside and generally relaxed before Hamish's first day back at work this week.

x