London: Art! Art! Art!

I do like a good gallery, and I went to two new ones this time around, the Courtauld and the Wallace Collection. Both were a good size to enjoy without getting exhausted, although probably if I were by myself I would have paid a bit closer attention to stuff in the Wallace rather than getting distracted with chatting. There's only so much you can say about walking around a gallery, so I'll mostly let the photos do the talking.

My first stop on Wednesday, after dropping my bag off at my sister's, was the Courtauld Gallery. As noted the other day, they didn't want me working for them, but they still have a nice wee gallery with some real artistic treasures. I thought the medieval section was going to be bigger, but never mind. I also surprised myself by really liking a lot of the Impressionist paintings, which I'm often fairly indifferent to. Some highlights:

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Manet. I don't know if I noticed before that in the mirror image, she is leaning towards a man. I think this painting must be some sort of comment on French customer service, because she could not look more disengaged

I loved this portrait by Gabriele Münter, a German Expressionist painter who, along with Kandinsky (my fav artist) and Franz Marc, founded Der Blaue Reiter group

I love miniature medieval carvings, they're just astonishing in their detail and virtuosity

I'm not sure what that is peeping out from under the arches, the sun?

I'm amused by the lady on the bed, who seems to be thinking, "Can I just have ONE moment to myself here!"

This unfinished painting by the Mannerist painter Parmigianino was another favourite. The elongation of forms was a feature of his style, rather than a flaw

This medieval painting is supposed to show the martyrdom of two saints, but the one lying in the middle looks more like a kid who's eaten too many sweets to me

Outdoor ice rink at Somerset House, next to the Courtauld

I was happy to remain a spectator. Ice skating was mysteriously in vogue for much of my teen years, but I never liked it. It's cold, it hurt my ankles, I'm bad at it, and if you fall down, it not only hurts, but it's especially humiliating (for teen Gwan at least)

London skyline from Waterloo Bridge

View from the other side of Waterloo Bridge

On Friday, it was off to the Wallace Collection for more (free) art. I'm not sure either where I came across the idea to come here, but it's well worth a visit, not only for the collections, but also for the beautiful interiors. I was meant to meet Rick and his girlfriend Sonya at 11 am, but ended up waiting in the lobby for them for half an hour before going in by myself. I think by the time they finally turned up, they were about an hour late, but very apologetic, so I was just happy that they found me. (My stupid Free mobile does not work in the UK, a cause of frequent annoyance!)

Highlights of the collection include the famous Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, although I think Smirking Cavalier would be more appropriate:

and lots of lovely decorative arts pieces from the Middle Ages and Renaissance (and beyond). Also a lot of boring French and Dutch paintings from the 17th and 18th century and armour and stuff, but no-one was forcing me to look at those.

Sonya and Rick admiring some paintings

I was excited to see some pages from an illuminated copy of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius was mega big in the Middle Ages, especially his idea of the Wheel of Fortune. That's right, before it was a gameshow, it was a serious concept seeking to explain life's ups and downs and to remind even the mightiest king (who you can just make out sitting on top of the wheel) that tomorrow he could be in the gutter.

BOOM! This is literally the best painting known to humanity

Awesome. And you can't really see, but he has a little lamb with him, further adding to the awesomeness

There were some beautiful rooms

After the Wallace Collection, it was time to get some lunch, and we had a perfectly serviceable pizza at Pizza Express before I had to rush back to Jess's to get changed for my birthday drinks (of which more next time)...

London: Knights, ancient lights and quirky sights

I decided to group my London posts vaguely thematically, rather than chronologically, to avoid a case of the "and thens", so in our first installment we'll look at some of the more quirky or off-the-beaten-path things I did and saw in London.

I joked on Twitter today that I still have a day and a half of my twenties left to tick things off those generic "100 (etc.) things to do before you're 30 (because after that you morph into a crippled hag)" lists you see on the internet. There may be plenty of time and life in the old girl yet to explore and discover new things, but as I approach my 30th birthday, it's a good time to reflect that I really have been lucky enough to do a lot of travelling and see some wonderful sights. It's no wonder, with all the different cities I've lived in, that sometimes even I forget that I was once briefly a resident of London town. In fact, I spent the first 4 months or so of 2007 living and working in London, and I've visited many times, including several times a week for the 2 months I spent on holiday in Woking, Surrey back in 200-05.

The upshot of this is that it's easy to feel that you've been there and done that, and this, combined with tight schedules packed with wining and dining and other fun things, meant that I didn't get out and about a great deal on my last couple of visits to London. So this time, while I stepped off the plane with only a couple of vague plans, I was motivated to get out there and see some of the lesser lights London had to offer.

There was also another factor in my planning, however. I'm very much a girl on a budget, so I wanted to find free or cheap activities to fill in my time. As we all know, London is a pricey place to live, eat and drink, but you can have your pick from world-class attractions such as the British Museum or Tate Modern for free. I've already been to most of the big free museums a couple of times, but many of the smaller places can also be enjoyed gratis. The only place I paid to go into, in the end, was the Courtauld Gallery, which was a reasonable £6.

I will blog about the Courtauld another time, but my London quirkometer was first triggered by running across a film set just off the Strand as I guiltily munched on a cheese and onion pasty (ON THE STREET! French people would have a collective conniption at the sight). No-one seemed to have a clue who the people were or what was being filmed, but we were all compelled to snap a few photos in case the mysterious actors turned out to be Persons of Note:

Upon googling, I found that the ME is a luxury hotel opening this December, so I think it's more likely just to be an ad

Things seemed to revolve largely around the chap on the left in the grey jumper. If he *is* a well-known heartthrob, do let me know

My first genuinely quirky destination was Sir John Soane's house. I actually didn't know what I was expecting to find here, I just remembered hearing about it years ago, and that it was a house stuffed with all manner of interesting objects collected by its owner, and left just as it had been on his death (in 1837).

Sir John Soane's house

I felt a bit like this getting into the place:



as I was asked to turn off my phone (it was an ipod, actually), relinquish my water bottle, put my handbag inside a plastic bag and promise not to take any photos once inside. I could understand why, since it's crammed with precious objects with no ropes holding you back from them. At times I was a bit worried I'd knock a Roman bust off a ledge, even with the straps of my handbag hidden away.

The absolute highlight was the picture gallery, which featured panelled walls that the helpful and informative curator opened up for us to reveal (on one side) a hidden atrium and (on the other) the original Hogarth Rake's Progress paintings and a couple of supposed Raphael cartoons. I must say, if I owned any of the above, they would probably be on permanent display, however cool the hidden panels may be.

A picture with the walls opened up, revealing a skylit space beyond. Source

Eek, so many breakables! Source

Definitely an enjoyable way to spend a spare hour in London!

Just around the corner is Lincoln's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court to which all English and Welsh barristers belong

Library building at Lincoln's Inn - according to Wikipedia, not as old as it looks! (19th C, although the Inns as a whole are much older)

Also nearby, the Royal Courts of Justice. PS Yes, blue skies!

This sarcastic comment on a mural-covered transformer made me laugh

From the Soane Museum, it's just a short (but slightly confusing) walk to Temple Church. This was famously featured in the Da Vinci Code, but while I'm embarrassed to admit that I have actually read the book AND seen the film (for some reason), I can't remember in what capacity. What I do know, is that it's very old: the original round portion is modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and was consecrated in 1185, while the oblong chancel was consecrated in 1240. It owes its name to its original owners, the Knights Templar, a powerful order of crusading knights who were destroyed amidst accusations of heresy in the early 14th century.

Outside Temple Church

Looking towards the Round Church

View of the chancel

Looking from the chancel into the round nave

The chancel again

Stained-glass windows above the altar

I'm not sure when the stained glass dates from, but I think it's modern-ish. At first I thought this was the fire of London, with St Paul's, until I remembered that St Paul's obviously did not look like this before the fire. Then I thought maybe it's the Blitz, which heavily damaged Temple Church. Or something else entirely?

By coincidence, while looking for more free things to do in London, I came across a reference to a museum which has a connection with the Templars. I don't know about in the United States, but at home St. John's is known for providing ambulances and First Aid training, and I've never thought too much about their name. I was intrigued to find that there is a Museum of the Order of St. John which explains that St. John's Ambulance comes under the aegis of the Order of St. John, which was - and still is - a real chivalric order, complete with knights.

The knights of St. John were not Templars, but Hospitallers. This order was founded in around 1023 to care for the sick and injured in Jerusalem. For a time, they even controlled Rhodes and Malta, before being driven out by Saracen and Ottoman troops. The connection to the Templars comes in because they were awarded much of the Templars' land in England and elsewhere after that order was destroyed. In England, they were dissolved under Henry VIII, and revived in their modern form under Queen Victoria.

I took a tour with a Commander of the Order, who showed us through the 16th century church, with its Norman crypt, and the 16th century gatehouse which houses the museum. Unfortunately, I didn't realise we were going "behind the scenes" to parts not open to casual visitors, so I thought I'd go back and take photos without the crowds, but failed to do so. Still, it was an interesting look at a building which has many claims to fame: many of Shakespeare's plays were officially vetted here by the Master of the Revels, whose office was in the building; Samuel Johnson worked in the building for a time, and Dickens used to drink in the pub which later occupied the site!

The Norman church crypt. Source

One of the hidden upstairs rooms

While the museum and church can be visited independently, I would recommend going on one of the tours if possible. You get to see a lot more of the site and learn about the history, since the museum itself is very small. There are videos in the museum which look interesting and well-produced, but bizarrely, they have the soundtracks on all of them running non-stop, so it's just a noisy constant cacophony.

Let's be honest... I'd probably take a "hee hee, Cock Lane" photo anyway, but I was especially excited to, um, come across this on the way to the Museum of the Order of St John because I recently listened to a podcast about the Scratching Fanny and the Ghost of Cock Lane - as the Daily Mail puts it, a 'tale of sex, death and loan sharking' from 250 years ago

As for the ancient lights...

"Ancient Lights" signs on the windows of buildings in Clerkenwell. Our guide told us that this showed they had paid their window tax in the 18th C and thus had the right to enjoy light from those windows in perpetuity. I just googled, however, and it appears he is wrong. The actual explanation is that, by UK law, if you have enjoyed light from a window for 20 years or more, then you have the right to challenge any development (e.g. a skyscraper) that would block out that light.

Let the festivities commence!

I've come to London with only my ipad, so the posts are likely to be short and (hopefully) sweet (and full of typos) for the next little while. I got up to catch my flight at the ungodly hour of 6.20 this morning (cue everyone informing me they get up that time every day) and am subsequently feeling quite sleepy. Just hoping I'm not actually getting sick, cos it feels a bit that way.

 I simply don't have time to get sick, because this kicks off a semi-whirlwind of social activities in honour of the thirtieth anniversary of my birth. I'm not usually a "birthday week" kind of person, but I decidedI should do something special for my 30th, and since my sister and a handful of friends live in London, it seemed reasonable to come here the week before my birthday, and then have drinks back inTours the week after. In between, I'm taking my first ever trip to a disney-whatever park, since Mary Kay let me know about the special free birthday passes they're giving out this year. And capping it all off, the lovely Mary Kay and her daughter will be accompanying me to the park and hosting a blogger brunch for me the following day! I'm definitely being spoilt this year :)

So my trip over today went smoothly and I tracked down my sister's place to drop off my bag and pick up keys to her place with no probs. I'd decided to spend my afternoon at the courtauld gallery, even though I app,ied for a position there a while back, and I think they never even replied to me. Bastards. Actually, that may be what gave me the idea of goi g, since it's a relatively small and low-profile collection, but filled with some nice stuff. I was expecting themedieval collection to bebigger, but otherwise it was a good size and definitely included some proper famous paintings, like that manet one of the barmaid (photo to follow).

I have photos but can't work out how to add them from ipad, so that will just have to wait! Currently hanging out at my sister's about to make some vege soup before getting an early night. It's cold and gets dark way early here, but loving the hustle and bustle of the big city, especially when there's a bit of christmas cheer in the air (but not too much, cos christmas begins after my bday!)

Come with me on a journey through time and space

Hey, look! Up there, top right... I added a new page with some things to see and do and eat and drink (mostly eat and drink) here in Tours. Since I don't live in Paris, aka The Centre of the Universe, probably this will be of limited interest to everyone, but if you'd like to read a personalised guide to places Gwan likes to go in Tours (maybe they're the kind of places you'd like to go to too?), then feel free to click up there, or here, if that's easier for you. If nothing else, you'll learn the name of the bar where the old arse-grabber hangs out, and in which club you have the greatest chance of getting free drinks out of old hippies.

Other than writing Tours guides (see what I did there?), there's not much to report. I spent SO much money last weekend, I wanted to have a quiet one this time. All I did, really, was watch the F1 (what a cracking race! Whyyyyy is the season almost over?) and go to a Salon of Organic Wine at the town hall. This was quite pleasant, and I got to add another wine glass to my collection, but I felt quite sick when I got home. I'm not sure why, since I wasn't drunk or anything, but had definite nausea, shaking hands and heartburn. I think my body was rejecting the organic-ness, there's no other logical explanation.

Farmer Gwan

Sometime last week, I received a facebook message from my friend Laura asking if I wanted to accompany her to the Tours Farm Expo on the weekend. Ordinarily, this isn't the sort of thing that would appeal - probably full of children and competitions to see who had the biggest turnip. But after a quick look at the website, I realised that this is France and thus naturally there was a heavy emphasis on consuming the farm-fresh produce. So I messaged back "I don't want to look at the latest milking machines, but if we can spend all day eating and drinking and maybe pat a few cute animals, I'm in!"

Such was our enthusiasm for the eating and drinking portion of the expo, we actually almost missed the whole shebang. We entered through the "restaurant" portion and, since it was after 1pm, decided to get lunch first, a delicious feast of duck sausages and chips. We then wandered around the different stands in this area for aaages, becoming slightly perplexed by the fact that, although the website had promised dégustation, most of the stuff on offer you had to pay for. We did stop at a couple of wine stands that gave tastings, and a couple more where you could buy a glass for a euro or two, plus we tasted the odd bit of cheese and jam, but overall we were a bit confused and disappointed that we'd paid 7€ to get in and weren't getting our fair share of free stuff. Although, after buying one glass of wine from a vendor, Laura pointed out that she had the same large, plush erotic die (which she won at a fair) as he did, which seemingly prompted him to offer us another glass of bubbly on the house. I guess he thought it was a good move to liquor up the owner of a sexy die. There's no arguing with that logic.

Anyway, when we had finally exhausted the possibilities offered by the outside bit, we decided we'd take a quick look in the expo itself - only to find that here was where they were hiding all the free food (and the cute animals)! Slightly kicking ourselves for having spent so much time outside, we attacked the tastings with gusto. Amongst other things, I tasted saffron whipped cream and chocolate with truffles (the mushroom kind). On both occasions, Laura marvelled at the distinct saffrony/truffley taste, and I honestly couldn't taste anything out of the ordinary. I suppose that means that I don't have to worry about ever wanting to blow a lot of money buying saffron or truffles though! I also don't really like caviar or foie gras, so I'm a cheap date. Although, later on we had a lovely little broth with foie gras, capers and crème fraîche in it, and it was just divine. I'm guessing that was cooked foie gras, so maybe it's just the pâté version I don't like? Another highlight was finding a wine section, where you could buy a glass (to keep!) for one euro and then taste about a dozen wines. I was a little bit tipsy by the end of this...

Actually, one of the best things was that we got to chat to a lot of people, and they were all super nice. The French do have a certain reputation when it comes to customer service, which is often not undeserved, but whether it was because it was small producers trying to sell their own products, or that they were pleased to come across some French-speaking foreigners eager to learn about the regional cuisine, or that they were just nice people, everyone was really friendly. And almost every conversation consisted of them asking where we were from and then proceeding to talk to Laura about their friend/cousin/sister/daughter living in the United States, strangely enough. One old dude even told us at least three times that his son, a literature student in Indiana, had been quoted in the French press about the US election, bless. (Of course, he wasn't the only one.)

Finally, we had a quick look around at the animals - and yes, even managed to pat one or two. And I succeeding in staying entirely ignorant of developments in milking technology. All, in all, a good day.

I had chicken for dinner tonight. Hope it wasn't this fancy lady

I got a picture of exhausted mum and happy piglet babies just before someone who was either a dickhead, or the farmer, or the dickhead farmer started kicking the side of the cage and startled them all into getting up. I especially love the piglet right in the middle with his little snout sticking up, so cute!

This sheep's a master of camouflage

These turned my teeth blue! (These were not on offer at the farm expo, this is out on the town with my ladies on Saturday night.)

Mini-Cheesewatch: I went home from the expo with a goat's cheese camembert. I've never even heard of goat's cheese camembert before. It has that very strong, mouldy feet-like taste and oozy texture which is obviously not to everyone's liking, but it is quite nice really!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Before getting on to my evening, I have to give a shout-out to my Dad. It's long been a family tradition to make fun of him for his tales of turnip carving as a lad in semi-rural northwest England, but this year he finally ponied up and showed us all how it's done. After finding out first-hand how much effort goes into carving a pumpkin, I'm extra impressed by his turnip lantern:

And by the size of that thing, Baldrick would be beside himself

Moving on, I don't have that much to say about our Halloween festivities, except it was a lot of fun! Started off with drinks at Liz's (who made a huge effort with decorations, spooky food etc.) and then hopped our way around three different bars until 5 in the morning, when we headed home in the pouring rain. Feeling surprisingly decent this morning, especially considering the horrible straight tequila shot (not even with salt and lemon!) Max bought us.

Luckily my evil Frenchman costume was well-received by the natives!

A lot of them said, however, that they wouldn't have known what I was dressed at if I wasn't carrying a baguette around. The baguette cracked under the pressure of being under my arm all night, but luckily one of my friends came as MacGyver and duct-taped it up for me. How MacGyver is that?? And then I was explaining this to a 21 year-old Irish boy, and he didn't know who MacGyver was. Give me strength...

Me and Charlie and our spooky Halloween eyeball kirs

Liz, dressed in random spooky style, me and Charlie, who came as zombie Marie Antoinette

I don't know who the girl on the left is. My friend Caroline on the right came as Medusa and was a bit pissed that no-one knew who she was. In fairness, it's not at all obvious! The makeup was great though!

Caroline and Max. She's been going on about how I have to meet these guys for ages, and then we finally catch up with them and I totally knew them already. Tours is a small place.

Me and Caroline and sexy Pierre. Sexy Pierre, if you're reading this, give me a sexy call, k?

Carving out a new experience

Autumn is definitely upon us, and the temperature has plunged this week. Still, we have blue skies and crisp weather for the moment, which is not a bad thing. The clocks went back today, which is a bad thing. It's already been getting dark quite early, so now it will be all short days and gloom for the foreseeable. On the bright side, once again, I headed to the local park to capture a few pictures of the autumn leaves:

Last night, on the other hand, I had an entirely new autumn experience: pumpkin carving! I expected I would be terrible at this, since I have pretty much zero artistic ability and my knife skills are poor at best (and not enhanced by drinking wine). So on balance I think I did a pretty good job. I was pretty terrified of the bold stabs with a butcher knife you had to do to get into the top of the thing:

You can imagine the Psycho music here

And surprised at how much scraping and pulling out of gooey handfuls of flesh and seeds that had to be undertaken once you did get the top off. It's hard work!

It was a lot of fun though! I did a double-sided design, a pretty basic scary face on one side (and I managed to screw that up even) and hearts and stars on the back. It made a nice change from going out on the booze for once!

Marcia, Laura, Margot, me, Mathilde, Caroline and our pumpkins

The back of my pumpkin. The other ladies took the piss that I made a heart,  but you know, love's a scary thing, right?

Mathilde's pumpkin was far superior to anything I could have managed. Unfairly, this was her first time as well!

Spoooooky! I cut the bottom teeth the wrong way round so they all fell off. Whoops!

Yes, someone did a jizzing cock pumpkin...

There's more Halloween fun to come. On Wednesday I think everybody I've ever met in Tours and more are all headed to one of the Irish pubs. Handily, the 1st of November is a public holiday in France, so everyone can kick up their heels without worrying about work the next day. You'll have to stay tuned to discover my (not very exciting) costume!

Just a technical note to finish on - I reached my free photo storage limit on Blogger, so I added my other gmail address as a "blog author" and hey presto, I can upload photos again! So now you'll see some posts by Gwan and some by Gwannel, but it's all me. Everyone seems to say Wordpress is better than Blogger etc. but I've had the blog for over 6 years now, so I'd rather just keep the continuity going if possible.