London: Tea Time in Wonderland

This week-end brings a luxuty escape. On a train. On a luxury train. I will admire the vibrant British countryside from the cocoon of the British Pullman. Breakfast on board, a stroll in the Cotswold villages, champagne and dinner on the way back, watchinh the lights switching on softly…

What about you?

* Indulge in a gourmet pub crawl. The menu is mouthwatering and we guarantee you will fall in love with the Renaissance Pubs…

* Art switches to 3D

* The famous champagne bar Kettner’s will be offering with Jameson a different party each evening between October 12 and 27. Hoorray!

* Celebrate Diwali.

* There is some dancing at the Scoop.

* Nothing more autumn like than a market dedicate to wine and cheese.

* Discover the latest artitic installation in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall – movies are a piece of art too.

* Aromatherapy and macaron: isn’t it me time yet?

* Well, this week is chocolate week. You can go round the best chocolatiers in town who will be proposing a variety of events or… spend an afternoon at Chocolate Unwrapped where they will be presenting their best treats.

* Why not sip a free one with a cute paper umbrella at Hendrick’s?

* Take your coffee with style.

* Hop, second dose of Tracey Emin this year.

* Big Ben leans. Yes, you read that right.

* Indoor bike training, graffiti and trendy music included, is the new winter sport.

* Love the Royal Family? Well, the Diamond Jubilee china is now on sale.

* Are you all ready for Movember? You might be missing a crucial accessory.

The Society of Garden Designers and the RHS organise, a few times a year, the opening of private gardens. They always are little treasure, pieces of paradise.

Like today – the Blue Fin Building‘s, just behind the Tate Modern.

Looking up, no sign of a tree or a single green leaf. Did we get the address wrong?

On the 10th floor is a huge terrasse and a green oasis. Multiple chairs and tables enable the staff to have their lunch under the open sky. Benches hide behind a vine, a jasmine hedge, a line of rosemary. The sun is shining hard, creating a very fragranced atmosphere. Mathew Bell added elegant curves to what could have been a simple concrete space. Urban poetry.

Just imagine taking your sandwich break here. Or sitting on this roof top for the last debriefing of the day as the sky starts to turn pink.
Country Homes & Interiors have their editorial office here and took it a step further, creating a vegetable patch, using the abundance of light to their advantage. On the menu? Runner beans, salads, peppers, herbs, blackcurrant, courgettes, strwaberries… A fabulous idea worth stealing. Maybe even a tred: the Londonist also have started theirs.

I so wish those and kids nurseries were compulsory in any new building of that size. As space on the ground gets scarcer for parks and squares, why not use those towers to their best? Not only would that be more ecological but it would tremendously change the work atmosphere. Push people to have more social time at work rather than have their sandwich in front of their computer. Talk, exhange, get a little fresh air, destress.

Mark September 25 in your agenda to discover more of those precious gardens.

Whistles and colourful confettis have been wiped away, glittery dresses brought to the drycleaner. Oh, only for a little while: in 2011, life is going to be beautiful!

- Well, let’s start with the Dulwich Gallery’s birthday party: music, yummy food, falcons, fireworks! Don’t miss their formidable Norman Rockwell’s retrospective, fynny and yet, touching.

- Quite a birthday celebration @ this Lido too…

- Talking of falcons, have you seen any on Trafalgar Square?

- Go on a treasure hunt…

- Be romantic @ Selfridge’s…

- Ready, steady… cook! (Jane, I don’t think they have Thermomixes… Something has to be done!)

- …or very extravagant with this Tube flashmob!

- A pinch of surrealism…

- Oh, forget those resolutions. Head for chocolate…

- See London from the other side…

- Hop, a detox cocktail to cheer everything up!

- Don’t stop till you get enough @ the Tate late evening…

Every year, the Tate Turbine Hall welcomes, for the Unilever series, a new installation. It is meant to be fantastic, huge in size or meaning, multi-sensorial, modern. The event is free and always waited for impatiently. Remember this crack in its entire length? Or last year this giant black box, in which you could walk and lose youself in the dark space?

This year, the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei  takes over the 10th edition.

First glimps -  nothing seems to have changes, it is still the same gry space. Oh no, wait, it is all on the floor: 100,000 sunflower seeds.

Well, do they think I’m some kind of pigeon…? A quick look at the press review tells me those are, in fact, are indeed works of art: made of ceramic and each handpainted. Mmmmh, still not convinced. Something’s kind of missing here.

The video presentation is the trigger. This project has helped a whle town to survice. Originally known for its potteries, the economical crisis bankruptes many a family. The same traditional method was used and 166 persons got involved in painting the distinctive black lines.

In fact, it is all about its symbolism. During the cultural revolution, Mao had chosen sunflowers to represent the people.A flower that follows instinctively the sun. From there, interpretations are endless:
- The Made in China effect, chain work against the artisan like work: all the same and each being different at the same time. We all are.
- the dormant cultural heritage in each seed. Who knows which other concept will interfere? Hope, in a way
- The mass population, crushed by uniformisation

Take your pick. And add your own! The Tate encourages visitors to twit (#tateaww) but also to leave questions and comments in their videobooth. The artist will select the ones of most ingerest and answer them. Talk about interactivity!

The public is invited to walk on the seeds. Some do sit, lay down… or even make angels as in the snow!

This strange carpet is uniformed regularly:

Do see it from the first floor to enjoy the zen garden effect!

The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei Sunflower seed
Tate Modern
Turbine hall
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Free, until May 02, 2011

You probably do not know this but I have lived 5 years in Tahiti. Paul Gauguin is a familiar name to me -  as a child, his work were as fabulous to me as any fairy book. He painted a paradise like Polynesia and I went through his book Noa-Noa in no time -  sweet, reassuring, colourful. In Europe, he was more considered as a scandal maker. He died in the Marquisa islands -  the furthest he could from westernised civilisation and colonialist influence.

But of his passions, of the rest of his life, I do not know much. The Tate has opened today a huge exhibition -  more than a hundred pieces! This hasn’t happened in 50 years in the UK. Quite fascinating really. I love their way of presenting it too: themes rather than chronology. Much better if you want to compare the evolution of his techniques.

So what do you learn about the guy if you know zero about him?

Well, you get to know about his other skills. One of his hobbies since childhood was woodcarving and he was pretty good at it  – you will see some examples along the show. He did sucessfully tried ceramics too.  Amazingly, he sometimes included his pieces in his paintings.

Gauguin was ill at ease with this Parisian life, this modernism, the financial pressure. He escapes to the countryside and totally falls for Brittany. He will regularly go back to it as a kind of shelter from the world. He loves the landscapes, the folklore, the contrasts. He will travel a lot but the pivot will be Martinica. the rich colours will force him to simplify his lines. Tahiti came later and was first a disappointment. His quest was for a lost paradise: and so it was, lost to the European influence and colonialism. He looks past this though and reinvents it. He will sculpt his own pagan divinities and add them to his paintings.  He develops  great realtionships with the locals. To him, you can only underatand a place through the interaction between its people and the landscape.

The main axis of the exhibition is his storytelling: each painting can be seen as a legend. First comes the title, dancing words alluring you but still keeping a sense of mystery. Everything inspire him, whether litterary or artistic, from philosophy to the Bible. Although he is not religious himself, the sacred holds an important part in his work, whether liked to christianity or paganism. Look at the women for example: they never represent a specific person but all seem to have an aura -  see them as a new version of Eve, of a madona -  seren poses, radiant faces.

There also is a nice background of handwritten letters, sketches, documents of that era -  you just are immersed in his universe. Bohemian? Father of 2? Banker? Martyr? Savage? Well. we’ll take it all!

Gauguin, Maker of myth
Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
£13.50/adult (there is a 2 for 1 offer here if you come by train)
Until Jan 16, 2011

Pssst: do not forget to add your own work of art!

I’m back! Now, let’s see what’s new in the city…

- On Thursday, don’t miss this aquatic exhibition…

- …or enjoy a free curry!

- This way for a free musical @ Sadler’s Wells…

- A few dance steps @ the Tate Modern… (By the way, time Out has a 2 for 1 offer for the Exposed exhibition)

-… or an alternative village fete, maybe?

- Always a favourite: Notting Hill carnival!

- Feel nostalgic with this exhibition on Jimy Hendrix…

- I never tire of this yearly press pictures exhibition…

- Discover a few secret places in the National Theatre…

- Treat yourself to an afternoon tea with an Asian touch…

- So you think you know London?

- By the way, do you know the story of the Crystal Palace?

- Yes, pubs and opera can be in harmony, who would have thought so!

- Try to get a ticket for this fab underground dinner!

- Fed up with pop-up shops? Why not give this pop-up cinema a go? It used to be a petrol station.

- Get the kids to learn more abour bats!

- Be zen in a Japanese garden… (give this one a try too!)

You’ll find me… strolling through Chelsea Physics gardens… Testing this edible exhibition… Checking out the Natural History Museum’s 8m long knitted squid… Enjoying some retro glamour at the V&A late night… Where will YOU be?

I remember a time where you could walk along the Thames, straight from the London Eye to Tower Bridge. These days,  work on Blackfriar’s station force you to take a little detour along the way.

I usually turn on Hopton Street to get back to the river (and find my favourite pub with its cacao beer) – there is a lovely cottage there I love to have a glimpse of. It’s o very traditional in a background of modern buildings and constructions!

A cottage, did I say? Not really -  it is more noble than that. Charles Hopton, a fishmonger, decided to buy the ground and have an almshouse built there. It was to welcome 26 poor local men. The houses would be very simple: a sitting room on the ground floor, a bedroom on the first floor. Each inhabitant would receive £6 and a chaldron of coal a year. They could marry but the charity would not give extra money for the children.

Those habitations still exist, hidden from view by the vegetation and so does the charity who welcomes people in difficulty to this day.

Hopton’s Charity
Hopton st
Southwark
London SE1 9JI

So hard to choose, isn’t it? Should you relax in the garden with a glass of Pimms, while the man of the house is working on the barbie? Or stroll around London, enjoying the sun in the parks or drinking a cocktail on a terrasse? Can’t believe how much is going on this week-end!

- 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?

… Celui-ci a ete prolonge jusqu’au 11 juillet 2010. Sachez que l’offre sur le musees est egalement valable sur une selection d’etablissements… a Paris et a Bruxelles (la liste est par ici).

Allez, jouez la British et envoyez-nous vos photos…

Londres est a vous!

(Et la Tate Modern a moi, j’etais la premiere, sorry!)

Voici celle d’Argone:

Et vous?

The Southbank fans always stop @ the Tate Modern.

They don’t even think about it, it has become instinctive, a natural detour to the walk, especially as it’s free. Maybe they’ll stop for a coffee, have a look at the new gadgets in the souvenir shop or enjoy the latest exhibition. Open till 22.00 on Saturdays, it often concludes my walk. I’m sometimes alone in the rooms – what a pleasant change!

Had you noticed, on the 3rd floor this mini-gallery? (Thanks, Benoit!)

It all started with the Family trail. A few crayons, cards, seats to keep kids busy. But then parents and visitors joined in, left their masterpiece. The best ones are presented on the wall and change on a regular basis.  Worth having a look!

Grab a pen and give it a try!

Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG

And around…
- a slice of history…
- travel through time…
- how about a chocolate beer?
- Walk along the beach if the tide is low…