Victoriaperkinsstudio's blog

I wouldn't hesitate to stay at the City Inn Westminster again. The rooms are comfortable and the beds are soft. I liked my view. On the left is a large architectual firm and on the right is a mixture of old and new.

I like this angle of taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower. It ia from the courtyard of the museum. The Monet's are well worth the trip to the museum. There are two large rooms with four curve maybe 20 foot panels of oils of the lilly pads and weeping willows. Monet created them for the French people. He wanted them to be place in a museum where individuals could drop by during the day and slip away from the madding crowd and quietly reflect on these scenes...let them transport you to a quieter place. They ask that people not talk but that doesn't work out well, although most of the conversation is in whispers, except for the guard who has to say 100 times an hour, "Do not use your flash."

The green around the garden is actually a metal fence. And just to the right is this pond, surrounded by people big and small, young and old, sitting on wonderful French chairs.

My other maor reason for going to Paris was to see the most famous Monet's in the world at the Musee Orangerie. It has always been closed for renovations. It is situated in the Jarden de Tuileries on the opposite side of the garden from the Louvre. With my current fixation on small garden spaces, I loved this little area.

The next day I went to Paris. I just couldn't help myself. I have always wanted to ride on the Eurostar and go through the chunnel under the ocean. You are actually only under the water for 20 min. The rest of the time is spent cruising (quickly) through the English and French countrysides. I had a couple of goals. One was to go to Fauchon's and pick up some jams and blackberry tea. Well, according to the gentlman that helped me, the US has become impossible to deal with (his words) and so they are no longer able to ship to the US. In addition, he warned me that trying to take any food stuffs on the plane would mean that they might confiscate them. I soothed myself with some black currant pate. I was also told that they no longer make blackberry tea which made me even more sad.

And she makes flavored chocolates, which she sells out of hollowed out pieces of wood.

I met this young woman who bakes lovely desserts.

And there really is a market!

From the library I headed to Covent Gardens/Soho. What a romp! This group was playing Pachabel's Canon and were really good.

I thought this might be a good opportunity to see if much has been written on "allotments"...my new, favorite obsession, so off I went to see if I could use their services.
1. First I had to convince them that I was worthy of researching anything in their library.
2. Then I had to apply for a library card. That took one hours and a supervisor to sign off on a limited time use card for a week.
3. Then I had to go rent a locker for a dollar because you can't take anything into the research area. Two stories down, two stories up.
4. You can't take pens into the area so I had to go to the gift shop and buy a pen for another dollar.
5. They then want to preview what you want to check out. You fill out a form and they look it up on their computer.
6. You are then referred to a space where you can look up what you are interested in researching on their database.
7. You are then sent to the appropriate room, in my case the Humanities room, for further assistance.
8. When you get there you are directed to a bank of computers where you put in your order for books. I innocently asked whether I couldn't just go look at the area where this topic is covered. No no! Turns out the books are kept in one of four underground rooms or in Yorkshire. And they are sorted by height! It evidently saves space.
9. I enter what I am interested in seeing. Turns out the books are in Yorkshire and I will have to come back on Monday (I am leaving on Sunday.)
10. Time spent 1.5 hours. Accomplishments: a limited use library card and three pencils (I was planning on taking a lot of notes:))