- Thursday, rush to Trafalgar square, it’s Canada day! Cirque du soleil, music, hockey tournament..,

- Were you wondering how pop-ups could be even more suprising? Well… This one proposes thai sauce crickets amd white chocolate scorpions every Thursday in July. For free. No worry, they also do propose more conventional dishes (though you will have to pay).  Nice place to take adventurous friends (and if they do like insects, there is a range at Fortnum and Mason’s and Selfridges)

- Like to travel through time? Then you’ll love this retro evening -  a drive-in! The cars are already there, you just need to snuggle and order some popcorn from the waitresses skating around….

- The Tate Modern is such a sweetie – litterally! – for the festival of architecture…

- Talk to strangers (and have a free meal)!

- have a look at the disused Aldwych tube station, reopened for a very limited time…

- Photo amateurs will love this discovery day of Shoreditch…

- Kensal Green, one of the beautiful Victorian cemeteries of London proposes guided tours of its catacombs…

- Are you a quick swimmer? Well, splash and see whether you can win this race! Your prefer a gentle swim? Head for the city’s lidos.

- Take your Eisntein Juniors to the Science Museum’s new exhibition -  Who am I?

- Last year, the British Museum celebrated India, this year it’s Africa’s turn…

- Too hot… Thanks God for the beer festival!

- Or have your pint with a pinch of blues…

- have a different Sunday and celebrate American style…

You’ll find me… picking strawberries and raspberries… Having yummy food with delicious friends @ Jamie’s Italian… And picnicking @ Kew Gardens (they also have a cute photo exhibition).

How about you?

I took a different entrance than I usually do and suddenly found this black and white mural. Quite a long one – a hundred meters, inspired by medieval design.

This scene was drawn by David Gentleman to commemorate Eleanor de Castille’s (Edward I’s wife) funeral trip.

What interest? Wait – it’s quite an atypic last journey…

Edward I had business to do in Nottinghamshire. His spouse followed, though at a slower rater as she was feverish. She will not reach th final destination, dying a little before Lincoln. The King arrives in time to listen to her death wishes. He’s heartbroken – 36 years of marriage – she was only 13 when they wedded – 16 children and one of the happiest royal marriages in the British History…

The Queen wanted to lay in Westminster Abbey. 145 miles from there – we are in 1290 and the roads are not so good. She is therefor embalmed for the journey. That implies evisceration… her organs will be buried in Lincoln’s cathedral (and are still there to this day).

The trip back will take 12 days. Inspired by the French King Louis IX’s funeral procession (the only French king to have been cannonised, by the way), he decides to have a cross put up each time they stop for the night – a symbol of his grief and a hope that traveller’s will pray for Eleanor’s soul. Time is short, it will first be a wooden cross, replaced in the following years by sculpted stone ones. All of them must follow three steps: the lower base must show the late queen’s coats of arms, the middle level have statues of Eleanor then finish by a column topped by a cross.

Out of them all (Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, Charing), only three survived. Note that the last one was in Charing… which name transformed in time in Charing Cross… Unfortunately, it was destroyed during the Civil War, and replaced by an equastrian statue of Charles I (considered as the true center of London). A more intricate copy was built during the Victorian times, just in front of the actual Charing Cross railway station, a street from there.

Following her wishes, her body rests in Westminster Abbey… and her heart in the Blackfriars priory.

And you thought it was just a silly mural, eh?

What was your magic potion? The books? The TV series, the movies? Mine was a manga on which worked the famour Miyazaki – every character was a dog. There was supense, emotions, laughs. I even recently bought the whole box of DVDs and even years after, it still hasn’t lost its charm and power.

The latest American blockbuster with Robert Downey Jr  and Jude Law as a team is sure to put Baker St back on track. No fan will come to London without stopping at the famous Sherlock Holmes museum, or resist putting on the famous hat and investigate the souvenir shop…

But don’t forget to search the Baker Street station too -  Holmes might have left you a few clues…

Who knows? You might even meet his statue on your way out…

Or if you’re more of a 70ies nostalgic, head for the Beatles shop nearby!

This work of art by the Scottish artist Paolozzi (the pioneer of pop art in England) however proves very tricky: how to renovate and modernise the station without destroying them? It took years of work in the early 1980ies and will take as much to take the tiles down…

Had never heard of the guy? You probably already know another of is sculptures though – the giant holding a compass at the entry of the British Library. Why not hunt his other treasures with this Londonist list?