Divan rouge de la rue Caulaincourt

Red couch on rue Caulaincourt

La lampe très rose à Paris

The very pink lamp in Paris

Paris

Once again, no measuring cups or spoons. Our London flat didn't have them either but we assumed Greg and Shareen just didn't cook at home. Their kitchen had all the amenities except measuring devices. But it's the same here. Is this a Euro thing? This is a great flat, four fire places, high ceilings, lots of huge windows, bright decor, hard wood floors, tiny balconies for potted plants. The kitchen is tiny but clever, Ikea style,  but no measuring cups or spoons. And no water glasses (plenty of wine glasses). A French thing? Already M. Lee is in deep withdrawal from London, "The best of all possible worlds", while Paris is "a pinched purgatory" so no measuring spoons is insult to injury. Plus, his mom went out early this morning for a nice fresh loaf of bread but nothing was open. We were shocked to see that business close so early and open so late. And to top it off, unlike London stunning multicultural cuisine, Paris seems to be a one-horse town for vegetarians.

My Paris corner

But hey! It's Paris and I'm half French. I'm feeling right at home. I woke up in a great mood. For whatever reason, my hands are much more limber here. In London I woke up with wooden claws affixed to the ends of my wrists. And I have set up a nice little corner base of operations which has a great view of the flat. A pigeon is roosting next door. And I saw a woman feeding birds in the train station. That would be a £500 fine in Trafalgar Square. Luckily, I did not get caught slipping the occasional bread crumb to the occasional bird. I realized, being forced into stealth mode, that pigeons take eye-contact to be an invitation to lunch.

So today, we're going out now in search of a natural food market. We had camembert cheese sandwiches for lunch. Such a desperate luxury.

Bonne journée Henri, mon petit ami en dépit de tout cela. (translation)




More Henri, if you can bare it.

Tooting Bec to Paris

Fond farewells in Tooting Bec.

Minerva, Ellie, Monkey Dude & Swami in Tooting Bec

We've come to regret bringing bikes on this trip.

Leaving London. Moving is a nightmare.

Home for the next five weeks.

In Europe, what we in the US call the 1st floor is called ground,
the 2nd is the 1st, the 3rd is the 2nd etc.

Elevator to the 3rd (or 4th) floor

John, this one's for you.

This is only half of the cheese selection at the grocery store

Lonesome George, RIP

So sorry, Lonesome George.

I really hate to see you go. Forever.

Swami

Swami at Tower of London

Poetry Unplugged

I finally got around to reading at Poetry Unplugged, the weekly open mic night at the Poetry Society's Poetry Cafe. Very good group. Friendly. Enthusiastic. Ten years running. London is a poetry friendly place. Once again, I think it's the difference in history. England has a grand history with some very great poetry while the US, well, we just don't have much history at all so, when it comes to poetry, not much to refer to or venerate. And West Coast poetry, especially Beat poetry which I inherited, was a lot about discovering there even was a world beyond America and protesting America's ignorance of it. Anyway, sadly not much time to write these days, even this blog. Time to hit the Tube, which does by the way, include poetry. Thank you London.

Napoleon's toothbrush

Napoleon and his beloved red toothbrush

In the way that ordinary items sometimes do if they happen to survive just long enough, one of Napoleon's toothbrushes has taken on a life of its own. But it is not in France. Like so many items of historical interest, it is in a British museum, in this case the Wellcome Collection where we were the other day. They call themselves "a free destination for the incurably curious" and that they are. It's a fabulous place.

As you might guess, in real life Napoleon preferred a silver handle.

Sadly, our time in London is quickly coming to an end though the trip is not over yet. Next Wednesday we move on to Paris for five weeks. I'm really going to miss London but at least the weather outlook is much better there than here. Small compensation but I'll take it.

The list so far

Merchants on Brick Lane

Here is M. Lee's list of places we've visited so far in London. Naturally, I've taken hundreds of photos a day along the way. Just the idea of sorting them out is exhausting. Sunday we went to Brick Lane in  Spitalfield, London's East End. Wild place. I loved it there. Today we went back to the V&A and the Darwin Center at the Natural History Museum. The place is also a research center. I had no idea. The Cocoon houses plant and insect collections that go back 400 years to the Museum's origins.

Graffiti w/ people, Brick Lane

"This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list and I've probably missed a thing or two, but here's where we've been in about 3.5 weeks. I'll start with Frommer's Top 15, of which we've visited the following.

British Museum (3 or 4 times by now)
Hampstead Heath on a rare sunny day about 2.5 weeks ago
Hampton Court Palace
Hyde Park once upon a time when there was sun
Imperial War Museum (in preparation for the Churchill War Rooms)
National Gallery (several times)
Natural History Museum incl. the Darwin Center & The Cocoon
Tate Modern (sort of hate modern art, for the most part, but some things were stunning)
Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) repeat visits

Not 3-star according to Frommer, but this list includes some pretty excellent stuff:

Windsor Castle (this brought out the inner princess in all of us)
The Mall
National Portrait Gallery
Kensington Palace
Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
Somerset House
Courtauld Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
Sir John Soane's Museum (unexpected hit, one of our faves)
Wallace Collection
Wellcome Collection
Trafalgar Square (hardly needs mentioning since it's inevitable)
Changing of the Horse Guard (more ceremony than Buckingham Guard, plus horses)
St.-Martin-in-the-Fields (mostly for the downstairs crypt cafe - you're having tea on top of the graves)
.Museum of London (again, an unexpected hit)
Museum of London Docklands (can't believe all these great museums and galleries are free)
Whitechapel Art Gallery (something had to disappoint, and this was it)
British Library (they no longer display a letter from young Elizabeth I which was half the reason I went)
Wimbledon Car Boot sale
Harrod’s
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Portobello Market
Borough Market
Chinatown (four times so far)
Hamleys (massive upscale toy store) -L."

To which I add the Poetry Café and their Poetry Unplugged open mic night.

Happy monkey guy, Brick Lane, London

Kansas City Weirdness

First there was Roy the Redeemer, then this.  It's your week, Roy.

SubTropolis, Kansas City

I didn't know your hometown has one of the 10 weirdest urban ecosystems on earth. Or at least according to i09.

Kansas City native

Quite a distinction.
 (link via M. Lee)

Ps. Sorry, I forgot to mention the one detail which adds color to this otherwise halftone post. Ninety percent of the world's underground office space is in, or shall I say under, Kansas City. Thx M. 

Bedlam

I remember, especially on rainy days, my dad yelling, "You kids quiet down!!! It's bedlam in here!". We knew what he meant though we'd never heard of Bedlam even though it's been around since 1247. But we're going there today. Well, we're going to the original location of Bedlam. The hospital moved to its new location in the 1930s but, in a town where history goes back thousands of years, they'll be the new kids on the block for the next several hundred years. Until 1770, visitors to Bedlam could watch the lunatics through glass as a Victorian style freak show for the low low cost of one pence but no such show today. Lucky for me. Otherwise chances are I'd be in the show rather than watching it. Bedlam's old Gothic building is a museum now, and perhaps fittingly, London's War Museum which is, in my round about way of telling it, where we're going, the War Museum at the old Bedlam.

So, sorry if this is all too confusing. I'm out of time. We're headed out now and down the Tube. Sandwiches are packed, camera batteries charged and the sun is out but we're not fooled. M. Lee has counseled us to be prepared for rain. He's addicted to the hourly weather report which claims "rain at noon". It said the same thing yesterday but stayed dry and even a bit sunny all day. But it didn't fool M. As far as he was concerned, it might as well have been raining rats.