Day Nine - London - April 2023

Today we finally went underground and took the Tube to Holborn Station for a ticket pick-up and Covent Garden visit. We had lunch at Wagamama where I managed to spill curry on my shirt and had to keep it covered for the remainder of the day. We stopped for a quick  self-guided tour of the crowded National Gallery. Vermeer was AWOL! A #9 bus took us across town to Kensington High Street where we grabbed our favorite stuff for supper at M&S. One stop on the District Line and we were home to get sorted out before our hilarious evening performance of The Play That Goes Wrong. A black taxi brought us home via Mayfair, and the day was done. Thanks, again, to Debby for sharing some of her photos.

Famous mohair upholstery triggers happy memories

Up from the bowels of the earth

Taxis and bikes stream past the Royal Opera

The Flower Hall at Covent Garden

This is how I shop -- seated on a bench

Covent Garden Market

A very stately entrance to lunch

Three lunches and an appetizer

Pink

Saint Martin in-the-Fields on a beautiful afternoon

Trafalgar Square with Parliament in the distance

A curry-stained senior citizen tries to cover his 

shame with his jacket

🎶Haus of Holbein🎶 - excited to see SIX on Friday

Van 1: Van Eyck

Van 2: Van Dyck

FINE! IT'S FINE! I'M FINE!

Kris devised a clever new way to cover my sins

High Street Kensington platform

The Duchess Theatre

OMG! What a relief!

The play starts before it starts

A real giggle

Clean shirt

Headed home to bed

There will certainly be more.

OXO

D.

Day Eight - London - April 2023

I started the day with a little space planning for our Paris Airbnb hostess, convincing her that she should add comfortable seating for a third person and place the sofa so you don't break you neck watching TV. apparently she likes the idea. Out the door, we went to the Tube station to purchase (Debby) and top up our Oyster Cards (Kris and Dickie). We hopped on the 94 bus and stopped on Oxford Street so the ladies could have a look in Marks & Spencer. I salivated my way through the food halls, then waited outside. We had Afternoon Tea booked at Fortnum and Mason, so we headed to Piccadilly Street. We popped in Cath Kidston, which seems to have reached the end of the road: it's closing. Tea was good and very pleasant, but overpriced for me. I'm glad for the experience, though. We were bursting, so we stayed in and snacked at home. Thanks to Debby for some of these photos.

Monday morning space plan

27 Palace Court

Tube station for Oyster Cards

The good ol' 94 bus takes us right to the heart of London

🎶"And I'm not throwing away my shot . . . "

Piccadilly Circus on a beautiful spring morning

This is how I like to shop: with my arse planted

on a comfortable sofa

1/2-price treasures at Cath Kidston's closing sale

Right: Fortnum & Mason always have incredible windows: this

one inviting passersby to have Tea

Deb spies with her little eye: someone who is studying the menu

Fun and delicious

How ya gonna keep em down on the farm . . . ?

17th-century St. James's Piccadilly, a Wren church

Homeward bound on another 94 bus up Regent's Street

More later.

OXO

D.

Paris to London - Day Eight - April 2023

Lucy popped in for a final goodbye. We hopped a taxi and headed to Gare du Nord to catch the Channel-Tunnel train to London. The center of Paris was closed for a marathon, so we skirted the city on the Boulevard Périphérique. The journey was smooth and fast and we touched ground at Saint Pancras International. A black taxi dropped us at 49A Palace Court. We walked out for a few supplies and treats, and early evening we had a delicious dinner at Santorini on Moscow Road.

Goodbye to this fantastic girl we love so much

The Périphérique was crowded

Saint Pancras

Right back "at home"

A beautiful Airbnb at the bottom of the stairs

Queensway (photo by Debby)

Home with our treasures (photo by Debby)

Just a few snacks

Grilled lamb chops and fish, and a roasted lamb shank

Moscow Road at late golden hour

More to come.

OXO

D.

Paris - Day Seven - 1 April 2023

On our last full day in Paris, Lucy Jane trained up from Lyon for one more day of fun. We set out on foot to the Grand Mosquée for lunch in their Morrocan-style restaurant. Lucy introduced us to Paris busses and we rode to Sully-Morland in the Marais, and walked on to the Place des Vosges, where Lucy led us though the secret door in the south-west corner of the arcade into the garden of the Hôtel Sully. We pressed on to the area near the Paroisse Saint-Paul Saint-Louis. We jumped on the Metro to the Parc Monceau for some rest and refreshment before proceeding to the Musée Nissim de Camondo, an elegant Belle Epoque, Beaux-Arts mansion in the manner of 18th-century french design. In the evening we ventured back up the hill for a return visit to Le Vieux Bistrot. It was a delightful meal! Later that night I put LJ in a taxi to her tiny Airbnb.

🎶 April (1st) in Paris

Off for an adventure

Arènes de Lutèce - Roman amphiteatre

Grande Mosquée de Paris

Mosquée

The science of geometry was developed by Islam

The ladies

The Jardin d'Eden

Grilled lamb and frites

Same three

Mint tea

LJ descending toward the entrance gate

Splendid door at Sully-Morland

South entrance to the Place des Vosges

Brick-vaulted arcade of the Place des Vosges

Inlaid wooden door

The secret garden of the Hôtel de Sully

Hôtel de Sully entrance court

Miraculous sky over Saint-Paul Saint-Louis 

Pink!

Dans le Metro

Parc Monceau

The pause that refreshes

No tourists, just French parents and kids

I need the Wee Plant Man to tell me what these beauties are

He's a tall old feller

Deb's lovely photo of this folly

Musée Nissim de Camondo

The kitchen

Copper in the Kichen

A sitting room in the style of Louis XVI

Asian ceramics with French ormolu mounts

Neo-classical metal-arabesque wall panels

Very contemporary-looking tiles in the bathroom

Library detail

Entry court with stables, later garages

Rue Mouffetard for dinner

Savoy reblochon tartiflette is a sumptuous French version of 

funeral potatoes; beef bourgignon

LJ and Dickie

A rainy night on Rue des Ecoles

More to come.

OXO

D.