My Week With London, Photos : LOCAL LOVES

How is it Sunday again? This week has absolutely flown, but I managed to snatch a few snaps as it did. It been a busy week of theatre, drinks and exploring new corners of the city.

My Week With London. 

Tubing around.

Piccadilly Arcade.

Sometimes prosecco just tastes better at home,

Covent Garden Market.

Floral Street

Birthdays in Barons Court.

Always important to keep hydrated.

Commute, commute. Never ending commute.

The best kind of door.

  

Spoilt for choice.

London's calling.

Hampstead Heath Heaven.

The Actors Church, Covent Garden

xXx

Pop to Paris - Day 1 : FURTHER AFIELD

“Paris is always a good idea.” 

― Audrey Hepburn

Exactly Audrey, exactly. It may always be a good idea but it doesn't always have to be expensive. If you're a Londoner getting to Paris is easy and cheap! I recently did a weekend in Gay Paree for a grand total of £215 and, considering we travelled to a-whole-nother-country, that is a total bargain, especially when you see what we managed to pack in. There's quite a lot to tell you so I'll split this bad boy into two posts.

So here you go gang, a step-by-step to 'doing Paris' on a shoestring....

Firstly, we got a brilliant deal on Eurostar tickets and I'll let you know a little secret - all tickets are at their absolute cheapest on the day that they go on sale and this is exactly 15 weeks in advance. So work out when you want to go and have your finger hovering over the Book button 15 weeks before. Simple! This means you'll be able to get a return ticket for £69 - even at peak times. Snazzy. And it gets better - if you book as a large group (we were a ten) you can get the group rate of £63! Cracking stuff. C'est parfait! 

So after work on the Friday we all skipped out of our respective offices, floppy hats and fluffy coats in tow, and gathered at St Pancras station - which in itself is an experience. The architecture is just beautiful and it houses the longest champagne bar in Europe. A glass of bubbles starts at £13 so if you're feeling a little flush why not kick off your trip off with some fizz?

We however smuggled a small haul of prosecco onto the train so had our fair share of fizz, as well as every snack imaginable....

The journey takes just over two hours and suddenly you're in Paris. The train glides into Gare du Nord....it's very Railway Children, 'daddy, my daddy!'-esque with the train steam et al. We purposely booked a hostel close to the station so that we could dump our bags quickly and head out for a Parisian beverage.

For those of you that haven't stayed in a hostel before - they're basically a very basic hotel for when you don't intend to do much sleeping but need a base for a quick snooze and a shower. We decided to get a ten bed dorm room, y'know boarding school style. It was simple, clean and fantastically located. We dropped our bags and headed to the bar to plan the following day...

Saturday

After a breakfast of granola, natural yoghurt, apricot jam smothered baguettes and orange juice we headed off to Sacré Coeur in the Monmartre district of the city. It was a brisk 15 minute walk up to this beautiful spot, including a lot of steps but it's so worth the view.

And it's from here that we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower - and my gosh is it huge! I couldn't believe my eyes. It is so, so much bigger than any other building in the city. With that little taste of what was to come we headed off into the centre of the city. We decided to walk and it took about half an hour. Winding down through the streets we wondered past lovely fruit shops, bakeries, butchers and even a theatre!

Look! There it is!

  

We found a lovely little coffee place called L'entracte right opposite the Palaise Garnier (the Paris equivalent of our Royal Opera House), on Rue Auber, for a pit stop. Coffee is a delicacy in France and there are a million different versions but most of them come in espresso size. I plumped for a cafe noisette and it gave me that little zap of mid-morning energy a proper tourist needs! 

With the caffeine zipping through us we walked the last little bit to the Louvre so got the posing underway.

We of course were feeling really rather peckish by now, especially after all that jumping, so off for some lunch we went! We completely lucked out and stumbled across La Cooperative where we all ordered some form of cheese to refuel for the afternoon. It was such a sweet little place and the waiters were very patient (and a little flirty, wink wink!) as I attempted to order in French and pretended to understand when they explained the specials. Nod and smile guys, nod and smile!

Once every morsel was devoured we skipped off to le Jardin des Tuileries which is a beautiful public garden that runs along the side of the river from the Louvre. At the end it joins with the Avenue des Champs-Elysees which is famous for it's luxury shops but there was only one that we were aiming for and that was Laduree - the famous macaroon shop! Now, there is a queue to get in but it really is worth it! Waiting to be served is an experience in itself, this is true, luxury Parisian baking. We bought a box together and I went for a Rose one - my god was it scrummy! I can still taste it now! If you want to try one but don't have the time to pop over to France there are three little Laduree shops in London, but shhhhh!

We than skipped down the rest of the Champs-Elysees to pose cheesily in front L'Arc de Triomphe. By this point we were all utterly pooped so we hopped onto the metro (just like the tube but cheaper more spacious!) and headed back to the hostel. 

 
For dinner, on the recommendation of a friend, we were booked into Le Point Zero - now it's a not the kind of place you go if you want a 'truly French experience' but we were the only English people in there and the food was absolutely fantastic. We of course started the meal with a round of cocktails (gin, lemon and basil - phwoar) and a lot of baked camembert.

It's a really lively place and people from other tables kept popping over to say hi and one person even gave us the business card for their blog! We had such a laugh with everyone in there - as we left some of the other patrons were trying out their English 'Bye bye! See you soon! Catch you later!' and the waiters were ringing the bell behind the bar - utterly hilarious!

 

We were then led through the streets by Catriona to a secret speakeasy style club that was hidden down a rickety old spiral staircase behind an old, unmarked black door. I wouldn't usually suggest knocking on unmarked doors in unfamiliar cities but go on, this ones brilliant! It's called Le Ballroom du Boeuf and you'll find it at 58 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They have quite a strict clothing policy on the door so make sure you're dressed up. Here's a sneaky little blog about it from when it first opened. We arrived just before eleven and managed to grab a table from which we partied the night away.....

Day 2 to follow! Bisous, xxx

Island Retreat, Hayling : A STONE'S THROW AWAY

So, I started the weekend just gone feeling TERRIBLE after a pretty raucous night out in South West London. It started as a very civilised affair at my place - I made makeshift salmon blinis [wholewheat bread, a dollop of cream cheese, a slither of smoked salmon and a squeeze of lemon juice] and sour dough bruschetta, which we washed down with prosecco...

....then gin and tonics....which I particularly enjoyed...

....then after arriving at the club - mojitos...more gin, coronas, jagerbombs....you get the picture.

But what better way to bust a hangover than a trip to the seaside! My lovely friend Sophie has a little beach house on Hayling Island. Her extended family own a small strip of coast and a little private beach - dotted along the edge of the water are sweet wooden bungalows. Everyone knows everyone and it's a lovely atmosphere.

The girls and I jumped on the train to Sophie's family home just outside of London to pick up the car, sipping some medicinal pepsi and regretting that final drink. Awaiting our arrival was a pretty fantastic lunch....

Ice cubes made out of crushed berries - such a lovely idea.

After demolishing plate upon plate of lunchtime goodness we piled into the car and bombed down the M3, listening to Bastille far too loudly, windows down, blowing away the cobwebs. As soon as we arrived we were straight out onto the water in kayaks, on paddle boards and in a dinky little rowing boat. I'm not going to lie - I am an appalling rower - so I commandeered the kayak and then got rowed around a bit. Bliss.

Now, Guest of the Weekend Award goes to the lovely Lucy – seen above in a fetching yellow kayak. She selflessly took all her clothes off and waded out to sea when the rowing boat escaped. Granted, the water was only waist-deep so flashing her bra to all and sundry was a little unnecessary but we enjoyed the impromptu striptease nonetheless.

My personal rower

I haven't quite mastered the 'Graceful Disembark' just yet - soaking wet jeans!

We had fish and chips for sups and practically rolled into bed for a sea-air induced slumber.

In the morning, feeling mightily refreshed after a good sleep, great vats of tea and piles of toast with marmalade, we set off on a walk around the island and it looked like everyone else had had the same idea - sailors, golfers, windsurfers, fishers - you name an activity, we saw it! We tripped over sand dunes and pebble beaches, through woods and down little foot-worn paths.

After a spot of crabbing on the harbour wall and a lunch of scrambled eggs on toast and apple crumble with lashing of custard we reluctantly packed up and headed back to London a little sun kissed and very relaxed. It was such a lovely twenty four hours, the perfect way to spend the last weekend of Summer. I love London with all my heart but sometimes you do need to step out of the bubble.


So you can probably guess what my Londoner suggestion is this time folks....

- GO TO HAYLING ISLAND! It's a stone's throw away from London - from Waterloo the train takes an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Havant, the nearest station to the island, then it's a short ten minute drive. Apparently there's also a bus, the 31A, which takes just under half an hour. There are lots of holiday homes on Hayling so book yourself in, or just go for the day, and blow those cobwebs away!