London: Tea Time in Wonderland

- Chocaholic? Be a true Easter Bunny and do your shopping @ the chocolate festival on Southbank. Make sure you stop @ the Choc star van!

- Still in an Easter mood? The try the Claridges’ afternoon tea with hot cross buns… and, my friend, a Valrhona hot chocolate…

- Emmenez les enfants decouvrir une tradition suedoise pour Paques…

- Fancy a little suspense? Learn more about Hitchcock…

- For something totally different, go and look at these surprising nail sculptures… or this floating one @ St Paul’s…

- Rediscover the British interior design of the last 150 years…

- or if the sun’s out, head for Greenwich! Have a bite to eat at the food market then learn a few things about the place. There’s even talk about a micro-brewery producing fab beers…

- Looking for a great place for a special occasion? Why not a brunch on the 29th floor with a 360 deg view? Amazing but , wow, £65…

- Empty your bank account @ the Spring Country Living Fair – so many unique and marvelous gifts there…

You’ll find me @ Kensington Palace, enchanted for a while… and at the Alice pop-up cafe @ Harrod’s..

Allergic to technology? The mention of Html leaves you blank-faced?

Try the Decode exhibition @ the V&A. Code lines transform into colourful works of art, recreating themselves constantly in elegant curves… waves reacting to visitors’ movements… You can even have a ghostly picture of yourself projected.

A fab place for kids, really. Many presentations are interactive – like this tree reacting to the wind blowing outside the museum and shedding its leaves of light on the floor – shuffle through them. The best one certainly is this canvass on which you can project splashes of colours just by making your hands dance… Highly enjoyable, whether you’re a two year old od a full grown maestro. Alternatively, play with the 3D model of a city or carress the LED reeds that will light up as you brush past them….

Modern but enchanting – @ £5.90, a lovely occasion to experiment electronic poetry. Ideal with kids. Especially as with this 2 for 1 offer until January 31!

You might as well stop for a cupcake too @ the Hummingbird bakery, close to the tube station. Or maybe you won’t be able to resist Ben’s cookies, with their melting chocolate chips… (just at the exit of the tube station)

Decode
V&A
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL

Until April 11, 2010
£5 / adult

Fed up with Xmas shopping? A few ideas to forget all about it…

- Well first, you need energy. Carluccio’s has a special -10% on their deli this Thursday. Best of all, you’re welcomed with mulled wine and canapes…

- T’is the season to be eating finger-licking good treats! Head for the chocolate festival on Southbank.

- Don’t forget the new exhibitions: question your identity @ the Wellcome Collection or test artistic technology @ the V&A.

- More of the street art fan? Head for the Flying Eyeball.

- of course there is the pop-up of the week-end: Elton John’s clothes and stage outfits on sale, profits going to his AIDS foundation. Not whithin your budget? Try Barnardo’s vintage shop on Carnaby street to pack a bargain!

- Rediscover England with fascinating landscape pictures @ the National Theatre…

- Take the kids to a panto: there will be a toy Aladdin one @ Covent Garden on Sunday…

-… or pet an ice polar bear on Trafalgar Square….

- … or your toddlers to a Baby disco party on Saturday! Shake it, baby!

- Why not an interactive Treasur Hunt?

- a last festive note: the Tate Britain is setting up its artistic Xmas tree this Friday.

Did I forget anything? Leave me a note!

You’ll find me @ the Earth exhibition (then trying to choose from one of the gorgeous cakes at the Sketch Pop Up) and at the strange and amazing House of fairy tales

Did you make a good supply of Vitamine C? Good. The week-end should be quite busy…

- Try the late opening Thursday @ the Museum of London: live music, carol singing, creative workshops, and lovely original stalls to fill those stockings…

- Have a look at the Xmas tree on Trafalgar square

- Travel through time on Friday night – Dennis Sever house is all decorated for Xmas and can be visited weeknights candlelit- very atmospheric!

- The traditional Pudding Race takes place this Saturday @ Covent Garden. Teams will race for the benefit of Cancer Research, trying to avoir many obstacles ont their way. The take the kids to the cookie workshop! There will be Xmas carols in the afternoon.

- Enjoy Regent and Oxford traffic free on Saturday -  plenty of shopping offers and partying in the streets!

- Admire the newly opened Renaissance and Medieval Galleries @ the V&A

- Add a glamour touch and have a look at Audrey Hepburn’s wonderful dresses before they’re auctioned…

- Have your breath taken away by Jean-Francois Rauzier’s gorgeous hyperphotos…

- Head for the RAC’s new show, Earth, on climatic changes. Then stop at the Sketch’s pop-up bar – a crazy setting which also promises oysters, pancakes and champagne…

- Skate in an extraordinary historical setting – Hampton Court

- Say cheers @ this beer festival… or more elegantly @ the Smirnoff pop up bar, deco inspired by the gentlemen’s clubs.

I’ll be tasting delicious food @ the taste of Xmas. How about you?

Just like Alice’s white rabbit, I’m running after time this week… But, still, here are a few ideas for the week-end!

- The Natural History Museum proposes each year a splendid collection of wildife pictures.Always moving, funning or amazing. And great with kids! £9, though.

- Like religious art? Then stop at the  National Gallery see The Sacred made real: Spanish Painting and sculpture 1600-1700. Already in your boring section? Think again -  have a peek on the website. Sometimes incrediby real.

- Halloween’s coming your way: why not try ghost hunting @ the ghost festival?

- Or see live-painting and street-art at this bar…?

- On Sunday, have fun on Southbank. The Autumn Harvest Festival offers games and storytelling for kids but also a parade: a berryman, walking fruit and vegetables and even a corn queen whose dress will be made of  vegetation… Free, starting @ 12.00 in front of the Shakespeare Globe.

Me? I’ll be having a finger-licking chocolate fondue @  the’Artisan Chocolat bar close to Portobello Market…

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 really hides a stone jungle (See here and there)…
Take the Natural History Museum, for example. The one my daughter calls The dinosaurs’ house.

What an extraordinary place! The stones are marbled with blue, pillars carved like lace, sculptures absolutely everywhere, let alone the fab gargoyles outside… The architecture is mouthgaping too. You expect the stairs to change directions, as if you had litteraly stepped into Hogwarth.

Picture this. We’re in the 19th century. Sir Sloane is a fascinated collector of anything to do with natural history. Towards the end of his life, he decides to sell everything to the government for a low price, in order to protect the collections. The deal is done and the lot transferred to the British Museum.

Unfortunately, the curator at the time has…mmmmmh… peculiar ideas. Such as having regular bonfire parties. Hence some entire parts of the collection disappearing. It seems the staff was as light minded. Stealing labels from a rival’s preparation. walking through a yard, in a gale, with a fragile collection.

Richard Owen jumps in. He has a vision of what a Natural History Museum should be. Splendid, a cathedral dedicated to nature, to its glory, open and accessible to the general public. The architect, Alfred Waterhouse prepares hundreds of sketches, representing existing or disappeared species, which will becomes sculptures and gargoyles all over the place. the ceiling is covered with botanical drawings. Pillars designs are copied from fossilised wood.

A little surprise on the choice of material: terracota tiles! Yep, the one you would expect in your garden. Why? First for its great resistance to fire but also to the acidity of London pollution!

Before taking the kids to the dinosaur gallery, why not try a safari race around the museum? Will they find the dodo (mineral gallery on the first floor)? And the pterodactyl (east aisle, on the outside)?

And don’t forget the Darwin Gallery for even more oooohs!

Natural History Museum
Cromwell Rd
London SW7 5BD

Get your umbrellas out this week-end to go and see…

- The new street art by Mutate Britain near Portobello Rd

- Discover the favourites for the Turner prize @ the Tate (including Roger Hiorns who likes to see life in blue)

- Shop fort art @ the Somerset House craft fair…

- take the kids to Saddlers’ Wells family week-end – an excellent dance show with workshops where 5+ can experiment with dance and shapes… There’s even one for toddlers!

- Dream of exotic India with the Maharaja exhibition @ the V&A..

- Rethink your house with the eco home exhibition at the Geffrye Museum…

- Be very brave and try a nudist flashmob on a London rooftop…

- Or simply, join me in my winter blues fight. I’m having an oriental afternoon tea @ Yauatcha – how could I resist grean tea and coconut scones?

The Natural History Museum has just opened their Darwin branch, sheltering an impressive 8 storey high cocoon. Impossible to have it in just one picture!
Inside, reaserach labs, 17 millions insects and 3 millions plants. To visit it, you can apply for free tickets here…

Meanwhile, do go and see the conservation branch on the side. The shelves are loaded with incredible jars filled with formal and specimens. You’d swear they’re just asleep… Shells and fish are particularly refined. So very quiet, a surreal atmosphere. At the back, you can glimpse thousands of other jars.

Not to be missed if you love the Hunterian Museum or the Wellcome Trust. Or keep it for Halloween!

Note to parents: the kids seem to just love it, asking more and more questions, feeding on every little detail… Don’t hesitate!

Pssst: The V&A museum and the Science museum are nearby and free. Feeling peckish? Try the Hummingbird Bakery or a Snog if you want something sweet. Or maybe tapas – Casa Brinsida is fab. Still have some energy? Hyde Park is just a 15mn walk away…

Natural History Museum
Cromwell Rd
London SW7 5BD


Tube: South Kensington
Free

Back to school, to work, to coats, to adding an umbrella to your handbag wherever you go, carry a mufg of tea at all time, this wonderful transportable heat source… Another reason to enjoy week-end before winter comes in!

It’s Open House week-end – sone buildings will only be open to the public these two days. Order tickets and program on this web site and have a look on Time Out for a few advice. Fancy visiting the Olympic stadium? Or Tower 42?

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Walking along Southbank? Have luch at the Slowfood market!

The Natural History Museum has just opened its new Darwin branch. Go and see the 8 storey-high-cocoon it shelters. Inside? 17 millions insects and 3 million plants. Impressive collection!

Many events linked to the Design Festival. Including a giant chess game on Trafalgar square… Liberty also has an exhibition underlining the British design strengths.

Asia-fan? Then the Japanese festival @ Spittafield is for you. Best way to travel whithin London!

Cycling? Why not join the skyride (free but do register in the website) -a number of  London’s famous streets will be closed to the traffic. Ideal! Kids are welcomed.