gabbneb goes to London and Paris

1) can someone tell me where to find the orange store closest to Charing Cross?

2) London, your weather looks a bit ominous given all the walking and looking I plan to do - 40s and rainy near the entire time I'm there. Should I be afear'd and head indoors?

Hope you can come and drink with us of an evening that week.

When in paris you should try and eat at the following places:

Chez janou in the marais and cafe de l'industrie near place de bastille. I'll get you proper addresses later. I always try to go and see whatever art they have in the palais de tokyo whilst I'm in paris.

London wise there is the tate triennial and gothic nightmares at tate britain and the bauhaus exhibit at tate modern all worth seeing.

Popping down by borough market may be good if you are food orientated. There's a good swedish place down there. If you want some good solid british cooking try medcalf in exmouth market or st john bread and wine on commercial st. For a good pub food experience the flask up highgate is good and would be a nice place to fap if a little out of the way for those from south of the river.

If you want uber trad british cafe food then the new picadilly cafe is worth the experience although one of the best morning fry ups comes from cafe konstam on the kings cross road.

i hope to come drink as well. still not sure what night will be good.

thanks on the paris stuff. i can find the addresses of places - i need to be pried from michelin etc at this point.

i'm definitely going to the tate-b for turners and perhaps other stuff. and i'm doing a south bank walk, but planning to stop in at tate-m only as time allows, though bauhaus exhibit sounds interesting. i had given up on borough market weather wise, instead planning to head by there sunday on the way back from greenwich, but now it looks like the weather's going to suck throughout so i might as well. we'll see. i may go to st john on monday night, but i might be cooked for that night instead. i definitely want to sample british food, but a lot probably won't be for me, and i'm more about the mod than the trad.

i'd considered going up highgate-ish to see ilxland (if i make it to seven sisters and holloway do i turn into a pumpkin?), but my tourist imperative is likely going to prevent that. i'm going to try to make it up to hampstead on a nice afternoon, and may make it to islington, with perhaps a toe further north or east.

Go for it...

If it warms up a bit in London, you could factor in a bit of time in amazing Parks. As good as the cultural and gastronomic attractions in their own way.

St John is a must and I think Fergus is even back in the kitchen right now.

Gab, one thing about British weather: don't believe everything you read. Right now it's sunny and most normal days are, then clouds come around lunchtime most days. The only bonus here is that US-style COLD nights don't happen. As for the weekend, they say on the radio that we get some proper spring weather starting this weekend. This was one of those lamb to lion Marches I guess, as month started out with very pleasant weather. One year when my mom visited we sat in a cafe for two hours and the weather went: cloud/drizzle/hail/sun/wind/sunshowers/overcast/ohfuckit, let's go. Moral: if you hate current LDN weather, wait 30 minutes.

I always find the culture of weather denial interesting. Like people in Newcastle and Manchester pretending they're in some meditererranean climate where it might actually make sense to go around in t-shirts at the height of winter.

Are you still planning to see Peckham library? If so, the way to do it is to get a train from London Bridge, Blackfriars or Victoria to Peckham Rye (your 1-2 Travelcard will cover this), then there's a 5 minute walk to the library. When you're done looking at that, take the 63 bus into town (i.e. towards Kings Cross, not towards Honor Oak) from right by the library. That route will take you past Will Allsop's nearly-finished new pile, which is called Palestra (opposite Southwark tube station). It's not immediately as striking as the library but the similaritis ad differences are interesting. To me.

And that's another 5 minute walk away from Tate Modern, which people are quite rightly telling you to visit.

(BTW a few Turners go a long way, I always think, and whenever I have a look at the collection of them in Tate Britain, I get bored quite swiftly.)

Londoners - fancy a pint on Monday 27th March?

holloway is surely more ilx-land than highgate (though they are close enough to be related), and holloway is more central than highgate (not that im suggesting holloway is worth a visit. it isnt. but, the swimmer is a tried and tested fap venue). however, whats this seven sisters business? there are no ilxers here are there? perhaps you are thinking of clapton?

hampstead will give good views of all of london, though i'd say muswell hill may have the edge on highgate for that

a touristy thing you could do, which i still haven't managed yet, is to go the top of st pauls cathedral, i must do that soon

lots of people on ilx live in close vicinity to each other

I'm quite comfortable with this notion. Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.

yeah, i didn't think ilxers lived pres de seven sisters, but had just seen it mentioned so many times that it seemed to be the center of... something.

i will be doing lots of touristy things, including the top of st pauls most likely, thanks for reminding me. i'll probably be walking around the city/holborn on monday, perhaps returning thurs night.

hampstead attracted for its views, its village-ness, its north london-ness, and its semi-wild. i had planned on going there on a mid-week mid-afternoon. but it looks like the only nice weather day will be thurs, and i may want to save the nice day for greenwich, with the added bonus that the market will be open for a south bank walk afterwards. if i find i don't have time for hampstead, would primrose hill be an acceptable substitute, at least on the view measure?

my frequent-london-visiting dad says new york parks are better, but i hope to get to regent's in decent weather, and i'm obligated to visit dux in st james's. (which won't be very far - i'm staying in whitehall (?) near embankment tube)

i will take the tate mod recs to heart, especially for a late-day saturday perhaps, but i figure i grew up with MoMA, and contemporary art isn't a high priority of my trip. though i'll be tempted to see Flavin at Hayward. turners seem to rate high on the tourist checklist, and i wasn't planning on spending more than 2 hours there. will focus on the national gallery, at least a cursory visit to the british, hopefully at least a pop into sir john soane's and with time an hour or so at the courtauld and/or wallace. hope to get to v&a, but i won't feel a loss if i don't until next time. geffrye seems interesting but too off the beaten track for the time i have.

I will probably walk around bloombury (youn-land, apparently) at some point. i have had mixed advice about this.

re peckham, i am possibly/probably going to make it out to see my friend's place there, but the library is no longer on my agenda unless it's on the way.

pie and mash and such intrigue, but i am wary. i don't really do the sausage thing. i guess eel is the alternative? hmm. i'm not really a jelly person. if i order a ploughman's in a pub will people point and laugh? would i want to do such a thing when there are prets/sainsburys/etc (thai food)?

a matt dc dj experience sounds great. my monday may be full up but it's not close to certain yet, so i may well turn out for that. if that doesn't work, i will try to pick a good night.

I was going to say that I like DC could make Greenwich but it sounds like Gabbneb will not.

North London isn't ILXland, but there's definitely a concentration of them along the main drag of Holloway Road from Highbury & Islington up to Archway. It's not really worth visiting though.

+ is there any good footy on TV this weekend?

sorry for the lack of touch here. i haven't had the access i thought i would. but i found an easy everything very close by so here i am.

no, i didn't make it to greenwich on sunday (going to try to head there now probably). have been concentrated along the south bank by day and theatreland by night, then up towards maida vale last night for a quiz. did make it to half the third floor at tate modern, which was excellent.

as youn posted elsewhere, i'm planning on coming to brick lane tonight and looking forward to it. music at 7 and hanging about after? a university friend who is a local may come with.

Also you will make Mark C and Dave B very angry (a quick search for 'Milton Keynes Wimbledon' should explain all).

(xpost - oic)

Alternative London-based (sorta) footie on Tuesday: Dagenham and Redbridge vs Crawley Town in the Conference.

Exotic Dagenham! Now there's an idea. Thanks for the tip. I think Mary once warned me/everyone off the place, but my taste may be different?

Yes, the sun is trying to peek at mr nelson there, but I'm going to take my greenwich chances later in the week (there's an eclipse on wednesday apparently) when the weather (which you all have been pretty otm about - until today I've been enjoying the tropical breezes) may be nicer.

Now for some art.

I hope you both enjoy it, I am envious...

I quite like it, but then because it's a big place and near one or two of my firm's offices I tend to go there for leaving drinks. Which means the beer's usually free. So of course I like it.

Nice to meet you too, albeit briefly.

Per my slightly dated Time Out book, there's some sort of (Rififi-esque(?), for you New York-ophiles) week-in-review revue ('comedy') at a cafe up by the canal (which I haven't seen yet, and would like to). Anyone know if this a) still exists and b) is any good? Is the canal nice at night or should I go by day even if it's raining a lot?

this interests....no one but me?

But mayhaps he will see this and email me and dispense vast political knowledge to all of parisian ilx at a fap?!

Gabbneb's biggest fan / stalker

Anytime this weekend is OK for me, but I was waiting for the rest of parisILX to pipe up. As for place, as I already said on the other thread, the Chez Janou place that people suggested was very cool and is a good start!

Must be interesting for him tonight since the entire central area of the metro seems to have been shut down tonight due to more protests.

(I didn't see that Ed had answered my question. Thanks Ed!)

hopu come back soon

newgab