Archive for the ‘Espaces verts: respirez! / Parks, etc…: breathe!’ Category
Post-it for the week-end (Dec 19-20)
Fed up spending your evenings wrapping a mountain of presents in golden gift paper? Chill out!
- Mix your own soda on Thursday…
- Take your kids to the Scoop on Friday to sing Xmas…
- Or play Gay Bingo on Friday at Selfridge’s…
- Munch your way through the slow food market on Southbank or at the Real food market at Covent Garden, more gourmet.
- Have the kids create their own Xmas disguise…
- Or ride in a carriage at Kew Gardens…
- A little flight simulation, guys?
- Or would you prefer a pint and some table football?
- Have a look at the new Sherlock Holmes @ Mme Tussaud (and double the occasion with the Sherlock Holmes museum a few steps away)
- Listen to poetry and short stories in Hyde Park while eating mince pies…
- Grab a glass of mulled wine and listen to Xmas carols @ Covent Garden…
- Stop at St Pancras and see ice sculptures…
- Watch the Chinese Circus and dream…
- Add a little pop street art…
You’ll find me at the All of everything exhibition between two suitcases to be packed…
Find peace in the Kyoto Garden
I stumbled upon this Japanese garden in Holland Park. It just invites you to sit and forget about your day…
This originally was a gift from the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce for the Japanese festival in 1991. Very traditional. Trees are cut respecting the natural shape of the branches. The cascade is in 3 steps and represent miniature mountains and gorges while the pond symbolises the quietness of the ocean.
It’s easy to be hypnotised byt the clouds refecting in the water – soothing. Only the koi, the Japenese carps will wake you up with a splash of colour…
There’s a crazy shop out there
Celine had intrigued me with this out-of-the-ordinary shop window, made of used teabags to create various tones and colours. Well targeted isn’t it?
I found it on my way to the Marmite pop-up shop. Do step in and enjoy the Alice au pays des merveilles meets Tim Burton atmosphere. From the vegetal wall to the snuggled walls via the china mosaic skirt… this is not a shop, more an art gallery, a lifestyle, an experience, a walk in the wildest dream…
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Sorry? Oh, yeah, it does also sell clothes, furniture, house items. Unfortunately, most of them are really bad for your bank account. However they do boost your spirits!
Anthropologie
158 Regent St
London W1B 5SW
T’is the season to be merry IV
Si Burlington Arcade ne semble pas, au premier coup d’oeil, etre passee a l’heure de Noel, c’est qu’il faut considerer la gallerie dans ses details…
If Burlington Arcade may not seem festive at first sight, check again, it is all into small details…
A moins que vous ne preferiez les trucs en plume?
Unless you prefer a gift hunting approach?
Chez Ted Baker, les festivites s’annoncent cocasses…
Ted Baker much prefers a humorous xmas…
Les petits et grands enfants prefereront Winter Wonderland dans Hyde Park. De jour, simple fete foraine, un peu factice, mais ideale pour les petits. De nuit, la magie surgit, elle brille de mille feux…
There’s something for everyone, though @ Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. By day, it does look a bit tacky, a giant fairground, ideal when you have kids. But by night, oh, how magical!
Inutile de resister, la grande roue vous tend les bras… Vous apercevrez l’autre roue de Londres, the Big Eye et Westminster. £7.45 la place, mais largement le temps de remplir vos yeux d’etoiles…
Don’t even think of resisting, how could you not go on the big wheel? You’ll even see the London Eye and Westminster from up there. Not cheap @ £7.45/person, but well enough time to fill your eyes or camera with pretty lights…
Winter Wonderland
Hyde Park
London
Jusqu’au 03 janvier 2010
Until january 03. 2010
Ghost forest @ Trafalgar square
The idea was so good. Ten tree stumps, taken from rainforests, their tortured roots screaming silently towards a threatening sky, creepy shadows all around you, the ghost of a disappearing forest, far away but one day, close to you, this small of wet earth, a red, bleeding earth. the atmosphere should move you, make you shiver, shake you, upset you, make you shout no to deforestation.
I just couldn’t project myself. Too much of a daily dose of ecology? Too much a gap with the place? Too flashy the lights? Too purple the fountains around, clasing with the sadness it should have involved? Who knows. Don’t get me wrong – such projects are to be encouraged. Bring it closer to the people, make them see, reinforce the subject. it just didn’t do anything for me.
Different, educative, yes, of course. I had never imagined those trees grew higher that Nelson’s column. Makes you appreciate better the impact of any of those disappearing. Kids remain impressed by the width of the trunks.
To be seen if you’re around trafalgar square, for your green side of you, for the event, for the change of scene. maybe not worth crossing the toen, just for this. No worry, you can follow everything on the webcam.
Want to know more? Click here for the artist’s interview and there for her project…
Ghost Forest
Trafalgar square
London
Until November 22, 2009
Post-it for the week-end (Nov 20-22)
A hot chocolate, a new scarf and gloves, and here you go. Plenty to see this week-end to get into the Xmas spirit. Not that you can really escape it!
- Start on Southbank – either with the Slowfood market (jazz themed this time) or the Cologne Xmas market…
- Oxford street launches its market this week as well…
- Want more? Head to Hyde Park for a walk and a big wheel ride with the Winterwonderland…
- Stop @ Covent Garden for the Lacoste experience or simply for the kids to enjoy candlelit stories…
- Head to Victoria station or Westfield to see the Cirque du soleil (and hopefully win free tickets!)…
- See another dimension in Trafalgar square with the ghost forest…
- Take the kids to the London children film festival…
- Want to make them gasp in wonder? Have a walk with them in the Enchanted forest @ Syon Park. Thousands of lights in the trees. £5 per adult, £2 per kids – quite cheap for the thrill…
- Skate at the Somerset House. Have alook at the program: Breakfast @ tiffany’s matinees and DJ evenings!
Tis the season to be merry III
The Xmas spirit can be found a little here and a little there…
@ 7 dial, close to Covent Garden, less flashy lights but those suprising decorations, more Victorian, showing off the nearby Theatreland…
On the other side of town, trees are wearing their parade clothes:
So how could you resist skating @ the Natiral History Museum – so magical an atmosphere?
Little ones are not forgotten with this merry-go-round and wooden horses…
Surely, the museum must be green with envy! Or is it stuck in Halloween?
Post-it for the week-end (Nov 07-08)
My friends, it is time to switch to the winter mode:
- Have a look at the first Xmas lights on regent and Oxford St, lit since Tuesday…
- Friday evening, enjoy a late night @ the Transport Museum: electro music and cocktails!
- Travel to Hungary via Covent Garden…
- Put on gloves and scarves and skate @ the Natural History Museum…
- Start your Xmas shopping @ the Spirit of Xmas fair - always treasures to be found… I loved it 2 years ago. This time, I’ll go to the Country Living Xmas fair which starts next week.
- Stay in a festive mood – take the kids to Harrod’s Xmas parade. 11 designers have also decorated their Xmas tree…
- Stressed out? Have a musical yoga session in Shoreditch…
- Make it a real partyy with fireworks in Richmond!
I’ll be skipping London this week-end - getting my cheeks all pink in Cheshire, whether from a revigorating weather, a chimney fire or a glass of wine… How about you: inside cocooning or outside mad party?
The mystery sculpture
I have recently mentionne the tsone animal world of Trafalgar Square and the Natural History Museum. The latter still hides a suprise – outside, this time, just before the Wildlife Garden:
A huge bronze sculpture, mysterious, no lable nor signature. The museum archived, when asked, admitted they barely had any information. The architect of the building, Waterhouse, designed it. End of story.
This is a marvellous piece of work, really. Great for kids, tactile, miniatures water basins where birds come to drink after the rain, every centimeter reveals a new animal. I counted more than 70, ideal for a game of “I spy…”
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Rd
London SW7 5BD
London parks in a nutshell
In my daily rushed routine, where thoughts are always turned to saving time, I tend to settle for highstreet bookshops on my way. A quick look at the “must read” of the moments, flashy covers, take a few notes, order on Amazon to get a better price. So very practical but the process lacks little gems, tastes too much like the Entertainment section of the Times to be fully satisfying.
An improbable walk suddenly takes me through Holland Park, a few more streets and I am standing in front of Daunt, wooden frame, Edwardian look, one of those independant libraries that make you feel like sitting on the floor, build a castle of books around you and hide there for hours. They give you a taste back for adventure, exploration and losing complete track of time…
The London section is just amazing and I write down pages of references… My heart urges for the City, for its secret life.
In this Ali Baba cavern, I discover the Park Sories collection - 8 short stories taking place in London royal parks. Amazing isn’t it that this litterary genre tends to disappear when it probably is the most adapted to our way of life, always running, always commuting, never having much time for ourselves? This is the perfect format – can be read on the way to work, can fit easily in your handbag…
Of course, you can’t be a Londoner without have walked, strolled, jogged through our royal parks, circled the Serpentine, met at the Orangerie, sat in our of the deckchairs (and been made to pay for it), saluted St James’ pelicans, climbed up to Greenwich’s observatory, looked Richmond’s deers in the eyes…
I expected the parks to play a bigger role. I wanted historical details, caves, secrets, white pebbles I could follow next time. Quite the contrary – the park is just a background, a thread in the story. Disappointing? No - a different feeling arises. This infuses the park, your park, the one you knew for a particular buzz and atmosphere with a different personnality somehow – a different angle to look at it. It brings and emotion, an identity to it. Anf you will want to run at te Diana Memorial, fly away at St James, make fun of tourists at Greenwich, believe in ghosts in Green Park.
At £2 the book, is there realy any hesitation to be had? Go ahead. Fall in love with the vison of kensington by a little girl from Koweit (Hanan al-Shaykh, a beauty Parlour for the swans) and the sad magical love story in St James (Clare Wigfall, Along birdcage walk).
Park stories
Available on the Royal Parks website or at Daunt Books (several branches)
