May 11, 2008
Dear Clusterflock,
In defiance of the shocking exchange rate and all common sense, I am going to visit friends in London and Paris later this month. Both my hostesses have day jobs, so I’ll be at my own disposal much of the time. What should I do, see, or eat while I’m there?
Bonus points for activities that are free, cheap, or involve cake.
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24 Responses to “Dear Clusterflock,”
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The museums in London are mostly free: the British Museum (a must), Victoria and Albert (a must), Tate Britain (also a must), Tate Modern (not so musty). Oh, they rock. Westminster Abbey is a must if you like architecture or want to touch tombstones of writers and thinkers you revere (I squatted down to touch Hardy’s stone), but it’s not free–10 pounds. There’s also silly stuff like the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, Harrod’s (a yawn for me), HMV music stores, and a not at all silly great foreign language bookstore called Grant and [something], I think. Trafalgar Square, Wellington Arch, Buckingham Palace, of course. There’s a decent little coffee shop near Westminster Abbey in the Methodist center there. There’s sitting out in Hyde Park having your little picnic snack.
Am I boring you yet?
I don’t know Paris.
Well, India, there’s always the wolves’ what-have-you at Regents Park. Except to do it up right you’d have to pop for a bottle. And saddest of all, I think the wolves’ what-have-you is no longer there.
The Britush Museum is a must see not only for the exhibits (a statue from easter island for gods sake!) but also for the building itself…
I second the British Museum and the Tate but people always forget about the Victoria and Albert Museum of Photography which, if I recall, is just around the corner from the British Museum (but it has been five years).
Is Abbey Road in London? Or the studio where the Beatles recorded Let it Be?
Abbey Road is in London (or should I say “London”?) but it’s apparently not “central” enough. I could never find it on my walking map!
Oooh, I think I’ll skip the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, but the National Maritime Museum is calling my name . . .
Oh, India. I wanted to mention just that. The National Maritime Museum? For me at least- was a bust. I was genuinely disappointed that the great shipping nation during the golden age of sail had such a lackluster museum. Later, I went to the Constitution Museum in Charlestown, MA and felt like that was what I wanted outta Maritime Greenwich. Also, the Cutty Sark is closed until 2010. I mean, I understand if you feel the pull of the salt sea in Greenwich as I did, but I can’t say that I loved it beyond measure as I expected to.
I always get lost in London, and also frustrated that it’s not a grid and I can’t just find my way out by feeling. But there are the nice bits which are that London is home to like a bazillion small parks to rest and review the map or just sit down and be “on holiday.”
I like the National Portrait Gallery more than the National Gallery and I like Trafalgar Square for being in the middle. It’s like the duomo in Florence- you find it, you know where you are.
I know nothing about the Frogs, I mean- Paris.
There’s a Méliès exhibition on at the Cinémathèque through May if you’re into “that sort of thing”. (And I believe there’s a Méliès film showing/ciné-concert the last Sunday of the month.)
Oh . . . but where (roughly) in each city will you be staying? And for how long?
in view of the fact that i haven’t been for nigh on 10 years there’s not much i can suggest, but i do propose the Troubadour on the Old Brompton road. its a cafe with a difference and its claim to fame is that Dylan played there in the 60’s. I think it’s expanded big time in recent years with theatricals and musical events downstairs. And if you come across a very thin long ballet type woman at the door called Fi, please say hello from me
O and Paris… just pound those pavements, god how i long to just walk in Paris
Ah, India, I just remembered something about cake! Just last year, I think it was, the London Review Bookshop opened up a cake shop either next door or in the bookshop itself. I don’t think they do their own baking (probably just as well); from what I recall having read, though, they feature cakes and various pastries from the bestest bakeries.
Yes! I’m not making this up! I just checked. Go to http://www.lrbshop.co.uk/ — and you’ll see “Cake” right up there after Home/Shopping Cart/Contact Us/Help.
Thanks for the warning about the NMM, Mary. It’s free (except for Tube fare; for which I intend to get an Oyster card), so I’ll probably go anyway, but for backup, there’s the Museum in Docklands, 5 quid. Anybody been?
Sheila, I’ll be in Paris for six (noncontiguous) days and London for four, in the 15th and Stoke Newington, respectively.
God, I love the LRB. From the current issue:
But—why do they have a bookshop? As a meeting place for their personal advertisers? Wouldn’t the cake shop suffice for that?
Well, perhaps the bookshop wasn’t quite stimulating enough, so they decided to add cake. And tea.
Dare you to hook up with someone from the LRB personals.
I must say, I’ve always assumed that nobody hooks up through the LRB personals—that they just post them to amuse each other; a British thing. Because the crazy ones sound crazy, while the normalish ones sound . . . like they’re trying to hide the fact that they’re crazy.
I always forget the National Gallery. It’s a goodie. I didn’t make it to the National Portrait Gallery. Does it really rock?
There is a cool used bookstore across the street from the British Museum and just a bit west. I can’t remember the name.
One thing I loved about London was just stumbling across markers on walls with captions that say things like “The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood met here for the first time in 1848.” The cool bookstore I just mentioned is near a marker about Randolph Caldecott, the children’s illustrator.
It makes me sad that the wolves’ enclosure at Regents Park seems to have gone the way of the chimps’ tea party and the llama ride. I was really hoping that you would get drunk one rainy afternoon and recite a soliloquy to the wolves.
However . . . I believe that the zoo does have some Patagonian cavies.
And the lappet vulture is really beautiful when it spreads its wings.
Oh, and there used to be a walking tour I regret not having taken — not of the zoo but of Islington. Sites (or perhaps sights) along the way were said to include places associated with Joe Orton, and I always wondered whether they took you into various public loos where he picked up rough trade.
India, if you do go to the Museum in Docklands (I’ve not been), you must submit to a Music Hall dressing up portrait session and share with us. (”What did Music Hall performers wear? Try on our Pearly King and Queen costumes and have your portrait taken.” Only one portrait? I want to see you as a Pearly King and Queen.)
May Half-Term Events — whee! Loads of rambunctious kids racing from one ‘interactive’ exhibit to the next and busting them.
Sadly, I’ll be back in Paris during the May half-term. And I expect to be hanging out with my hosts at the time of the Death & Disease walking tour (which costs £7.50 anyway).
It’s almost worth the cost of airfare to participate in the Death & Disease Walking Tour.
You’ve gone and made me all wanderlusty.
Well, on Monday there’s the Darkest Victorian London, which is . . . related. Though I was thinking I’d rather do the Old Palace Quarter walk.
Oh, that Darkest Victorian London tour looks great. If you take photos, please share them with us!
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[...] “A woman watches a short movie about Jack the Ripper at the Museum in Docklands, London,” read the caption accompanying this photo from the Telegraph’s Week in Pictures feature. Naturally, I thought of Our India. [...]