Boog's Blog

Friday. No rain forecasted and a bit warmer.

St. Martins in the Field organ concert. A visit and rejection at the National Gallery, and a picnic dinner in the room.

The concert:

The organ playing was excellent of course. The dissonance of some pieces not so much. Liked the base notes especially but overall the organ is of great quality. Naturally no recordings allowed.

After “tea” at the National Gallery we went shopping for picnic stuff. We intended to see the Sorolla exhibit but… at 14 pounds each plus donation we passed. A chelsea bun and a sandwich were substituted.

Seen at Fortnum’s. Just had to take a pic.

Was not considered for purchase.

Picnic dinner:

—–

Saturday – final weekend of this trip.

A varied weather day – rain, hail (in pic but I caught it too late), sun, rain, sun.

After the rain and hail went to the Wallace collection for our usual viewing of the Canaletto and the exhibition by Henry More, Helmets. Skipped when we saw the price, have already subsidized our quota for this trip.

Nice walk to the Grand Union Canal and Little Venice.

At the pool the Regents and Grand Union meet and diverge. Grand Union walk is very much like the Oxford canal. Housing on one side, boats on one or both sides.

Stopped to discuss house boat living with a smoker sitting at the edge of his boat.

– About 1000 pounds a year for a spot

-Must move either every 7 or 14 days to a new zone, rules vary by zone.

-Must move at least 30 miles a year

-Can winter in places with good hookups at 180 pounds a month for a 45 footer

-If spaces tight you can double park

—–

Dinner with Bobby et. al. Tom Yum seafood soup, fine salad, outstanding cabbage dish.

Wednesday. rain day

Exhibit day while QB takes “me” time.

Hearty breakfast at the hotel and then off to Design Center to see it and the Kubrick exhibit. Not a fan of either mid century modern design or exhibits of film but a good day for a walk in the rain of which there was more than one downpour.

Apparently large exhibit of his works, history, and techniques. I missed much of it.

After seeing a reasonable amount I mentioned to Bobby that I would wait outside for him. About 45 minutes later he emerged. Said I missed five rooms of film clips and other stuff. Oh well….

Dinner at Bobby’s with Muru in good form.

A classic and well done. Tomato salad with a bit of truffle oil.

——-

Thursday. Rain again but not much.

Visit to V&A after breakfast at the Hyde Park Serpentine restaurant. Decent Shatshuka.

Fine staircase. Most of the museum was to be built to this standard but alas ran out of money.

Beatrix Potter exhibit. Small but with wonderful drawings. She started at 8-9 years old with good water colors in her notebook. This is not from that notebook.

Tea in their formal dining area. Someone left their wallet/purse/phone on the seat. After finishing our snack tried to turn it in to a person who led us on a shortcut to the Potter exhibit – the museum is a maze even with a map and the museum employee started to explain how to get there and then said, ah, I will open some gates and take you directly. Same happened upon trying to return to the cafe.

As I said, tried to turn it in but no. He works for the V&A and we were in the cafe area. Need to turn it into them. Milburn staff runs the cafe so I needed to turn it a Milburn staff person.

You might think that this is just an odd chandelier. But it is much more. It is an air purifier.

Dinner with Bobby. This time lamb curry, chicken curry, roti, delish cabbage dish, asparagus and tomato salad, rice, homemade kimchi. Outstanding. Muru was the executive chef, others, not us, did the cooking.

Whereas the question of the type of plant raised in the previous post is revealed in conjunction with a trip to the famed Chelsea Physick garden.

But that comes later in the post.

—–

Monday, cool, no rain.

St. Martins concert, pizza at one of the best, with David James a pizza review expert and master Dalik maker.

After another Gails breakfast and a stroll down Sloan street and through Hyde Park on our way to Chelsea

for a while. Then..

Off to the National Gallery to see Canalettos, Turners and hear a QB pun, a rarity. We went up the stairs and turned left instead of right. “Wrong turn for Turners”.

As the signage says Canaletto made (some) of his paintings for consumption by English tourists.

Tea and scones later then off to St. Martins again. This time one of their best. Four choruses selected for their final evening of the season. Lead piece Spem in Alium. Each chorus was the best and the finale was all four choruses signing together. Ran out of programs and in theory I will get one via email following my request.

Got the link to the program. They sent it quickly.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s18/sh/0d32f622-0806-4595-b92a-0f04a59f5d50/d5f4011f21f74c69918fcbe669f3ac7b

David James, Bobby and us rounded out a full day. Great to see him and all get together.

———

Tuesday.

Starts with free breakfast at the hotel. The restaurant opens today after a six plus month renovation of the Baker Street side of the hotel. We were invited to review or possibly praise.

Worthy of praise.

Off to the Physick garden, open and not raining this time. New Kunst installed at the entrance.

Asked the gardeners about the plant of earlier discussion. No one won the full paid trip around the world.

Fatsia japonica aka Paperplant. Berries are not edible, they blanched when I asked. Apparently a tropical plant that grows well in the UK. Used both indoor and outdoors.

Earl Grey and oil of bergamont

We are not fans of Earl Grey tea but many are.

Dinner at Bobby’s place. Muru better.

Bobby went all out! Wontons with scallops and shrimp,peppers de padron, fresh chicken broth with added ham into broth for flavoring and filled with thin noodles.

Then baby octopus in fiery red broth made, apparently, just for me.

Wow.

Saturday Cool, very cool, barely hit 50 degrees F. Intermittent rain.

Breakfast, again, at Fishers. Great Grosti. Bobby indicates I must remind him to get this dish at next sitting.

Another and now we interrupt our regular programming with a question. This tree is in the local garden. Fruit looks like blueberries only smaller. Tree is about six feet tall. Anyone know what this is?

Back to regular programing.

Headed off to the British Library. Main exhibit is 5000 years of writing. Paid exhibit with some flaws that were noted by us participants: very little to nothing on ancient or development of Hebrew, querty keyboard not discussed in the section on typewriters, overall not as comprehensive as it could have been. Printing sections done well.

Again another expensive entry museum that does not permit photos. No digital version of the exhibit available, only a 10kg clay paper book, looks excellent.

Dinner at Le Vieux Comptoir. Another for our list of good ones. Very large portions, seem to specialize in cheese and wine.

——-

Sunday, a little warmer, day for a walk planned in Essex. JD and Bobby were to join. Starting from Waltham Abbey.

Alas it was not to be today. A toad got QB, she thinks the French were trying to poison her. Expedition postponed for much needed rest. The George-QB travel toad alignment continues unbroken.

Toad breaking breakfast plus mine. Bok Choi at Selfridges with it fine tea, a favorite blend of ours.

Exhibit at the RA, Renaissance Nudes.

The first surprise was the Pope Pius IV covered some of the nudes in the Sistine Chapel

Two pieces of Saint Stephans with only one arrow. In Spain we always, as best as I can remember, saw him with 7 arrows.

A particularly interesting display showed two very similar looking books of hours. Each had a vibrant colored Bathsheba. In one she is clothed, in the other nude. Apparently there were separate versions for men and women. Never heard of this before.

A Titian that I have not seen before, located in Edinburgh. Venus emerging from the water. The reflection has been added as a bonus. Impressive up close. QB passed on the exhibit.

Dinner a picnic in the room.

Thursday some rain promised and delivered in the afternoon and especially on the way to dinner.

Another wandering day with good breakfast at Gail’s and a trip to St. Martin in the Fields to get some tickets.

At Gail’s a perfect Harry Potter moment with him actually reading the book.

Tomorrow night Choral Baroque concert with their choir. Yeah! Other tickets acquired but will be reported on as we get closer to the date.

The big events for the day are two fold. Muru’s art exhibit an then dinner planned at Din Tai Fung which has recently opened in London.

Muru at the exhibition with a self portrait.

He exhibited seven paintings. See link below.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0bC7oVmR_0cVFLm6PcYc8d5EA#Camden_&_Westminster

Dinner at Din Tai Fung. Long wait for a table, went for a pint and then hurried back directly into a glass door at the restaurant. Moderate amount of blood, bruise to be expected, histrionics on my part about the door and a discounted dinner. Holding ice to my forehead and forgot to take food pics. Standard Din Tai Fung fare, standard meaning excellent.

——

Friday. Cooler, no city warming here, with showers and rain in the afternoon.

Highlight was St. Martin in the Fields concert – outstanding choral group. Bobby joined.

Could not record or take pics of the concert.

We will go to an organ recital next week.

Dinner with JD and Bobby at a fine Italian restaurant. Briciole.

Tuesday

First and important correction: no truffle cheese eggies yesterday. We arrived far too early for France to allow eating eggs. No eggs before noon it seems, at least at Galleries Lafayette.

Second, here are some photos from Notre Dame yesterday. Just four to document the status as of this date. Naturally could not get any closer. Police and barricades surrounding all. Even the park was closed.

Here are some QB pics, better than the ones I took

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0F5OWzgAROXyEH7VyoUzOY6Jw#Paris_-_Les_Halles,_2nd_arr._&_4th_arr

Yesterday’s ice cream at Berthillon. Bobby might have had the two scoops.

Eurostar to London. Might have been chicken for lunch; that is what we heard them say.

We are back at the newly renovated Sherlock Holmes hotel which is now of Chiltern street. They moved the entrance and made Baker street two way. Little in this world is stable.

Dinner for roughage, Daylesford Restaurant. Three salads each. Then some berries from Marks and Sparks,

———-

Wednesday. Still nice

Breakfast at Pauls, good granola keeping with the theme of a less rich diet for at least today.

The tulips are out here as well. No roses in bloom as yet.

Just a building that I like.

Dinner continues with the same theme. Yogurt/fruit/granola for QB and many salads, Selfridges purchased for KB. Some Doombar as well.

Tomorrow, Bobby back from Lyon, Muru art exhibit and more….

Sunday, continued cool. Intermittent rain. Lots of walking again.

All lit up, after dinner walk back to the hotel.

First, after a hearty hotel breakfast up the Champs to see it and the new hip Galleries L. A stroll back the Champs to a post walk nap and then meet up with Bobby.

At the d’Orsey, natch.

We and youse saw the real one, here is an impression.

In addition to their great collection of impressionists there was a very special exhibition, one of the best we have seen in a while. Paintings, photos, film clips of Josephine Baker dancing, Cotton club clips, Manet’s great Olympia,on and on.

Model in this context is as a model for art and a model for society.

A great painting just becase …..

Dinner at Cafe du Commerce again. Another fine meal. Bobby and I had the soup de poisson, good but served far from hot, just barely warm.

——

Monday. A bit warmer and no rain.

Pompidou centre after breakfast, truffles and eggs for QB and Bobby, at Galleries Lafayette.

After Pompidou, which we decided not to enter as no interesting exhibits, we wandered Saint-Dennis and then over to Notre Dame so see the destruction. Walked around the cathedral and took numerous pics. Naturally could not get too close.

Eustace

Then over to have some Berthillon ice cream and then in the evening dinner at Bobby’s favorite place: l’Ambassade d’ Auvergne.

Bobby’s 32 hour lamb and alligot.

Tomorrow, London by rail.

Saturday: another cool day. Forecast was for a much cooler day with showers. Got very windy.

Our original plan was to visit Chartres today. Seeing how many areas of Paris we have not explored decided to stay in town.

Stopped for petite-dejeuner at Fauchons as we were forced to pass Concord area. The whole Concord area is shut down to traffic. Rue de Rivoli shut down. Later in the day when we tried to take the Metro it whizzed past 8 stops and took us to Maillot. Had to backtrack and walk.

Above empty Concord and Rivoli

First a visit to Carton, the bakery highly recommended by Mike and Dee. Sold to us as their favorite croissant. When we reached this section of the 6 th QB started stopping, again, at each bakery. A good recovery.

Outstanding croissant as well as some raison bread, a sable raspberry. Diabetic overload today for sure. Angelina croissant very close in quality to Carton; Fauchon good but not as good.

After a full tour of the hood following the guidance of Dee and Mike.

Cour de Commerce, Rue Buci, rue St. Andre des Arts, Rue Jacob, rue Dauphine and then the very very wind tunnel of the passage, place Furstenburg, and wonderful tea at Malago. S

Wandered over to Luxembourg gardens but closed. Windy today and a tree, one tree, fell down and they closed the whole place. Wimps.

Headed over to Bouillon Julien. Server asked us if we found the place due to NYT article, said yes of course. She turned out to be a charming 20 something who dropped out of Ecole Polytechnique, did not like the business world culture, and now wants to become an astrophysicist. I encouraged and mentioned Matt Strassler on black holes: yup, very good writer she said.

The cafe dates from the early Art Nouveau period, 1906 and was renovated in 2018. Spectacular.

https://www.bouillon-julien.com/beau?locale=en

Tomorrow, Bobby, d’Orsay, Berthillon, Cafe du Commerce and more.

Friday, another cool day but not raining.

Train to Giverny via St. Lazare then shuttle to Monet’s garden.

Well, the train was planned but then when looking at the schedule and how to go from Vernon to the gardens could not find a schedule for the bus. Well, found conflicting schedules so discussed with the concierge at the hotel. Take the tour bus, cheaper and direct. We took it and it worked pretty well. Would have liked more than 2 hours at the garden but….

Breakfast at Bread and Roses. Don’t bother to go. Food very good but usual poor French service bordering on ignoring completely. Cheese from a famous cheesemonger Mere Richard.

Hayfever is forever but QB’s cold would have been only a few days. Could not get a clear answer which would be worse but it appears that it has been hayfever all along. Getting a little better as the weather has been cooler.

Now I need to correct the attribution for La Tourelle. Turns out the source is Dee who passed it onto Elizabeth-Dennis. Much relief on finally having the correct attribution.

The timing for our visit to Giverny was perfect! Weather perfect, all the flowers except the roses (June timing) were out in full glory.

QB took many pics, they are linked here.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0GPwRx_Y-2ZCfc0TZLSgg5OQg#Giverny,_Upper_Normandy

A few additional shots to give the flavor.

Dinner in the 15th at another Dee recommendation: Baribal

Unlike La Tourelle this is not a family restaurant and is not prix fixe. However the food was excellent and properly prepared. Mains were Bar (a white bass I believe) and dourade.

Some rotation might be present as I thought that the plugin was working and did not concern myself with portrait or landscape mode.

Tomorrow we start at Carton and work ourselves silly with that hood.

Wednesday, last exceptionally nice day in Amsterdam before the weather turns cooler and rainy.

Direct from Amsterdam CS to Paris Gare du Nord. Easy trip.

Arrived in the rain which subsided by the time we got to our hotel. Two rooms later, did not like the shower arrangement in the first room, and then reserved a different room for the rest of our stay- larger windows, same class. Finally settled in enough to think about dinner.

Cafe du Commerce above, before the hordes showed up. Sat next to a nice couple from Savoie region. Intercambio. Not Trump fans, culture fans. Good discussion.

Perfectly prepared duck breast and veal-pork cassoulet. This is one of the best places we have eaten so far on this trip. Thanks to Dee for the recommendation.

Dessert was Paris Brest which was explained to us originated with the tour de france about 1908 when it went between the two above cities.

———–

Thursday – overcast and much much cooler. Needed light jacket.

A fine start of the day. Our stuff is being moved as we head out to breakfast; moved to another room (turns out it is the best of the three so we will happily stay in this one).

Breakfast at Angelina on Rue de Rivoli. A well know, and fancy cafe. Reminds me of Fishers in London except Fishers has excellent coffee and excellent service. The food was excellent at Angelina but not so much the service. Finally I just got up and hung around the cash register until we could pay – tried unsuccessfully for 15 plus minutes to get the bill.

Mostly a day of wandering to and near Galleries Lafayette with its four stores, possibly only three buildings. We were never able to find the pharmacy, just gave up after a while. Day ended up with 10+ miles or 12+ miles depending upon which OS one believes.

Nice breakfast mostly healthy breakfast. WF is it not. Weak coffee here.

Galleries Lafayette:

Yes, that is sort of a trampoline under the dome. Six layers of balconies one of which is just visible in the lower right hand side of the pic.

Dinner at La Tourelle, thanks to Elizabeth and Dennis. Many thanks.

We walked over from the hotel but avoided the Tuileries due to QB suffering from severe allergy – tree related – attack. A bit better today as the weather is much cooler.

Side note: Tom has informed that a plugin has been set up right all the rotated PC/Mac pictures. Let me know if indeed they are all correctly rotated.

At Galleries Lafayette QB saw some biscotto pistachio, brought her to tears for a short bit. Naturally we bought some.

Today was a day of noise and crowds, bird and lime scooters, police sirens, tourists like us, cars, busses, bikes and smokers everywhere.

Dinner was excellent and once again no vegetables. Have had none in 10 days, other than lettuce (which George calls a veggie).

A new dish to me: pain de poisson Basque

Not new but good, duck confit.

Tomorrow: Monet and Giverny