In Love With London

I had every intention of saving a trip to London for the winter.  Yes, it's very cold in London in the winter, but it's cold in Montpellier too, so we might as well go somewhere that's cold and really pretty and snows!  However, things come up and plans change.  Which is why, when Kerry came home one Monday evening and informed me that he would be going to London the following week for work, we booked two last minute tickets on the EasyJet direct flight from Montpellier to London, and decided to make a weekend of it.

Man, I cannot fully express how wonderful it was to be a tourist in a city that speaks English.  It is one of the many reasons that after about 20 minutes in London, I was in love.  The city very much reminded me of New York City, which still remains at the top of my list of favorite places in the entire world.  London is huge, the list of things to do is endless, and there are crowds on every corner.  We only had two short days in the city, but we did our best to pack in the sites and make the most of it!

By the time we got checked to our hotel, we were starving, so first stop for us was lunch.  And in London, this means pub food!!  While Montpellier has plenty of wonderful dining options, one dining concept they seem completely devoid of is the idea of a pub.  So we took advantage all weekend long of the London pub scene: fish and chips, smushy peas, bangers and mash, steak pie, all served with a cold (or at least cool) beer.  We spent the afternoon walking the city and enjoying the atmosphere.  We stumbled on Picadilly Circus...

Peeked through the gates that lead to Buckingham Palace...

And stopped in at Foyles and Waterstones, two of the city's biggest bookstores for some English book shopping.

Eventually we worked our way over to three of London's biggest stars: Big Ben, The House of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.

Since Westminster Abbey was closed on Saturday afternoon and Sunday for touring, we opted to attend a Saturday evening service at the church instead.  In my opinion, this is the only way to experience Westminster.  I have toured plenty of churches and cathedrals, but to see them as they were meant to be used, in worship and stillness, without the 500 other people sneaking prohibited photos with their camera phones, is a much more authentic and moving experience.  The magnificence of the abbey is quite simply beyond words.  Not one inch of the building has been ignored.  Stained glass windows 20 feet high, statues on every wall, tombs lining the hallways, even the flooring is beautifully laid.  I'm hard pressed to think of another building that I have visited with as much grandeur and elegance as Westminster Abbey.

Following our church break, we headed across the river and enjoyed the views of the House of Parliament and the London Eye, which is the horribly cheesy name for the giant ferris wheel that sits on the river.  We considered riding it, but on a cloudy day the views didn't seem all that promising, plus the line was long and looked to be slow moving.  So we skipped it and headed to an early and very delicious dinner at The Anchor & Hope gastropub, and called it a night early.  After about 8 hours of walking around London, we were exhausted!

Sunday we were up and out the door early, armed with coats, scarves, and two big bups of coffee, headed to Buckingham Palace!  Every day during the summer there is a very ceremonious Changing of the Guard outside the palace, where the new guard comes in to relieve the old guard from duty.  It is British pomp and circumstance at it's finest - soldiers on horse back, a live marching band, choreographed movements, and of course, the funny costumes.  I mean, uniforms.  And all of it set in a gorgeous open space lined with flower beds full of colorful blooms, bordered by a huge park, and centering on the gates to the palace.  We also had the great fortune of a sunny morning!  Not to be taken for granted in a city like London.  We were especially appreciative of the good weather, because to get a good spot at the gate to watch the Changing of the Guard, you have to show up about two hours early and claim your spot; the crowds multiply in the hour leading up to the event.  That said, it's a very unique experience, and definitely worth seeing at least once.    

By that afternoon the rains had returned, so we opted for a primarily indoor activity and made our way to The Tower of London to soak up some London history and of course, marvel at the crown jewels for half and hour.  While it is now essentially a museum in a castle, the buildings that comprise the Tower of London contain centuries of history, and you can learn all about the castle's gruesome past, weaponry stores, mysterious happenings, and famous inhabitants.  The star of the show though, the crown jewels, are truly jaw dropping.  I didn't know diamonds that big existed.  They have wisely installed a conveyor belt that passes by the display of jewels (a very genius idea to prevent lingering crowds) and I insisted we ride it about 6 times in order to gawk the beautifully crafted crowns, rings, swords, orbs, and other such fancy royal things covered in sparkles.  While I stared and salivated over the jewels, Kerry mumbled something about how "of course the peasants revolted, look at what the queen is walking around wearing!"  And he probably has a point, this would never be allowed to happen in America, it just doesn't jive with the American mindset of earning your way to the top.

The Tower of London is situated right next to the River Thames and the very iconic Tower Bridge.  Even on a cloudy and rainy day, the bridge was so pretty it almost looked fake, like it belonged in Disney World.  While you can walk along the upper walkways of the bridge, we were too exhausted to trek all the way over there, so we enjoyed the view from afar instead.

The sheer size of London yields an attraction list a mile long.  It is a city I could visit ten times and never bore of.  Despite it's miserable climate, London is full of life, movement, and culture and is sure to have something to please everyone.  And fortunately for us, it's only 90 minutes away!    


The full set of London photos can be found here

     
               

A Quick Visit to Sete

May has been a hectic month.  This doesn't sound too surprising or unusual, until you learn that in France, May is the month of random holidays.  There are a total of four national holidays scattered throughout the month.  Off the top of my head, I couldn't name a single one of them.  So you would think, with four extra days out of the office, May should be a great month!  And it was, but it was also busy.  Stepping back for a moment, I'll explain the two month blogging absence in two sentences:  In March we spent three weeks searching for and purchasing a car.  In April we spent one week preparing for a trip to America, two weeks in America, and one week recovering from a wonderful, but exhausting trip.  And now, we are back to May! 

Two of this month's holidays happened to fall right next to each other, on a Wednesday and a Thursday.  Had I known about this in advance, I would have planned to take Friday off as well and take advantage of a 5 day weekend like the rest of the country did, but I didn't know, and instead I had four days warning of the upcoming time off.  So with a sunny, but only mildly warm forecast ahead, we decided to pack up the doggies and head to the beach for a couple of days.  While there are plenty of beaches nearby that don't require an overnight stay, we opted to trek a little bit further out of Montpellier and explore the small port town of Sete, France.          

About an hour's drive from the center of Montpellier, Sete is one of the Mediterranean's largest fishing ports.  The entire city is built on a big hill, with a handful of canals lined with colorful buildings and restaurants  winding through the base to support the active seafood industry.   The city doesn't really house any "must-see" monuments, museums, etc, but the pull of the town is obvious - beaches, beaches, beaches.  Long stretches of white sand and clear blue waters abound.  Add to that some of the freshest seafood in the world, and I think I'd skip the museums even if they were world famous.  We started our short stay in Sete by heading straight to the beach.  Around April each year, all along the Languedoc coastline, workers can be seen quickly assembling pop-up restaurants on the beach, many of which are complete with lounge chairs, cabanas, bars, and even dance floors for when the sun goes down.  We stopped in at a flashy place called Le Dome for a yummy, but certainly overpriced lunch.  I suppose this view just doesn't come cheap.

After lunch we rented chairs at a nearby, much less noisy, pop-up and enjoyed a couple of relaxing hours in the sun.  Even with the clear skies and the heat of direct sun over head, the water was a bit too cold for swimming.  By 6:00 we had our sweaters back on and were headed back to the hotel to clean up for dinner.   Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, closer to the beaches, and therefore not walking distance to the heart of the city with the restaurants, bars, and passing boats.  This was a mistake - there is so much life and movement in Sete; I'd much prefer to be in the center of it all.  Think of it like a very scaled down Venice, with a French twist.  In true European fashion, by the time we had made it to the town and were browsing dinner menus, the rains set in.  So while we did have a canal view, it was a rainy one.  We chowed down on as much seafood as we could handle - fresh oysters, bouillabaisse, grilled shrimp, and a selection of fish from the morning's catchings.  The canal activity was minimal due to the weather, but I imagine on a sunny day their would be a constant stream of boats and fishermen hollering greetings to each other while going about their day's work.  It's an atmosphere that I certainly feel merits a return trip to Sete.

Another perk of staying in the middle of the city, as opposed to the outskirts, is that your morning pastry and coffee are only a block away.  Instead, we drove around for 20 minutes looking for our morning java.  Since parking was limited in the city, we decided to evoke the French method of 5 minute parking.  It goes as follows: leave your car where ever you want in the road that is convenient for you, bonus points if other cars still have space to get around you.  Turn on your flashers so others know you won't be more than a few minutes, which may or may not turn into half an hour, depending on who you run into or how talkative the shop owner is, then hope there isn't a line of cars with upset drivers waiting on you to move your car when you come back out.  And if there is, wave and smile, letting them you know that you are having a great day and that you appreciate them wasting 20 minutes so you could have a nice chat with an old pal.  I'm not kidding, people do this all the time.

Fortunately for us, traffic was light and the pastry shop quick, so we were on our way before anyone had a chance to realize we were parked illegally.  

I mentioned earlier that Sete is built on a hill.  See, big hill:

As such, one of the best (and only) attractions Sete has to offer is some stellar views from the peak of their tiny mountain.  There are hiking paths to the top that require about an hours walk, but we took the lazy route and drove.  We blamed the dogs for this - our senior citizen pups couldn't handle an hour of uphill hiking.  The drive is only about 5 minutes, and the parking lot is reasonably large enough.  Taking in nearly 360 degrees of the town, bays, canals, mountains, and oceans from the top of Mont St. Clair is not such a bad start to the day.     

             

We had just under 24 hours in the small city of Sete, which certainly wasn't enough for me.  Sete is a place where you can soak up some genuine French sea-side culture, without the imposing feel of a tourist town.  As festival season approaches, Sete will play host to a number of entertaining events, including a sizeable music fest on the beach, and a water jousting tournament in August, and I feel very hopeful that Sete will make it on our agenda again before the summer is up.      

             
Additional Sete Photos