I believe in working brakes, but: doesn't it make sense to fix your plane before filling it to the bursting point with whiny humans?>>

yes it's so obvious isn't it, and yet they never seem to factor that in.

I'm sorry that you aren't able to give us monotonous sunniness as it implies things went wrong; I'm hoping for some sunny interludes at least.

great start any way - keep it coming.

Yes, do please keep it coming as time permits.

Looking forward to hearing about Paris and the music.

looking forward to hearing about your trip!

I can't wait to find out what France is like.

Signing on for the ride.

Your plane from LHR to ORD was no doubt the same aircraft that arrived from ORD that morning. Probably the arriving pilot reported mushy brakes or s/he made a hard landing, requiring an inspection.

At that point, either the mechanic/supervisor or the departing pilot decided to do a brake job. Under some circumstances, the departing pilot could simply have put it on his non-critical out of service list. Planes take off every day with things not working. They just can't be _critical_ things, and the pilot has the ultimate decision.

The good news: by doing it at LHR, they had all the parts available, not something very likely if they had to pull it out of service at ORD. Twice I have had to wait while airlines flew in parts, and they come on the next scheduled flight, not by some unscheduled emergency airlift. When the next flight is next day, you get to spend the night in a hotel.

The takeaway here is that no airline these days has lots of extra airplanes just sitting around waiting to replace an aircraft that has a problem. BA most certainly had/has extra aircraft, but not necessarily aircraft you would want to fly over the arctic.

Thank you, Ann, taconict, opald, crazyf4, and Nikki. You are good and kind. Kerouac will be happy to hear that Paris is, if anything, lovelier than ever.

Ackislander, I appreciate that explanation. Having seen the Liam Neeson movie with the wolves, I especially wouldn't want plane trouble over the Arctic. I suppose we couldn't have waited in the terminal because invariably someone would wander off?

I remain a BA fan. The crew were adorable: the announcements from the cockpits, the flight attendants who remained smiling and professional after 12 hours' worth of disgruntled huddled masses. I like being surrounded by youth and beauty as much as the next person (unless he is male), and admired their maquillage and coiffures. I had ordered the Hindu diet for the flight over, and the Asian Veg on return. Delicious.

Yes, you should have been able to wait in the terminal. With the new regulations and fines in the US you probably would have been waiting in the terminal there. Note that even if they swap planes you can still wind up waiting. At boarding time for my recent Miami-Rio flight we were waiting for the plane to be brought over from the hanger, and then we had to wait on board for the service log to catch up with it. And for a minor mechanical to get fixed.

I had so much valuable advice for this trip. Some I copied without noting the source, and am grateful to all.

Having secured time off from work and plane tickets, I began the search for lodging by early summer. I had never realized before that the holidays are highest Paris tourist season, but when I started looking at VRBO and other vacation rental sites, I saw that our dates, December 23 through January 2, were at the highest premium. (See the "frugality" part of the title.)

We'd used airbnb.com with success in Chicago and Madison WI, and I had booked MC a room in Nice through them, so I spent a lot of time looking there. You pay the entire amount in advance, not great for large amounts so far in advance, but I like that they don't release the $ to host until after you've been there a day.

I read the reviews carefully, considering only those with several good ratings, discounting complaints on the level of "the towels didn't match" and steering clear of any host who had ever canceled a booking less than a few months in advance. I also look at square meters for reasonable spaciousness.

For Paris, we settled onwww.airbnb.com/rooms/218151
booked/paid by midsummer.

We loved this place. The photos give an accurate idea of the airy beauty and calm aesthetics of the place, and it's just around the corner from the beautiful Place des Vosges yet on a quiet residential street. (It is on the ground floor, and there's a Catholic elementary school on the corner, but that was closed for holidays.) The price was extremely right and not inflated for season. As always, there are minor quirks when staying in someone's place. I'd be happy to discuss if anyone wants more detail: stokebailey@hotmail.com.

I looked at airbnb for London, but didn't find anything compelling. Hotwire.com had a good deal on what turned out to be the Doubletree Hilton on Southampton Row, so booked H and my last four nights there. When I know MC could come for five nights in London, I got us a basic triple at the Arran House, (£110/night including breakfast) where we'd stayed six years ago and loved. arranhotel-london.com/ More about these later, but they were both just fine.

Bob, H, and I were to arrive at LHR early morning Dec. 23, and our Paris apartment was to be available by noon. I didn't find any good flights to CDG, so we decided to take the Piccadilly Line to St. Pancras, then Eurostar. That worked fine, and gave Bob a little taste of London. Thanks to TimS for help on estimating travel times both ways, and to flanner for mentioning the necessity of getting Eurostar tickets well in advance for holiday travel.

MC came up by train from the south.

that apartment in Paris looks lovely, Stoke.

I've never stayed in that neighbourhood, so I'll be interested to read more about it.

Enjoying your report. As I mentioned on your transportation thread, my cousin and I were nearby in Paris for most of the same time period. I hope you had as wonderful a visit as we did.

ttt

Gorgeous apartment. I like the ones that look like people live there rather than just being a rental. Looking forward to the rest of the report.

PARIS

The Marais/Bastille

This location was ideal for us. In our town, 110 year old houses are very old. We found the Marais' ancient, sometimes medieval, pre-Hausmann surroundings are deeply satisfying. Our apartment reportedly served at one time as Mme de Sévigné's stables.

Though some parts of the Marais were mobbed Christmas week, the area north of the Place des Vosges remained unaffected. We were within easy walks of fun streets in the Bastille, where MC had spent fall semester two years ago, and the jazz manouche/gypsy jazz club Atelier Charonne.

It is an easy walk from there to the river. Most picturesquely, continue west past the St. Paul metro stop, past the Scottish pub and the Socialist office, and turn left down the cobblestones behind St. Gervais church.

For me, the Marché Bastille, formerly Richard Lenoir, was culinary heaven. I also bought a finely woven cashmere scarf there, my one personal purchase that I've worn daily since.

The Patisserie Gérard Mulot, a small clean laundromat, and Café Hugo for morning noisette or coffee are close by and patronized by locals.

Bob finally stopped referring to the Place des Vosges as "that little courtyard", but never tired of hanging out there. Almost every morning a musician stood at the archway where r.d Béarn enters the Place, taking advantage of the acoustics. Sometimes a violinist. One morning as we approached, we thought it was a soprano and baritone, but turned out to be one man alternately countertenor. He wore a kind of turban, a long black cape, and a mournful expression. I threw him an offering.

Several mornings we heard the group Borsalino swinging away jazz manouche style. They set up on the western side where they can catch the morning sun and attract people from the park. Stand up bassist plays excellently, accordion, two guitars. We bought a CD and listened to it around the apartment.

Thank you, Ann! You and Mr. Hig might enjoy that area.

Fun that you were there, too, Leely.

bilbo, kind of you.

Thanks, AGM. It felt very much like housesitting for some artsy friends. The owners are an interior designer and maybe an architect. Almost all of those books are about art and design, though up the loft some mystery novels in English. She set out tourist guides along the Steves lines. Recent guests appear to have been Italian and Dutch.

What the countertenor reminded me of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM12v_8an1M

Gorgeous apartment. I like the ones that look like people live there rather than just being a rental. Looking forward to the rest of the report.>>

lol, we rented one like that in Rome once - it was full of books, paintings and art works, and half-used jars of jam in the fridge, as if the owner had just gone out for walk. we loved it.

<<Our apartment reportedly served at one time as Mme de Sévigné's stables.>>

stoke- i'm glad the horses had gone before you got there.

thanks for the youtube link - I didn't know that one. did you see Rowan Atkinson at the Olympic opening ceremony?

Christmas in Paris

http://tinyurl.com/cyhg3yy


(Our daughter MC is the photographer for all the photos here. H brought her camera, but forgot a battery charger so adapted my selfish method of just walking around looking at things and occasionally making a sketch. Bob used a video camera.)

I had never realized how festive the Paris Christmas season is until Kerouac's excellent photo essays. Such as, most recently: http://tinyurl.com/cxoj8lv

Besides the big light displays in central areas, neighborhoods have their own festive styles.

http://tinyurl.com/az5uhw3

The main tourist areas are thronged with all shapes, colors, and languages. Parents bring their children on holiday to enjoy the spectacle. Marchés de Noël spring up all around town, with booths selling vin chaud, waffles, trinkets and mementos. Christmas eve we took the Métro to Place dl Concorde and threaded through the crowds towards the Arc de Triomphe.


http://tinyurl.com/a8nu9q9

http://tinyurl.com/am48jf5

http://tinyurl.com/bprgy9q

I wasn't so wild about the holiday beer, but got a very nice paper cup full of vin chaude. Eyed raclette stands.

We veered north from CE towards Boul Hausmann to check out the window displays at the Galleries Lafayette and Printemps. What fun with the children there, noses against the glass; they loved the less commercial Printemps ones better.

http://tinyurl.com/bqvpwpt

http://tinyurl.com/cuzfo3d

This Santa's appeal for donations seemed to be based on belly, hat, beard, and general colorfulness.

Ann, that clip is from Mr. Bean's Holiday: he and the kid have lost their money and are busking so they can get to Cannes. (I belong to what must be the small subset of those who love Rowan A. but can't quite get into Downton A.) I did miss the Olympic ceremony. Will try to find on youtube. Thanks!

I love your daughter's pics. Is the jazz manouche coming soon?

I love the bookcase!! Can't wait to hear more!!!

Thank you, doula!

opaldog, part of the jazz manouche part: Bob was in heaven at the Cité de la Musique Django exhibit, and I liked it a lot, too. We used a two for one deal with out Eurostar ticket, even. Thank you for that tip.

Bob's in a jazz manouche band now, rhythm guitar, and can't get enough of it. Electric guitar offends his purist soul, so a couple of times we walked in and then out of a club based on that.

We all went up to Chope des Puces on Saturday, lucked into a table for four in the front room before the place started filling up. The music was great: two guitarists when I was there and another young guy starting to get out his instrument. By the time the waitress was able to get over to our table to get our order a couple crowded up against our table had been giving us all the "why don't you all get up and let us have your seats" look. It had been a rarely gorgeous sunny day, and MC wanted to get out and take photos of the market, so she and I surrendered out seats while Bob and H stayed.

Bob later realized one of the musicians was Ninine Garcia, a pretty big deal in those circles.

I love Ninine Garcia. He seems to be there every weekend. His brother Rocky was playing with him when we were there as well as Marcel Campion, the owner of the Christmas Village in Paris and the large Ferris Wheel, among many other things. He is a good jazz manouche guitarist and purchased Chopes des Puces a few years ago. Ninine's father Mondine was very well known. He passed away last year. He also played at Chopes. Go on You Tube to see lots about all of them. I purchased a CD at the Django exhibit of the Garcia family. I asked Ninine to play the song "La Bonne Vie" when we went. I wrote about that in my report. I couldn't remember any French and he didn't understand my english, but I managed to hum the song for him and he obliged me. He played it beautifully!

Paris will always be LOVE for me. Share the fun soon!

Opaldog, so that was Ninine! I didn't know enough to note his name when I read your post, and will reveal more of my ignorance here. I have always liked the music, but when you get past the Reinhardts' and Grappelli names you lose me.

Bob was in his blissful cloud several days there, going out again solo to La Chope des Puces and tracking down an apartment where Django had once lived, and then visiting a master guitar maker -- display featured at Cité de la Musique -- where he played his dream 7,000 euro instrument. The rest of us spent shoe leather on more general Parisian matters. I feel that my wifely duty extends just so far.

Limiting his chance of joining a jam was that Christmas and New Year's Day this year were Tuesdays, typically jam night. Also the man cold that he developed the 27th. Luckily he still had a blast, and the "poor little bunny" part really does help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EElqrgk4N0

Another helpful website: http://www.manflu.info/index.htm

Wonderful, Stokebailey! So glad that your husband was able to spend time enjoying the music he loves to play & listen to! What a memorable trip it must have been for him. I look forward to more about your time in Paris & London!

Enjoying your report so far! Thanks for posting, and look forward to more.

A super set of photos! Makes it all come alive. Thanks.

JR, 2010, Yanky, taconict: thank you for your kind encouragement.

Dancing and Miscellaneous Music in Paris:

Barrio Latino in the Bastille is the place for salsa dancing on Sunday evenings. MC became a regular during her semester nearby two years ago, and has wanted to go back ever since.

Our first evening in town we walked her there: Eiffel designed room full of serious latin dancers, bachata beat.
Big stern bouncer out front, and a velvet rope.

from internet
http://travelinhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/barrio.jpg

The next Sunday both sisters went. H had been worried she might not get asked, then danced every dance. More leads than follows; one song ends and another begins. MC's favorite partner from 2010 saw her and said, "You came back to France!"

In Paris, music everywhere, in the streets and underground: LVIV Ukranian band at Chatelet as you walk from one line to another. Horns, strings, multiple part vocal harmony on Silent Night. Wonderful.

Most touching for me was a gorgeous black woman standing in Rue St.-Andre-des-Arts singing "Folie! Sempre Libera" from La Traviata, accompanied by boom box. Brought tears to my eyes. H said she seemed so vulnerable there in the street, besides her skill, beauty, and vocal power. Maybe that was it.

I loved the pictures. MC certainly has a good eye for seeing angles and opportunities. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much, irishface.

Here's one from the front room of La Chope des Puces, before it got too mobbed for photos:

http://tinyurl.com/a49vzte


Food and Markets in Paris:

http://tinyurl.com/ao2f5xr
Oysters are big during the holidays.

http://tinyurl.com/avhm85m
Ditto buchettes.

Our kitchen was compact, but well stocked with pots and pans. Four burner gas stovetop and microwave. Either the oven didn't work, or I could not unlock its secrets. I do now want a stovetop espresso maker like theirs.

The Marché Bastille/RIchard Lenoir is an easy walk from our apartment, and heaven for a cook. H and I got there early Thursday and Sunday. I chose the greengrocer with the longest queue, partly to give me time to observe and also to copy or remember the French terms. I was just behind a dear man with his wife's long list, so I saw how to ask for haricots verts and mache by the handful. Fishmongers, cheese stands, a creperie.

One morning I saw an American family with two young boys approach a baker's stand. The parents, to their credit, encouraged their ~ 8 yr old son to ask in French for pastry, and then to speak more loudly. The vendeuse, a good natured type, asked "laquelle?" When he looked perplexed, she repeated the question, clearly, twice, but without body language. Finally, prompted, everyone smiling, the exchange was completed.

Friday morning the girls and I took the bus up r.d. Turenne to the Belleville market.

http://tinyurl.com/bfwg69q

That's being out among the people. You push along the aisles between the stalls, past women in headscarves and old ones with walkers. Smells and sounds. Even cheaper produce than Bastille, so we filled our market bags with clementines and apples, then walked down to Père Lachaise and home.

We had some pleasant and not too pricey restaurant meals. Twice, after salsa at Barrio Latino because it's around the corner at 50 Boul de la Bastille, we had dinner at Les Associés. Great inventive salads (try the Lac des Cygnes or the Ivan le Terrible) , no frills, friendly waiter who remembered us the second time and ushered us to our "favorite" table.

Rendezvous des Amis in the Marais: great basic atmosphere, very good omelettes and soup.

MC's friend who spent a semester at the Sorbonne says the King Falafel Palace, a few doors east from L'As du Falafel on r.d. Rosiers, is arguably even better and far shorter queues. We got takeout and liked it a lot.

The evening after St-Ouen and climbing to Sacre-Coeur from the north, we ducked into La Crémaillère‎ in the Place du Tertre. I'd read a recommendation in some website, and I thought Bob would like the decor. He did. http://www.cremaillere1900.com/
Maybe a tad faux Parisian, but not crowded and we were surrounded by locals.

The best restaurant meal was at La Fée Verte, on r.d. la Roquette. http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-fée-verte-paris-2
MC had stayed around the corner two years ago, and it became her favorite bar/restaurant. I had a duck dish that was delicious, but would have been as happy with MC's long awaited vegetarian lasagne.

ooh, la place du tertre! DH stayed near there when he worked in Paris many, many years ago, and i would join him for weekends.

That's where we first ate oysters!

thanks for reviving the memories, Stoke!

La Feé Verte looks good. I'll have to put that on my list for the next Paris visit. Did you get to Atelier Charonne?

Great report AND photos!

Wonderful report, stokebailey.

I am bearing bad news, however. The latest edition of my monthly 18th arrondissement newspaper ("Le 18ème du Mois") informed me that Starbucks has bought one of the locations on Place du Tertre and will be opening there next spring.

I am sorry to hear that Starbucks is taking over in Paris. I don't care for their product and am sorry to see Parisians carrying the "to go" cups all over Paris.

Fun, Ann. Oysters, love, and Place du Tertre.

Thank you, Cathinjoe!

Opaldog, at Atelier Charonne I heard what I thought was some very nice jazz -- for one song -- before Bob's expression told me he didn't love it. As we left he said he didn't like the singer's voice. It wasn't manouche night anyway, just a peek while in the neighborhood. (I sometimes tell myself that Mozart was hard to please too, fellow-musican-wise.) Bob and H went back another time and enjoyed it a lot, and he went alone for the tail end of a Sunday night jam that ended earlier than he'd hoped. This might have been the time he got to hear a bit of Django's grandson I like the atmosphere there.

Thank you, kerouac, and drat! Starbucks the UK -- and no doubt elsewhere -- tax evader? In Place du Tertre? Let's hope they're overextended and will draw back soon.

http://tinyurl.com/ak3p9jt
(These are all MC's photos still.)

Churches in Paris

For those of you who might have wondered whether midnight mass on Notre Dame's 800th anniversary was a hot ticket, I have the answers for you: Yes. Very.

http://tinyurl.com/a34xzuz

We got back to Rue du Foin Christmas Eve after our evening at the Champs Elysees Christmas Market and looking at the windows along Boul. Hausmann. Around 22:00 I realized it was time for the first of the musical events at Notre Dame, and that furthermore I hadn't seen the river yet. I wanted at least to see what was going on down there. The rest of us, out of fatigue and/or anti-religiousness, declined to go.

I took the brisk 15 minute walk to the Cathedral. As I approached around 22:30 I saw a large grandstand facing the facade, two queues snaking down both sides, hundreds of people in each. Walking along the lines was Babel-like, with all the languages. Realizing I would not be peeking inside that night, I climbed up the mostly empty stands to enjoy an eye-level view of martyrs and saints. An immense screen to the right showed the interior, pews filled. Every once in awhile a few people would trickle out, then 20 or so from alternate queues would be allowed in.

At quarter till eleven, an important-looking cleric appeared on the screen to tell us about the solemn occasion and ask those inside to turn off mobile phones. Then a mixed voice choir began to sing, angel-like. As the stands got more and more crowded, and I decided to leave.

I walked back to the early 1600's Jesuit church St.-Paul-St.-Louis on Rue St.-Antoine, with the blue clock face. A handful of faithful, presumably, sat in the gloom and listened to Bach on the organ. I inhaled the atmosphere for awhile, lit a candle, and walked home. My youngest was relieved I'd made it back.

http://tinyurl.com/bgqzqnr

http://tinyurl.com/bduh552

Christmas Day, after breakfast, we all visited St-P-St-L, joined the throngs outside Notre Dame and tried to decipher the statuary, then south across to St.-Germain-des-Prés, St.-Sulpice, and finally beautiful ancient St. Séverin. ( That was the day H saw Halle Berry and her fiancé strolling through the Rue de Buci.)

Each church had its own prominently displayed creche. At St.-Sulpice the Delacroix paintings were too dimly lit to appreciate, and one of them was in the process of being restored.

http://tinyurl.com/b2t562s

I have an aversion to Sacre-Coeur for some reason. Maybe it's the crowds.

http://tinyurl.com/aqeeyqo

http://tinyurl.com/appwfw8

We were there on a Saturday at dusk, and the patio was jammed. We filed dutifully into the church, one way clockwise with young red-jacketed men loudly shushing the tourists. I sat near the entrance. Seated just in front of me an American couple must have taken a photo, because a young African attendant squatted down at eye level to tell the woman why such a thing was wrong: "Tomorrow you'll be dead, and I'll be dead, and your picture will mean nothing. But the Holy Virgin who is eternal will know, and will be sad, because this is sacred here." He was gentle and beautiful, and my favorite thing about the place.

tinyurl.com/a9vb2jp

H. wanted a fedora after we spotted this couple.

SHOPPING IN PARIS

I can't make myself shop much, and didn't want to acquire baggage, but I got a fine lightweight scarf from a Richard Lenoir market vendor. It's beautiful deep navy blue cashmere, and I've worn it every day since.

Bob has wanted a pair of Gov Denim jeans since spotting them on several jazz manouche musicians, so when the girls wanted to go to Galerie Lafayette on New Year's Eve we decided to all at least look in there. I wanted a peek at the stained glass dome and the view from the roof. Oh, my, the crowds though. Entering the ground floor was not unlike shuffling around Sacré-Coeur: shoppers of the world united. We paused for awhile at the well-stocked book department and then climbed to the roof: grey Paris lay at our feet, and the rear of Opera Garnier. Worth the effort. I walked Bob over to the men's store, made arrangements to meet the girls in the Latin Quarter, and escaped.

The girls bought a few things on Boul Hausmann, but the truly worthwhile finds were from Marais vintage shops. MC needed boots, and by patiently rummaging the piles at Free P Star she got a well cared-for pair of tall black Bally ones for 10 euros.

Free P Star has two Marais shops, and I also liked a vintage store on r.d. Tournelles, half a block south of Rue Pas de la Mule. Can't remember the name right now. The proprietress was effusively friendly when I looked in once, and then almost amusingly rude when H and I went back later. (Should I have asked her permission every time I approached another rack? Was I the rude one?)

H and I traveled to the 16th one day to check out the used designer clothes at Réciproque, rue de la Pompe. That was kind of fun, and fashionista H enjoyed it. Crazy overpriced, though several young Asian girls tried on party dresses with evident intention to buy. Used shoes, some red-soled, for hundreds of dollars. An ordinary wool cardigan rendered precious by the Chanel logo. I am label averse, so don't mind my opinion here. We refreshed ourselves with tea near the Trocadero.

The Marché aux Puces St-Ouen was closer to my taste. A coworker wanted a franc note, so I bought her a 500 fr one here.

tinyurl.com/bbnbmr2

MC took this while the market vendor was scolding someone else for taking his picture. Sorry, sir.

tinyurl.com/bxajyp9

tinyurl.com/bgsy892

Bob still hasn't purchased the Gov Denim jeans, luckily available online.

TOURIST THINGS IN PARIS I'D HAVE BEEN FINE SKIPPING

One big one anyway:

tinyurl.com/arolz34

Christmas night, after a day wandering through churches and the Latin Quarter, then dinner at the flat, we took a bus to the Eiffel Tower. I'd thought there would be ice skating somewhere around, but never found it. We walked underneath and speculated about the scaffolding rising through the base: something about a fabulous new etage with a glass floor. I"m fine with glimpsing from a distance unexpectedly.

TOURIST THINGS I DIDN'T THINK I'D ENJOY, BUT DID

tinyurl.com/agkdbgl

If you can call a working cemetery touristic. The girls and I walked to Pere Lachaise after Belleville market Friday morning, found it moving and beautiful. H wanted to find Oscar Wilde's grave, so I told them as much as I could remember about his last couple of years, not accurately including his excellent last words. The lipstick marks are scrubbed, plexiglass fence in place, and someone had lipstick kissed a piece of paper and thrown it over.

We found Heloise and Abelard's fairly easily down near an entrance. Now their's is another interesting tale.

Here's another couple -- men, in this case -- united in death. I can't remember why or how.

tinyurl.com/b7pbxxl

We ran by Musee Carnavalet our last morning, enjoyed it very much. Roses bloomed in the courtyard.

tinyurl.com/bf6eoar

I'd thought there would be ice skating somewhere around, but never found it.>>

you needed to be over to at the Hotel de Ville, Stoke. We found the rink by chance when we were wandering around one evening; the skating was pretty aggressive and even if I could skate, I think I'd have wimped out.

Intriguing report, Stokebailey. I was hoping that we would hear from you and I feel very sympatico. MC’s photos are superb.... love her sense of 'the moment’. I especially liked the young girl lighting candles, the oyster sellers on rue de Turenne, woman in a white fur coat, girl in a fedora and, one shot of Village Bercy? Her artistry is, I think, a legacy from her mother.

Sounds like a fabulous trip, very eclectic and fresh in what and how you experienced Paris. Loved this,

>>Bob was in his blissful cloud several days there, going out again solo to La Chope des Puces and tracking down an apartment where Django had once lived, and then visiting a master guitar maker -- display featured at Cité de la Musique -- where he played his dream 7,000 euro instrument. <<< Perfect.

And your visits to the second hand clothing shops...one day I’ll do a day visit to them all, as Bob did with his music. Not that I’m that into clothing, but love the approach, the history of fashion, the prices...the sense of a world within larger worlds. Like you, I was never that enthralled with the Eiffel tower or Sacre Coeur. But, Pere Lachaise fascinated me (after 5 trips I finally went and loved it). Here is a long and lovely video about it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBxywsQnVRQ

For me, where I stay is important, even if I’m out 8-12 hours a day. Your apartment is beautiful! What a great find!...love the bookshelves (!), the area…
>>"that little courtyard", but never tired of hanging out there. Almost every morning<<

….nor did I. One month I stayed on rue de la Roquette and began each day with breakfast at Place des Vosges, sampling each café as I planned what I might do.

It sounds as though you did some sketches while there. Beautiful. Thank you!

Hi, Ann. We passed Hotel de Ville several times, but never stopped to watch the skaters close up. Our skating interest was strictly the spectator kind.

I hope to get a chance tomorrow to tell about Middle Temple Hall, which H and I enjoyed so much.

CopperandJade, I am honored to be simpatico with you. What a thoughtful and kind post.

I love the video.

How fine to spend a month as you did on rdl Roquette, and what a way to start each morning. I'd love to hang out at Cafe Hugo and eavesdrop on the regulars' joshing. I did a sketch there a couple of mornings, before going back to the apartment to throw open the shutters and wake the sleepers.

I hope to get a chance tomorrow to tell about Middle Temple Hall, which H and I enjoyed so much.>>

what a tease you are, Stoke.

can't wait!

Oh, HA, Ann! I've been trying to be all fancy and include MC's photos, but my PC can't handle all that info. Dtr H commandeered the Mac for school work today just as I was limbering up my typing fingers.

FRANCE: RANDOM THOUGHTS
People who enter a business, ask things like: "What time do you close?" and then seem perplexed not to get an answer in English, all seem to be from the US. Fellow countrypersons, please make an effort.

tinyurl.com/a5xl9m8

My current fantasy of a month in Paris involves sitting in Cafe Hugo every morning as soon as they open, nursing an espresso or two and reading a chapter or two of Liu's nicely translated Hunchback of Notre-Dame, then walking over the the cathedral and soaking up the atmosphere. Liu says, "Architecture is the real hero of the novel." That's a fun way to read the book.

tinyurl.com/bznrtn8

I like how the French appreciate beauty. Not just the womanly kind.

tinyurl.com/a8x8ko5

We often revolved around the Place de la Bastille. What golden creature tops that column? Maybe the spirit of Liberty. One day I noticed a Japanese tour group taking photos of an ordinary looking building there: the site of the Bastille, long ago leveled.

So, for us farewell to Paris. It's been fun.

tinyurl.com/a4zhjat

tinyurl.com/a2qd3wl
(H admires graffiti.)

tinyurl.com/ay8aq9b

LEAVING TOWN
I got Bob on the train early to CDG at Gare du Nord, then returned to the Bastille Metro. An official stopped me there, requesting my ticket. Typically I bend and shove them into my blazer pocket, so there were a few to choose among, and I was relieved that her scanner was satisfied. Carnets litter the streets and the underground; probably an Oystercard type method would help cut down on that.

The girls and I returned to Gare du Nord a few hours later for the Eurostar, catching the 56 bus near Chemin Vert on our landlord's recommendation.

LUNCH AMIDST THE LAW
Our previous two times in London, I'd tried to peek at the Middle Temple Hall, where Shakespeare first performed Twelfth Night for an audience that included Queen Elizabeth. Both of those times we were sternly turned away at the door.

A couple of months ago, dear annhig mentioned here that those who are not members could make reservations for lunch in the Hall. Hooray! It's some of Ann's old stomping grounds, so I gave it one more try, e-mailed, and got a positive reply.

Members of the Inns of Court and their guests may have lunch there, law students included, I think. Others may request in advance by email. According to the website, the hall is available for weddings, too.

We walked up to the door as if we owned the place, and this time the porters didn't give us a glance. No doubt we were surrounded by a golden aura of prebooked confidence.

The hall is magnificent, with a high double hammer beam wooden roof that blessedly survived the Great Fire and firebombing, though the end wall sustained bomb damage during WW2. There's a the musicians' gallery.

www.middletemplehall.org.uk/animation/images/hall.gif

Intricately carved wooden screen. High windows. Full length portraits of Queen Anne, Charles I, James I. There's an odd one of Eliz.I; probably a copy.

Four long tables run the length of the hall, with one crosswise on the stage. White gloved waiters. As we enter, the room is ~ 1/3 full, with a civilized murmur. The hostess, Jean, a motherly sort, shows us the ropes and indicates our reserved table, calls us "Darling." You can order from the carvery or help yourself from various stations.

We decide on the Chef's Special: coconut crusted halibut, watercress and potato soup, bread, salad, coffee for 10.75 GBP. It was delicious, especially the soup. We sat near the dessert station, and watched as mostly men spooned custard on top of some sort of delicious looking pudding. We refrained. You get your own coffee from a machine. An older man instructed me on the capuccino technique, then took the opportunity to flirt with H by telling her I seemed to have the hang of it.

Towards on end of the room twenty or so people seated together look like students, until we notice they all have Middle Temple shopping bags at their feet. We peg them as a tour group and are secretly glad we have no such identifying bags. I secretly hope we resemble a big shot QC and her intern.

Mostly I sit back and soak up the atmosphere. It's a wonderful lunch. Thank you, Ann.

(I didn't notice any jeans, Ann, or trainers for that matter.)

>>What golden creature tops that column? Maybe the spirit of Liberty.<<

Exactly so, it seems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Column

What a great eye for telling detail in those photos, by the way.

Oh, thank you, Patrick. MC will appreciate that, especially since your own photography is so good (as seen on your blog.)

Also thanks for the wiki link. I kept thinking of it as Mercury, but the wings would be misplaced, and didn't notice a broken chain in his hand. The sculptor captures Liberty very nicely, doesn't he? Catching the first morning rays during market, late at night lit by floodlights, he's easy to grow fond of.

By the way, if you arrive at Middle Temple at the right hours you can get in to see the hall. Our mistake the other times was, I think, getting there during lunch service.

Stoke - I am so pleased that you enjoyed your lunch in Middle Temple Hall.

your account brought back so many memories. did you see anything of the gardens?

MC, H and I had cut through the Temple area the previous week walking to Borough Market, enjoyed seeing the grounds, peeked over the Middle Temple Garden fence. It didn't seem that the garden was open, and since it was January we weren't so much in garden mode.

By the time H and I finished our memorable Middle Temple lunch we had already climbed to the top of the Monument, then walked to and around the Museum of London, so we were ready to head back to Bloomsbury and see if the maids had finished with our room. (They hadn't, but they were so sweetly apologetic and feudal that I had to call the desk to compliment them. It gave me a momentary flash of what the aristocracy must feel like all the time.)

I was surprised how much was in bloom, though. Several times in London and Hampstead we saw plum trees flowering; would that have been very early? Window boxes full of cyclamen everywhere, the occasional sheltered rose.

LONDON

Our debate continues: would we rather live in London, and pop over to Paris frequently, or the other way around? Though the contingency is remote, I'd opt for a village within an hour train ride of either one, and a lifetime rail pass.

On the Eurostar towards Paris I'd been too jetlagged to enjoy the scenery, so was glad to have a window seat coming back. Misty green fields, the occasional rural village.

Light rain on our arrival at St. Pancras, almost the only such weather the whole trip. I'd packed several pounds of MC's winter clothes from home, to exchange for professional wear it turned out she didn't need in France, so we were all fairly loaded down including their Paris shopping finds.

Now, how to get to Arran House, maybe a mile away? Obviously, this was the time for a cab. Instantly overruled, as I was every time I mentioned cabs the entire trip. (see "frugality" in title) OK, the Underground? Bus? Walk? Objections to all of these. H and I decided that remaining in the station and living on Paul cuisine was our only option, lacking the kind of friend we could call for a ride. We broke the impasse by unfurling umbrellas and setting off on foot. That worked just fine, cutting south of Euston as soon as we could, and the rain almost stopped by the time we arrived.

Several times in London and Hampstead we saw plum trees flowering; would that have been very early?>>

v v early, but London has its own micro-climate created by the warmth of all of those buildings.

ARRAN HOUSE HOTEL

We had a basic quad room at Arran House for a week in September '06, when the girls were 14 and 16, and we all loved it there. When we list our favorite breakfasts ever, it always makes the top ten, based on the communal international feeling rather than the food.

The South African staff and physician ownership changed apparently a few years ago, replaced by Indians, and that changes the atmosphere a little. The man at the front desk all our five days could not have been more lovely. It could use a little refurbishing, though, and housekeeping was a little random: one day they removed all of our towels, even those on the racks, and otherwise didn't touch the room. One day they'd replace our used teacups, other days leave everything on the mantel. These little things were remedied when mentioned at the desk.

This was our second trip where we stayed in an apartment in Paris and hotel in London, and we've liked it that way. For one thing, since we had to valuable Paris time for laundromat I only did that once, and our towels were far from fresh by the end of ten days. Clean hotel towels on demand felt luxurious.

We had a triple room at the front, first floor, with two shared lavatories and two shower rooms up a half flight; never had to wait. Gower is a fairly busy street, but the previous owners had installed a second set of windows for soundproofing and weather insulation. We used the resulting cool windowsill as a refrigerator. With earplugs I slept well next to the windows, and could tell from increasing traffic sounds when it was time to be up and about.

The "full English" is included in price, slightly less luxurious than our last visit -- no mushrooms or pain au chocolat -- but still plenty good. Eggs, thick bacon, beans, tomatoes. There's very nice porridge, fruit, juice, cocoa, coffee, tea. I was among the first down there and had a second cup with the girls later. It was fun observing the other guests. One time two German women and their teenage daughters came in seemed just delighted with the breakfast spread, took photos of it.

H and MC struck up some acquaintances in the lounge and breakfast room, another benefit of such a hotel since human interaction is limited in London. One young German chemist was spending some time at the University nearby, and a couple from Shropshire were in town catering a big party. We all liked the lounge, with its big leather chairs and an assortment of British tabloid journalism plus the Times.

Oh, thanks Ann. That makes sense. Nothing seemed in bloom in the countryside from the bus windows on our Oxford trip.

" I'd opt for a village within an hour train ride of either one,"

As one of the very few people on earth who lives in what Americans would call a village (we've been calling it a town for the past 800 years) within an hour's railway journey of either, a slight puncturing...

To "insure" a Eurostar booking in conjunction with another railway journey (ie to guarantee you'll be booked without extra payment on the next Eurostar if your arriving connection is late: the railway equivalent of an airline "safe" interline connection), the domestic connection must be scheduled to arrive 90 mins or more before the Eurostar departure, and vv on return.

I's a seven minute walk from our house to the station. So it's at least 5.5 hours from our house to Paris by train - which in effect makes it virtually impossible to do a same-day return.

For just a meeting or a trade show, we still fly. SE England is surrounded by airports with Paris flights, and for the overwhelming majority of us, driving/flying is still faster if speed is essential. Trains almost inevitably require an overnight

THE DOUBLETREE HILTON and a peek into THE CELTIC

MC had to return to France after five days in London, and H and I switched to our prebooked Hotwire deal at the Doubletree Hilton on Southampton Row, just around the corner from the British Museum. We got requested twin room, and were able to check in early.
http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hotels/united-kingdom/doubletree-by-hilton-hotel-london-west-end-LHRLBDI/index.html

Newly redone and very comfortable, well run hotel in a good location. Our room was on the 4th floor, with a sliver of a view to the east, and was perfectly quiet. H was glad to be back in the ensuite bathroom class, and ours was very nice. Well equipped gym.

It's well located, with bus lines running both north and south as well as the ones on High Holborn Street. Halfway between Holborn and Russell Square tube stops. 24 hr convenience store, small Tesco, three chain coffee shops, and a small pharmacy within two blocks. Easy walk to Covent Garden, West End, Fitrovia pubs.

In the past I had considered Celtic (merged with St. Margaret's) Hotel on a walk in that neighborhood, so looked in for future reference: http://www.stmargaretshotel.co.uk/W_e_l_c_o_m_e.html
It's a half block off Southampton Row on a quieter side street near Russell Square. The clerk let me peek into a room. Clean, two lounges, white tablecloth breakfast room on the first floor.

Oh, that's all right, Flanner. In this fantasy I'm happy to spend several hours in Paris at a time.

make that several nights

And days?

LOTS of days.

" I'd opt for a village within an hour train ride of either one,">>

<<It's a seven minute walk from our house to the station. So it's at least 5.5 hours from our house to Paris by train - which in effect makes it virtually impossible to do a same-day return>>

we used to do day trips to France from our Kent village [which was within an hour's commute of london] but by car through the vehicle tunnel. and we didn't attempt to go to Paris; we saw Lille, Amiens, Arras, St. Omer, Calais, Boulogne, [the latter we went to quite often when there was still the hovercraft service] and generally explored that bit of France, which was surprisingly nice.

sadly it's much too far from where we live now to do less than a long weekend - it's 1 1/2 hours to the port at Plymouth, then a 6 or so hour crossing to Roscoff, which is quite a long way from the main part of Brittany - say 10 hours or so before we get to anywhere we want to be.

COMEDY, THEN TRAGEDY. LUCKILY, ALL ONSTAGE

Please do yourself a favor and see One Man Two Guvnors, currently at the Royal Haymarket. Our tickets were in the upper regions, the kind where you ask the usher inside and then embarrassingly must go outside to a separate poor person's entrance and climb some stairs. So worth it, though, and so fun.

First, and here and there throughout, a skiffle band. The play, set in Brighton, starts in non-BBC accents difficult for outlanders to understand, so it was fully five minutes before H, MC and I were collapsed in helpless laughter. We remained that way for most of the evening. James Corden was there that night as Francis, and whoever played Alfie was great.

Then, Thursday evening we went to the Royal Opera House to see La Boheme. I've seen it several times before, but especially wanted to see Rolando Villazón as Rodolfo and had gotten our lower slips tickets months before. As the time got closer I knew it was chancy that Villazón would sing, and sure enough he was ill and replaced for that performance. No matter: it was a wonderful production, and I can't have been the only one dabbing at my eyes towards the end.

In the last scence, though, the loudest display of psychosomatic coughing I've ever seen. We're always hearing about how silent European audiences are, so these can only have been out-of-continent-ers. Mimi comes to the bohemians' flat, dying of consumption. She coughs. Within 30 seconds, throughout the hall, and for the rest of the opera, unstifled, deep-chested, full-throated hacking from at least six different people. If it hadn't half drowned the gorgeous music it would have been almost humorous. Afterwards, filing down stairs, people commented on the "bloody audience."

lol, stoke, love your description of psychosomatic coughing.

perhaps it's catching like yawning.

>>perhaps it's catching like yawning.<<

Perhaps their tiny hands were frozen.

(Unlikely at the ROH, but you never know).

stoke- perhaps it's the "la Boheme" effect - when we saw it in Budapest, quite a few of the audience left before the end. I couldn't believe that they could be so rude.

perhaps they knew what happened at the end!

Maybe, Ann!

My first ROH visit was more than twenty years ago, with my mother to see Cosi Fan Tutte. She had whispered a question to me just as the overture started, and I leaned over to barely breathe a few words into her ear -- honest! barely! And was immediately and thoroughly shushed. There might have been stern facial expressions too, but I didn't look around to investigate.

So I thought, "Excellent! high audience standards!" Compared to some not-even-sotto voce extended conversations at operas and symphonies here, I thoroughly approve.

Where were those militant shushers on January 3? Did sympathy for poor dying Mimi extend to all others afflicted? Or solidarity with Villazón's respiratory infection.

FOOD

MC had been craving Mexican food the past few months. She says the French don't understand it, and after seeing Paris description of a "Mexican" dish featuring ketchup and mayonnaise I saw what she meant. At one point she considered going to a Chipolte Grill chain in Montmartre, but I held out promise of the real thing in London.

Yes! Thank you, Seamus, for recommending Lupita's. That place conclusively ends their making fun of my fodors habit.

We made Lupita's our first food stop pre-1Man2Guv: an easy bus ride to Trafalgar Sq and another block up the Strand. Easily my favorite Mexican restaurant. As we ate that first meal we plotted at least one more. 1Resto2Days for us, great both times. I had the tortilla soup.

My favorite pub food was at The Fitzroy on Charlotte street. Everything being carried past us looked and smelled good, too. We had the fish cakes.

Stoke, your DD would have serious ethnic food withdrawal symptoms in Cornwall. Throughout the whole county there's one decent chinese restaurant and really no good indian restaurants, though there are a couple of nepalise ones. a couple of Thai restaurants aren't bad and there was a Japanese, but it closed down. OTOH you can get decent Italian food and loads of good fish from the poshest fish restaurant to the smallest chippie.

but no mexican food so far as I know.

I'd be happy to make do with loads of good fish and the occasional Thai. If our ancestors could live on porridge, dried crusts of bread and dandelion greens, it should be good enough for this soft younger generation.

My favorite tea time was at Cocomaya, across from and a little east of the V&A while we were waiting for the girls' time at the ballgown exhibit. (2 for 1 with our Eurostar ticket. I didn't care so much to see it, messed around in other areas and walked past E.F.Benson's house in Brompton Square just for fun.) Cocomaya serves tea in mismatched jumble pots and cups, has a soothing atmosphere.

tinyurl.com/b4m2bn2

We had afternoon tea at Richoux in Mayfair one afternoon; very nice.

tinyurl.com/bz9477j

I like your tea-shops, stoke, especially the one with the mismatched china.

so like home!

The "free cuppa" at Twining's on the Strand, at the back of the store, a few sips they sold in neighborhood of £18 for 100 g loose, was delicious, and will probably be my acme lifetime tea fanciness. We bought various individual packets, the better to slip into our suitcases.

tinyurl.com/baznjsu

a bit of refreshment at Borough Market

We stopped and watched the skaters at Somerset House on our way from Trafalgar Square: Twinings, through the Temple grounds, across Blackfriar's Bridge and then to Borough Market. A classic walk.

tinyurl.com/a2tfwsn

tinyurl.com/am3tbyv

tinyurl.com/ag3za3f
My girls liked her style despite maybe underage lipstick.

tinyurl.com/ajo4lja

If I'm in the V&A (and if I'm in London I will be, at least once) I always have "tea" there. I can't pass up the opportunity to sit in the gorgeous Arts and Crafts tea rooms, and the scone and clotted cream is generous. Unkind to mention the ball gown exhibition, though... ("tea" because I drink coffee, or jasmine or white tea, not black.)

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT FOOD

H bought us dinner at Tas Bloomsbury. We'd never had much Turkish food before, and liked it very much. Delicious mezze, hummus and soup. White tablecloth atmosphere, attentive waiters.

I signed up online as a "Friend of Brown's", got a coupon for dinner for two, two courses each and a bottle of wine, for £29. http://www.browns-restaurants.co.uk/locations/covent-garden/. It was their January-February special.
The Covent Garden location on St. Martin's Lane is a handy walk from Southampton Row, so H and I went later in the week, enjoyed it very much. We had a friendly Transylvanian waiter. I admired the graceful -- almost Chaplinesque -- way he dodged with trays around patrons and tables, and though it was busy he hung around awhile, exchanged origin info, chatted. (This chatting happens more often when I'm with my daughters, somehow.)

One day H and I took the bus to Kensington High Street to drop her off for the shops. We got carryout, the only option, at The Sandwich Shop halfway down Gloucester Road towards Cromwell Road. Cheap, ethnic and fun, and my spicy chicken baguette was very good. We ate as we walked, enjoyed seeing another kind of neighborhood.

Hummus Bros, (motto Give Peas a Chance) on Southampton Row just southeast of Great Russell St. in Victoria House. Good place for lunch when visiting British Museum, and very handy to our hotel.

Hi, thursdays,

I agree! We looked in the gorgeous V&A tea rooms, hoping to stay there, and they were mobbed. This was January 3, I think, still school holidays, and the atmosphere was far from the serenity I most value in a tearoom.

My young fashionistas enjoyed the ballgowns a lot, if I may be unkind one more time.

Definitely unkind! The costume section is one of my favorites, and it was closed for renovation the last time I was in London. Did you also find the newish, and stunning, jewelry section upstairs?

Thanks for the mention of Tas Bloomsbury, I'll add to the list.

Before the opera MC, H and I went to the Pizza Express just across from ROH.

This was the end of our V&A day and our timing was tight. After standing in line for awhile we knew we'd only make the curtain if we ordered a few quick things. Our waiter, an older British guy, was cheery and pleasant until he heard our non-drinks, just-a-pizza-and-some-salads order. He turned in a flash into the rudest single server we'd ever seen, amusingly so, and maintained that throughout the rest of the meal.

I dashed over and got out tickets at Will Call while the food was preparing, and we were able to pay, get out the doors and across the street, up the elevator and into our seats with a couple of minutes to spare. A young waitress gave us a sympathetic smile as we left.

Yes, thursdaysd, we love the Jewellery gallery. We had visited there a few years ago, and stopped in again this time. We also really liked the theatre exhibits. My favorite thing this time was having leisure to sketch Greek and Roman sculpture and watch people.

stoke- love the somerset house pics. When I worked in London it was part of the High Court as well as the public record office and I well remember standing where the ice rink is now freezing my socks off waiting for the doors of the court to open when i had an early hearing. [it didn't matter if you had a 10 am hearing, they still only let you in at 9.55 so you had to interview your client/s out in the cold!]

I guess these days you'd arrange to meet your clients at one of the Starbucks that seems to be on every block. What do they use those buildings for now, besides the museum and café?


I'll continue this report here:

tinyurl.com/axbnnqu

under another alias , where it's easy to post photos. Thank you all for your comments and patience!

(I mean the Somerset House buildings, Ann.)

"Please do yourself a favor and see One Man Two Guvnors, currently at the Royal Haymarket"

Stokebailey - I did myself a favor and did just that! Your post was just the "push" I needed. DH and I are going to London next month and had already booked tickets for "Peter and Alice" with Judy Dench. This trip is mostly about day trips out of London and there was only 1 night available to squeeze in another play, but that's what I did - hope James Corden is appearing that night!

Also, thanks for the Lupita's recommendation - our rental flat is almost next door to this restaurant (on John Adam St.).

I guess these days you'd arrange to meet your clients at one of the Starbucks that seems to be on every block. What do they use those buildings for now, besides the museum and café?>>


Stoke, I honestly don't know what the part of Somerset House that used to "house" the court and the record office is used for now. I just read the Wiki entry which talks about recent use by HMRC [the revenue] and other gov depts, but as it makes no mention of its having been a court, I'm not inclined to give it too much credence.

so your guess is as good as mine!

I am loving your report!! Your daughter takes amazing pics!!! is the Candy Man at Boroughs Market?? I will be looking for him!!! We had amazing mushroom patee last time!!!

Somerset House has played host to all kinds of government offices and public institutions over the past couple of centuries, and the allocation of space has been in constant flux.

The modern complex was quite deliberately designed, relatively recently in the 1780's, as an imposing home for whatever government offices needed housing (it's merely on the site of a posh house built by the then Duke of Somerset: there've been a few rebuildings since). There was never one specific use it was intended for.

Conventional wisdom these days is that it's in the wrong place, and is too encumbered with protection orders, to be terribly useful as a place for modern bureaucrats to work in productively.

So, apart from the Courtauld Gallery, it now houses a large space for temporary exhibitions, loosely connected with fashion. It's also the semi-permanent home of London Fashion Week. In the early 1980s, Courtaulds was still the world's largest textile manufacturer, by turnover: the family founding the business came here as Huguenot refugees, set themselves up as silversmiths for three generations (quite fine ones, as their corporate archive on display in the Gallery shows), then moved into weaving. Though the megacorp it turned into more or less self-destructed in the Great Deindustrialisation, Courtauld family foundations contributed quite a bit to the Somerset House refurbishing in the 1990s and 2000s. In principle, the plan is for the space to be used for what you might call creative enterprises

Apart from the several cafes and a decent destination restaurant, there's a fair amount of imposing and well maintained space left empty to be hired out for film shoots, weddings or conferences. There's a dozen or two creative-y businesses or foundations based in the complex, and there are a lot of quite imaginative uses the central courtyard gets put to, including ice skating and open air film performances.

But I suspect there's a lot of empty space looking for a revenue-generating use, and I don't know how much of that space is actually fit for human occupation in an era of draconian workplace safety laws.

It also gets used as a film location. One Open House weekend, I went on tour around it, which took us into the basements (some remains of the original Tudor building and its then uses - it housed the Portugese Embassy for a while and was allowed to have its own Catholic chapel as a result) and the service corridor that runs round the central courtyard under buttresses and arches, which I've seen serving in several period TV series as some mysterious/dangerous London alleyway. Plus there are some elegant staircases, as you would expect in a building of the period. It was the Navy Office in Nelson's day, but I don't know if any of the posher boardrooms and their fitments survive from that time.

It was the Navy Office in Nelson's day, but I don't know if any of the posher boardrooms and their fitments survive from that time.>>

if they did, they were not on display to those of us attending the courts there in the 70s and 80s. if not Dickensian, they were very utilitarian, with no private conference facilities, phones, or cloakrooms, and subterranean loos.

no glamour there.

Thank you for that, flanner. That would explain this photo MC took a few years ago.

http://tinyurl.com/ayrdbxt

It was May then, and children were wading in the courtyard, not skating.

I'd like to take that tour you describe, Patrick.

Also would like someone to make more movies of the Aubrey/Maturin novels, and use the Nelson era staircases for when he's in town getting raked over coals by his Royal Navy superiors. Russell Crowe would still make a good Aubrey.

dorfan, so hope you like 1Man2Guv. I'd have gone back the next night if I could. I read a reviewer who thought that Corden's replacement at the Royal Haymarket was every bit as excellent in his own way, so it would be fun to see them both.

oh2doula, Thank you. Yes, the Candyman was at Borough Market. I love that place.

WHERE DID ALL THE INTERNET CAFES GO?

I had a notion of getting up nerve to organize a GTG in London, was never sure how the timing would work, so I kept putting it off.

H and I traveled without any sort of internet device, but I hoped that after MC left with her laptop I could try something last minute, and check my email and so forth at one of the many internet cafes we saw around London 3.5 years ago.

The Doubletree Hilton, as is usual with such places, had a business center where you could use a computer for 5 GBP/hour. I scoffed at that overpricing and kept my eyes peeled for the closest internet cafe. Then we looked for any such place whatsoever.

Finally I saw one on Oxford St, west of the Tottenham Ct. Rd. tube stop on the south side of the street, and I went there one morning at 0930 to find it closed. Later in the week we went by in the evening, and found the "cafe": a few computers in a tiny basement corner under a t-shirt and souvenir shop. So that was fine, and it worked, and I probably wouldn't have had courage/time for a GTG this trip anyway.

Since MC pays so little for her Blackberry service in France, may I assume everyone now carries a handheld internet device, and that such cafes have gone the way of livery stables?

Your assumption seems to be correct. I first noticed the disappearance of internet cafes in Europe a few years back. You still find them in countries with a lower standard of living. I usually don't stay in places expensive to charge for net access, but when I do I look for a cafe with wifi (I have been traveling with a netbook or tablet for several years.

i think you're right, stoke. the vast majority of my colleagues who are under 40 have i-phones; I'm looked on as a dinosaur because I've got a blackberry. and most of them have i-pads as well.

It's a whole new world out there.

>>It's a whole new world out there.<<

At Christmastime, my seven-year-old great nephew was showing his one-year old brother how Daddy's tablet computer worked; and the little one spent a fair bit of time trying to work out why tapping and swiping at the TV screen didn't make it do anything.

"may I assume everyone now carries a handheld internet device, and that such cafes have gone the way of livery stables?"

Not quite. I still see handwritten "internet cafe" signs around the main stations, though not so many. There's an awful lot of wifi hotspots - and a lot more if you live here, since a number of phone companies (including BT, the legacy landline business, and Virgin Media) offer free wifi in thousands of locations to their subscribers. Most "metics" (google it) live in a shared flat so they get free access that way these days, or get it at work or college.

And a growing number of us carry those pocket devices as well.

Which just leaves those hard-core tourists odd enough to travel without a laptop of tablet (why?). Who are so numerically trivial in a city London's size (most foreign voices you hear live here) there's little point anyone trying to save them money.

For future trips, go to the Trip Advisor forum and ask about wifi hotspots in any substantial Western European city you're likely to be in. But I'm afraid leaving home without a tablet or laptop is sort of like not having a mobile phone these days.

And yet I thrive without enriching the tablet manufacturers; someday will become so numerically trivial as to approach vanishing point. If you're defending London against me, flanner, save your breath. I forgive it entirely.

Maybe I should have tried swiping the TV screen.

I forgot to answer flanner's possibly sincere question: why anyone would be so odd as to travel without laptop or tablet.

I can only speak for myself: I enjoy traveling untethered to the rest of the world. I like being where I am at the time and being with the people I'm with. I spend my working days attached to a computer and a telephone, and thankfully I am not important enough that my workplace needs me when I'm gone.

I didn't want hourly or even daily updates on how Bob's cold was progressing. I didn't need to keep up with the fiscal cliff situation. Internet cafes were handy the previous time, once or twice a week. It's nice to be able to check a museum's hours or restaurant address. If I'd really cared to I could have spent the 5 GBP and logged on.

On the day I left H on Kensington High St. and she was later getting back than I had expected, I might have called her if we'd had phones. We didn't, and she made it back just fine without my interference.

"I enjoy traveling untethered to the rest of the world"

You don't have to turn the gizmo on all the time! I find having a tablet or netbook essential, since I travel for several weeks at a time and need to reconfirm reservations and even make some on the road. I like to post blog and TR entries and it's much nicer to do that from my room. But it's locked in my bag or a room safe during the day. I travel solo and I also like to be able to listen to audio books at dinner.

LIFETIME SO FAR PUB REVIEWS (from someone who thinks a half pint is plenty) IN THE BLOOMSBURY/FITZROVIA/HOLBORN AREAS, AND ONE ON THE STRAND.

My daughters are 21 and 22, and were my perfect companions for exploring pubs. A half pint, some London atmosphere, and we were content.

First I'll mention the ones dear late Cholmondley-Warner had suggested when my older daughter and I were there four years ago:

The Hope on Tottenham St. just behind the Goodge St. tube stop.
www.fancyapint.com/Pub/london/the-hope/272
I found the music too loud for conversation. It's been refurbished since we met CW there; at that time it dripped authenticity but not charm. London Pride and cider are good bets.

The Newman Arms just off Charlotte St. in Fitzrovia.
www.newmanarms.co.uk/
Prettier, stays crowded. We stood outside. I wouldn't mind trying one of their pies sometime.

One evening MC, H and I took a bus along the Strand/Fleet St./Cannon St./etc., from Trafalgar Sq. to the Tower, hoping to sight Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese so we could stop on the way back. No luck. This was not the only time I half-wished London were a little more like Chicago: laid out on a sensible grid, streets that stayed the same name for blocks at a time, and numbers that made sense.

We got out at the Tower, walked across Tower Bridge and back. Beautiful windy walk, not many people on the bridge, MC wishing for her camera. Back on the bus, Fleet St. flitted by, and we decided just to ride on to the Coal Hole on the Strand. http://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/thecoalholestrandlondon/
This attractive dark wood pub was just crowded enough that we could stand at the bar and then snag a seat. We liked the cider here. Not at all infested with tourists.

Another missed pub I'd still like to try, but at an off time: The Princess Louise. We walked over on Friday evening, but I mistakenly took us up Theobald Rd. instead of Holborn. We realized our mistake and headed down Red Lion St to High Holborn then west, found the beautiful Princess Louise.
http://www.pubs.com/main_site/pub_details.php?pub_id=182
We circled around all of the intimate seating areas that circle the center bar, divided by etched glass and wood panels, but there was not a decent space for the three of us to alight.

We walked back to Red Lion St. to check out some of the places we'd walked by. There was an almost empty Indian restaurant that we passed three times, and each time the staff seemed to light up with the hope of paying customers; the last two times we avoided eye contact. The three pubs at the Theobald Rd. end didn't work: bad music, or the atmosphere wasn't right, so we settled on the Old Red Lion at the corner of High Holborn. Pleasant Victorian style atmosphere, just crowded enough, good beer.
http://www.fancyapint.com/Pub/london/old-red-lion/189

One tourist-guide-mentioned pub we walked into but didn't stay was the Museum Tavern, across from the British Museum. Both evenings we looked in it seemed too sedate.

Fitzrovia has plenty of choices. We liked the Fitzroy Tavern on a chilly evening near closing time. There seemed to be more women there, in groups and in couples, than the average, and the fish cakes were tasty. http://www.pubs.com/main_site/pub_details.php?pub_id=80
Apparently both George Orwell and Dylan Thomas hung out at several Fitzrovia pubs during their BBC years.

Another evening H and I drank our halfs at the Duke of York, another pleasant spot. http://94.236.109.234/Pub/london/duke-of-york/5

On H and my last evening in town, a Thursday that had started with a climb up the Monument and found us on our way back from the Thames Clipper at Embankment Pier, we walked around Fitzrovia looking for a quiet place to sit and grab a bite. Everything was mobbed at that time. including upstairs and down at the lovely Wheatsheaf http://94.236.109.234/Pub/2
and the Bricklayers' Arms. http://94.236.109.234/Pub/1292A

We walked back to a little Cosmo Place off Southhampton Row near our hotel, and The Swan. This was the first tourist-dominated pub we'd visited, or maybe it just seemed that way because we were wedged next to a very talkative couple of American young women, whose conversation was too easy to overhear. Still, the barstaff was sweet and the food was chain-type decent.