London to Paris and Back

Happy New Year to you all!

Hope you've all enjoyed a great festive season. We had a fabulous few days (including a brilliant New Year's Eve) in Paris and are now back in London. Here's an update on what we've been up to. . .

27 December - last day in London before our Paris adventure.

Continued our London shopping spree (love those end of year sales!!) and enjoyed a visit to some favourite stores in Chelsea, Kensington and Knightsbride. Caught a cab from the Conran Shop to Harvey Nichols, but the streets were so busy with traffic and people that the cabbie could only get us so far. It was fun being in amongst it all!!



Spent the evening at the Rosemary Branch Theatre enjoying something that has become somewhat of a tradition for us - the Charles Court Opera annual Christmas pantomime. This year's performance was a wonderful, hilarious version of Beowulf. The theatre is in a room (which seats about 80 people) upstairs in a pub in Islington. This year (our third) we chose to sit in the 'royal box' which is a very comfortable spot at the back of the room framed with timber and fairly lights. Of course, champagne is included! A really fun night.

28 December

Up early for the train to Paris. Arrived at Gare du Nord around lunch time and checked into our hotel in our favourite part of Paris - Montmartre. We had booked a room with a view over Paris to the Eiffel Tower and we weren't disappointed!



Walked through the cobbled streets of Montmartre and came across a Vietnamese restaurant. Given the links between France and Vietnam, we were very keen to try Vietnamese cuisine in Paris. Once again, we weren't disappointed!

Spent the rest of the daylight wandering through Paris including window shopping in all the 'designer' streets. Of particular interest was the Christian Louboutain shop, which had a Christmas tree decorated with . . . what else but the trademark re-soled shoes!

Walked to the Arc de Triomphe which is absolutely beautiful by night, and then to the Eiffel Tower - another spectacle of light.



Bought some gorgeous cheese and wine on the way home and enjoyed the evening in our room looking out at the lights of Paris.

29 December

Spent some more time discovering new spots in Montmartre - there's always something different to see. Across the road from our hotel is a beautiful church which was built in such an unusual style that the bishop in charge at the time was almost made to pull it down before it was finished. At this time of the year, all the churches have a nativity scene. Most of these are really beautifully done and you can see the hours of work that have gone into their creation. This church, however, had a very austere nativity scene which you can see in the photograph below. For obvious reasons, we like to call it the 'Occupy' nativity!



Paid an essential visit to Sacre Coeur before heading off to explore another area of Paris - the streets around Madeleine and Concorde.


Sacre Coeur

Visited the beautiful Eglise de Ste-Marie Madeline, which was consecrated in 1842 after almost a century of design changes and other delays.

Walked through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Louvre.

Did the Parisian thing and put a padlock on the Pont des Arts and threw the keys into the Seine (romantic, hey!)



Walked via St-Germaine to the Latin Quarter and visited Shakespeare and Company - a truely amazing old bookshop on the banks of the Seine, in the shadows of Notre Dame, that has stacks and stacks of new and used English language books piled over a couple of floors - literally from floor to ceiling. The owner of the original shop (closed down by the Nazies during the occupation) was Sylvia Beach who published James Joyce's Ulysses. You could easily lose a few hours in here, which is apparently exactly what the likes of Hemingway and Joyce used to do!

Stumbled across an Irish pub while exploring the Latin Quarter. As is tradition in every city we visit, Phil had to celebrate his heritage by stopping for a pint of Guinness!
Continued discovering beautiful streets and churches on our way to one of our favourite art galleries - the Musee D'Orsay - which opens late on a Thursday night. Finished a great day by enjoying the works of the impressionists, post impressionists and the Art Nouveau movements.

30 December

Ventured out of Paris today and travelled by train to the beautiful medieval town of Chartre. Most people visit Chartre to see the magnificent 13th century cathedral - in fact pilgrims have been making their way to the cathedral since the Middle Ages.



Construction of the cathedral only took 30 years (a fairly short period of time by usual standards at that time) which means a level of architectural consistency was able to be maintained. The cathedral is 130m long and has one of the richest collections of stained glass in the world. There are 172 windows in total (which would cover an area of 2.6 sq km) most of which are 13th century originals.



It's so fortunate that the cathedral has withstood the ravages of war and post medieval modification over the centuries. We were really interested to learn that one of the reasons the cathedral still stands today is purely down to red tape. Apparently during the French Revolution, the revolutionaries decided that desecration wasn't good enough for this cathedral and that instead it should be demolished. To make this happen, they formed a committee which deliberated for around five years. By the time they made a decision, the revolution was over and the cathedral was consequently saved!



We spent ages enjoying the cathedral and then continued to explore Chartre. What a beautiful town - so much to see. Right down one end of the town is another beautiful church that doesn't seen to be on the tourist train - the 12th/13th century Eglise St-Pierre.



Did as the Chartre locals do and spent the afternoon strolling through the old town, stopping frequently to eat, before making our way back to Paris.

31 December

Another day out today - this time two trains through the French countryside (had an interesting time mastering the timetables!) to Auver-sur-Oise - the beautiful village where Vincent van Gogh spent the last 70 days of his life. During his stay here, he produced at least one painting or sketch every day until he died. Some of these are now in the Musee D'Orsay so it was great to see the paintings and then visit the site of the inspiration.


The beautiful Eglise Notre Dame - subject of one of Vincent's most famous paintings.

Vincent is buried beside his brother Theo in a desolate cemetery at the top of a hill in the middle of farmland. The fact that we visited on a cold, wet, windy day made his grave site seem even more lonely.




Vincent spent the last 70 days of his life in this house

Enjoyed a beautiful meal at the Cafe de la Paix, which was the local cinema in the 1950s and has now been restored as a cafe/restaurant, before journeying back to Paris in time for our New Year's Eve celebrations.

Kicked off the evening with a much anticipated visit to the Paris Opera House (an absolute spectacle in itself!) to see a beautiful performance of Eugene Onegin - story by Pushkin, music by Tchaikovsky. We've been looking forward to this for a long time and we weren't disappointed. As expected, the Opera House is a fantastic venue and the performance was excellent. To top the night off, as it was New Year's Eve complimentary champagne and canapes were served during both intervals - very civilized!







Soaked up the Paris New Year's Eve buzz by enjoying a coffee at a sidewalk cafe before heading back up to Montmartre for our midnight view of the Eiffel Tower.



As it was such a mild night (very different to some of the freezing days we've had in Paris) most people in Montmartre having parties in the their apartments had their windows open. We joined in and did the same. That and the revelers in the streets below made for a great atmosphere and lots of fun when we all counted down to midnight! All in all, a truly fantastic New Year's Eve.



1 January 2012

Not much happens in Paris during the morning of New Year's Day and even though we also had a late start, it seemed as though we had the city to ourselves when we first set out for our final explorations.

Walked for miles through narrow streets, along major boulevards and in and out of little churches. Popped into another of our favourite art galleries, the Musee National d'Art Moderne in the architecturally amazing Centre Pompidou.



Wandered past Notre Dame and across the Seine through the Latin Quarter and the area around the Sorbonne to see the Pantheon.



Had our final, and very memorable, last meal in Paris at the Bouillon Racine - a gorgeous restaurant in the Latin Quarter. Originally established as a soup kitchen very early in the 20th century, it has retained every bit of its Art Nouveau style. And the food was amazing!





And so ended a fantastic few days in and around Paris. Very relaxing. Fabulous sights. A brilliant New Year's Eve. Lots of fun. And way too much cheese!!

Caught the last train back to London for the next phase of our holiday.

2 January 2012

First stop this morning was the London Design Museum which currently has an exhibition on the life and works of Terence Conran. The museum itself is in a fabulous spot on the south bank of the Thames and the exhibition was really interesting. As big Conran fans, we enjoyed ourselves very much.



Spent the afternoon in Hammersmith before making our way to Craven Cottage (Fulham Football Club) for the much anticipated game between Fulham and Arsenal. Naturally, we went via one of the supporters' pubs and chatted with some of the locals! What a game. The atmosphere was amazing. And Fulham beat Arsenal 2-1... a real upset. The Fulham fans (us included) were ecstatic!



3 January 2012

The weather today was absolutely frightful - blowing a gale and torrential rain. What better way to spend such a day than in art galleries!

Walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern (apparently the world's most popular contemporary art gallery and certainly a favourite of ours) on the south bank and then caught the Tate boat back across the Thames to the Tate Britain. Two very different galleries but both equally as enjoyable.



Enjoyed a meal at Arbutus restaurant in Soho - the first time we've been to a Michelin star restaurant. Wonderful food and a very relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere.

Tonight's entertainment was a performance of 'One Man, Two Guvnors' which was an absolutely hilarious play. James Corden starred and really stole the show - although the whole cast did a great job.

Capped off a great day by spending a few relaxing hours at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in Soho. This is one of those places that really doesn't get going until about midnight and then the fantastic jazz begins. A highlight for Louise was standing at the bar beside one of her favourite celebs - Gok Wan! And he smiled!

4 January 2012

Spent the morning exploring Bloomsbury and Russell Square, including spending some time in the old bookshop that was the site of the set for 'Black Books'. Didn't see Dylan Moran or Bill Bailey, though!

Travelled out to Kew and Richmond to discover some new areas. Had a drink at the bar in Richmond that used to be known as the Crawdaddy Club where the Rolling Stones first played and gathered a following.

Made our way to Wimbledon for the evening's entertainment - another panto. This time, however, the attraction for us was more than just the panto (Dick Whittington), it was its star - Dame Edna. Neither of us has seen her live before and when we saw the ad for the show we couldn't resist. She was fantastic - everything you would expect. And the show was great - we were in stitches from the moment the curtain went up until the last curtain call.



We still have another few days in London before our Norwegian adventure - will keep you posted!