London: Tea Time in Wonderland

I don’t know why, I always imagine Sherlock Holmes walking out of this shop. The refinement, the quaintness, the meticulousity of each detail.

In the 19th century, umbrellas and canes completed the perfect gentleman’s uniform – most elegant and practical final touch. James Smith opens his store in 1830 on Fourbet street: he makes and repairs brollies of all kinds. His son takes over in1867 and opens up at this location.

Time has literally stopped. Both the façade and internal fittings are original and Grade II listed. So picturesque! Varnished wood, walking sticks with delicate sculpted handles, serious umbrellas or laced sunshades, aligned by theme or colour. Did Mary Poppins get hers here?

Only concession to the modern era, the fabric used is now nylon. The umbrellas are still mainly made on site, in the basement. I was lucky on several visits to see one of the crafters sitting near the counter with a brolly frame in his hand. Fascinating work, almost touching in this lovely old fashioned background…

Their motto is a pure gem of British humour:

Outside every silver lining is a big black cloud...

James Smith & Sons
Hazelwood House
53 New Oxford Street
London WC1A 1BL

Comptez sur Londres pour vous offrir un bouquet de bonnes idées au quotidien.

Aujourd’hui, je  craque pour Housebites. Cette équipe gourmande, fan de restaurants undergrounds et de belles expériences gourmandes, souhaite mettre cette passion en avant. Vous aimez les diners avec atmosphere mais pas le cote guinde des restaurants? Vous aimez les surprises, discuter avec le chef, rencontrer des passionnes? Ou au contraire, vous avez toujours voulu tenir un restaurant et adorez cuisiner pour une joyeuse tablee?

Suivez-les, ils rassemblent tout ce petit monde! Vous pouvez grâce à eux découvrir des restaurants éphémères, des dîners privés… ou recevoir chez vous, pourquoi pas?

Ce week-end, une très belle occasion pour les découvrir: Le Savoy Truffle Supperclub propose un dîner au 29ème etage d’un bâtiment du West End.  Fête des papilles et vue sublime au programme! Le chef, Gavin Billness, ayant rencontré un franc succès au dernier Restaurant Festival, l’occasion, donc, de rencontrer une étoile qui monte… Tenez, voici une de ses créations pour finir de vous convaincre:

You can count on London to be bubbling with ideas.

My latest favourite is Housebites. This passionate team, fascinated with underground restaurants and amazing culinary experiences, wanted to share it with others, make them discover a brand new world. Love dinners but hate the too strict and noisy restaurant atmospheres? Love surprises, a talk with the chef, meet people as curious as you are? Or are you on the other side of the looking glass, an amazing cook and enjoy preparing a themed meal for a group of friends?

Well, better follow them -  they bring everyone together! You will discover pop-up restaurants, private dinners or why not receive complete strangers, just for the fun of it for a delicious evening?

This week-end starts with a wonderful occasion to try them – the Savoy Truffle Supperclub proposes a dinner on the 29th floor of Centerpoint, in central London. Can you imagine the view? The chef, Gavin Billness has been very successful at the last Restaurant festival so here is you chance to discover a rising star. Need even more convincing? Just look at this:

(Oui, moi aussi, je salive) (Yeah, I’m dribbling too)

Housebite
Savoy Truffle Supperclub @ Centrepoint
£55 le dîner, amenez votre bouteille de vin The dinner £55 is at £55/person, BYO
15 et 16 janvier 2011 à 19.00 – réservez sur le site Jan 15-16 2011 @ 19.00 – book on the website
Pour plus d’infos sur Housebite, contactez Frances Cottrell: For more information on Housebite, contact Frances Cottrell: f.cottrell@myjam.co.uk

Vous vous demandez à quoi ressemble une soirée gourmande underground? Jetez un coup d’oeil à The Hidden Tearoom et au Restaurant Underground. Et puis découvrez la tendance par làWonder what an underground culinary evening must look like? Well, have a look @ The Hidden Tearoom and The restaurant underground.

When you think of a walk along the Thames, where do you go? Southbank, of course, from the London Eye to Tower Bridge. It is easy to forget that there might be other ways along the river.

Chelsea, for example, is a pretty change.

Green, lined with tichly decorated houses, it offers a view of the Asian pagoda in Battersea Park, on the laced inside of Battersea Station, and a lovely view of albert Bridge, probably the most beautiful in the capital (did you know it originally opened as a toll bridge? Not a success, only lasted 6 years).

Passing by a few days ago, how lovely to see that a little of Christmas had survived the holidays:

I had never paid attention to this lampost before -  how amazingly decorated: oak leaves, cornucopias, tridents, wreaths…
They were designed especially for this embankment opening back in 1874. Hats off!

Around:

- Chelsea Physics Gardens
- Les Chelsea pensioners The Chelsea pensioners
- Partridge’s

Why not try to see the Thames differently?

It’s always magical…

…to happen to be there when Tower bridge (the very first London bridge, by the way) opens up…

Did you know it also was a very romantic bridge?

Rather than rushing to the underground tunnels, jump in one of the vintage buses leaving from Trafalgar Square. Yes, real routemasters! With their rounder angles, thir bright ruby red, they bring a smile to the lips, like meeting an old friend. Even better, it will not cost you more than a normal bus fare and you can use your Oyster or Travel card… Two lignes depart from the square, #9 and #15. Prefer the latter which will take you up to the Tower of London.

You will drive through Fleet Street – look at the richly sculpted buildings, the Court of Justice… It was home to the most famous newspapers at one time. The second biggest river of the City (the first being the Thames, of course), Fleet, actually runs underneath. A few minutes later, you will be at St Paul’s – splendid view if you are on the deck level, worth a picture. Just adter the cathedral look out on your right for the Bracken House. The building may not look like much, with its brick walls but what an entrance with this one meter wide astronomical clock!

Bernard Bracken was pretty powerful in its time – chairman of the Times, no less! -  and had it installed in 1955. The paper was printed here until 1980 when new techniques forced a move to the Docklands.

The clock shows the time, date and zodiac signs in touches of blue enamel and gold metal. But focus on the center -  see the serious, almost stern face? This is Winston Churchill’s, personal friend of Bracken’s (who, by the way, worked for the politician as his Minister of Information). What a great proof of friendhsip and support to picture him as a sun God!

Feel like a walk with a difference? Well, you can try this one, following a sundial trail through London…

But if you prefer to continue on the Churchill theme, have a look at the splendid statue in front of the Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Or visit his War rooms, wher he took his strategic decisions.
The best place still is in Kent, if you have access to a car: in Chartwell sits his gorgeous home and you could swear he has just left the room, cigar in hand…

Pssst: did you know he used to buy his cheese from Paxton & Whitfield?

Shazam! This wonderful banner has been created by our talented friend Géraldine -  she just has this magic touch, you see…

Whether you speak French or not, do go and see her gorgeous pictures on her site. She has a rainbow skill -  everything just looks beautiful with her!

If you love moderne art, there is  no doubt you saw the Anish Kapoor exhibition @ the Royal Academy of Art. Walls of wax pushed through rooms, giant megaphones invaded them, strange pigment sculptures seemed to magically hang in the air.

On of the artist’s favourite basis is this metal like stainless steel. A whole room was dedicated to those mirror-sculptures with their air of transparency. Adults were like kids in a funfair…

Being a regular Kensington Gardens visitor, the artist carefully chose 4 location to set, or shall I say free?, pieces. Each plays of reflection, adding dimension to the park, bringing a notion of infinity. Limits fade away, trees grow larger. The geometry will erase shapes and add to the confusion with optical illusions.

The C-Curve does cover an interesting them. What can art be without a public to admire it? Just come closer -  it seems this sculpture wants to swallow you whole, make you her own…

Have a closer look. See that yellow jacket on the last picture? Well, security will be guarding them 24/7 for the coming 6 months. Not only to keep them safe from theft or any damage. Kapoor is very precise in the lines he chose -  they have to be pure, perfect, polished. Let passers by come to close and there is no doubt they will be covered in fingerprints in no time… They are meant to melt into the landscape and only natural influences (rain, dew…) will be tolerated.

Trace your way to the Round Pond. In the 90ies, the artist experimented with Sky Mirrors, like those. His sculptures can be considered non-objects -  they either swallow or disappear in their environment. The colour can likewise be called a non-colour, it reflects but has no name of its own. What you can see here is his first attempt at colouring them. The red is in constant evolution. Dark, glistening, foggy, angry depending on the height of clouds, violet when the sky is really blue. See it as an everlasting sunset, a Japanese red aura…

Further still is the amazing Spire -  a more dramatic effect. The axe stands up along the tree tops and the Albert Memorial triangular roof – as if it was trying to bring the gardens up, or listening to the ground, or is it maybe a drop of rain splashing in the grass?

The last one probably is the most hypnotising. It was presented last year in New-York, trapped between skyscrapers. This time, it seem strangely alien, a suspended world between earth and sky, almost a moon, a twilight zone opening on a different place… You can spend hours watching the clouds go by in it.

Anish, between two interviews, encourages visitors to come back, see those sculptures come alive under the sun and change with the seasons…

Pssst: Anish Kapoor will also be exhibiting in Paris in May 2011…

Turning the world upside down * Anish Kapoor
Kensington Gardens
London W2 3XA
Until March 13, 2010 -  free!

This is a real summer. I am amazed every single day by the lovely temperatures. Makes me feel like dancing and jumping around! Unfortunately,  when you are 3 weeks from giving birth, you look more like a whale, the elegance is gone. Soon snails will overcome me on the pavement. I’m counting on you to tell me about London gems!

- The free ping-pong tables project finally is launched tomorrow. Rush to St Pancras!

- You have until Friday to enjoy the food festival @ the Old Spitalfields market – cooking demonstration and free tasting, yummmy!

- On Friday, the Design Museum goes mad for recycling and green art. You can even try electric bikes. All this listening to a fab percussionist!

- Visit the parliament!

- Why not celebrate the 60ies @ Carnaby Street?

- Time to revise your Picasso knowledge…

- London parks are getting festive too!

- Add a pinch of poetry… and learn about Keats’ life right in the house and gardens where he used to live…

- Summer school holidays are on! Struggling to come up with ideas to keep the kids busy? You’re gonna love O2: mini golf, water games, trampolines…

- Or initiate them to opera with this version of Mr Fox -  only a few pounds.

- Did you know a few falcons actually nest on the Modern’s Tate chimney? Here is a chance to learn more!

- Sushi AND fusion food? Count me in!

- oh, and I’ll have cherry granita for desert…

- Speaking of ice-cream, Ben and Jerry’s launch their music and sweet treats festival this week-end @ Clapham…

- How could you resist a designers’ market?

- Follow Time Out to discover the oldest parts of London…

- Opera, art, walks, a pinch of madness with the in-transit festival….

- Too hot? I know what you need: a water tournament!

You’ll find me having a mocktail with friends @ Vista, a bar on a roof with a view on Trafalgar Square… I’ll also be following my friend Celine, a street-art specialist, to discover some more in London!

A real piece of heaven. And only 15 miles from London, can you believe it?

What? You did not know lavender could survive the usually humid British weather? Ah, yes indeed. Remember the famous Yardley… and Crabtree and Evelyn, of course… Both use English lavender exclusively.

Do go and discover Mayfield Lavender Farm. Contrary to Cotswold Lavender, who do make you pay to step into the fields, this family faarm welcomes you warmly and even invites you to picnic under the big tree, right in the centre of the plantations… It only takes a few seconds to feel completely soothed by the smell and feel like walking barefoot, caressing the flowers with your fingertips.

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Around you, kids run and jump, as if drunk with the perfume. Bees dance around, butterflies do not even seem to know where to start.

Although you cannot pick your own flowers, you can get lovely bunches at the shop for £3.50 as well as lavender plants from £2.50, soaps, perfumed sachets for your drawers, essentiel oil and even… lavender fudge! A mini-cafe will provide fresh and hot drinks and… lavender cupcakes, of course.

Come and see life in purple! The flower season lasts until July 27th.

Croydon Lane
Banstead
SM7 3BE

Opening hours vary through the year. In June and July, the flowering season, open from 10.00 to 19.00
Entry is free.

Londoners often sigh when looking at the entrance fee for Kew Gardens. 121 hectares of splendid land for sure, splendid Victorian greehouses of course… but £13.50? More than a trendy exhibition? When one has Hyde Park and Kensington gardens nearby? Let alone that this is not central London and that you need all your Vitamin C if you’re planning to take public transports with a pushchair…

The last few years, the park has done its best to seduce families again. Summer festivals, concerts in the summer, temporary exhibitions, free entry for kids… and even a great interactive covered play area where parents will gain at least an hour of peace no matter what the weather turns out to be.

Our favourite, the one that for us is worth every single penny of the ticket remains the tree topwalk. No way to beat this.

From afar, you only notice tree trunks.Come closer and you will glimpse rust-coloured pillars. Look up -  meet Xstrata (who the hell chose that name?), a walk that will take you 18 metres up (118 steps or a quick lift ride depending on your energy of the day) and which was built in 2008 by the same architects that did the London Eye.

Here you are, same level as the highest branches of those 200 years old chestnut trees… The kids love it. Engravings  at kids levels explain biodiversity, the role of seeds and birds. Afar, you can just make London profile, Wembley stadium and on good days even the gherkin. You’re right between the last leaves and the sky. A Peter pan feeling, freedom, everything seems possible…

You instinctively touch the limes, oaks leaves with a sudden tenderness for those green giants. Kids love it too, gasp at the height, and will afterwards look at the forest differently, slightly in awe. They had never quite understood how tall those trees were. Neither had you, for the matter. My 4 and 1/2 princess will ask to go round again, pleeeeaaaase. Imagine how beautiful it must be in winter, all frosty or even better snowy!

200 metres of promenade that one would really love to go further accross the park. Get back to earth? Sure, but we’ll keep stars twinkling in our eyes…

Kew gardens
Victoria Gate
Kew Road
Richmond
Surrey TW9 3AB

Fee: £13.50/adult, kids go free
If you come by car, choose a Sunday, parking in the street will be free. Do come early though, spaces go fast!