London without a brolley (that's an umbrella...)

Photos by Jet Tila

My broken French that got us around Paris is not required anymore. However even though most people around me in London are speaking English, I still find myself thinking up sentences in French before I start speaking.

So lets return to Paris briefly...

We went to a show at the Moulin Rouge (at my insistence) in the evening after the amazing Taillevent lunch. As I have never seen a Vegas show or anything even remotely similar, I was shocked into silence once it kicked off! I expected nudity. Even some gaudy costumes. I even expected to be surprised. What I didn't expect was men. On the stage. Dancing like the Village People. Even just watching the female Moulin Rouge dancers parading around the stage in sexy jockey costumes with miniature horses in tow, really, has to be seen to be believed.

The best patisserie in the 9th!

We went up the Eiffel Tower, walked the Louvre (the Mona Lisa was actually larger than I remembered), went to the top of the Notre Dame (400-odd steps), walked around the Sacre Coeur, had my portrait done at Montmartre and ate enough French pastries for the next year. Ok, maybe 2 years...

Gargoyles on the top of the Notre Dame

I even got to catch up with my best friend from high school that I haven't seen in 12 years! She lives in Luxembourg and caught the train into Paris for a night. You know you have a good friend when 12 years pass and you can still talk to each other the same way you did when you were 17! It was like no time had elapsed and it was great.

Jet and his very large cafe au lait

So we said farewell to Paris (I was definitely more sad about this than Jet) and landed in London just an hour later.

This morning we went to the Tower of London to get some very serious English history and to see where Anne Boleyn got her head removed! We were shown around by a very entertaining Beefeater (Yeoman Warder) who actually also moonlights as a guide for the Jack the Ripper evening walking tours! Who knew that the nursery rhymes Humpty Dumpty and Mary Mary Quite Contrary were all references to very important English historical figures. I certainly didn't and was very impressed that these English rhymes had crossed oceans as both Jet and I had grown up with them in America and Australia respectively!

We had a mid-morning snack of fish & chips (which were surprisingly good), and then a late lunch at Wagamama which was better than Jet expected, and worse than I expected. It's a fast Asian food restaurant that has a lot of 'fusion' food, is GMO free and has communal seating. I then made a weary Jet hit the Harrods food hall which was great! We picked up some bits and pieces for dinner and made our way back to our hotel on the tube.

So right now, we are just catching our breath and catching up on emails and American Idol! Tomorrow we are going to the Notting Hill Farmers Market, dining at St John and I get to skive off and do some shopping in the afternoon. I will sign off now as Jet just insulted me by saying I am going to look like Neil Diamond's mother when I'm old. Bollocks to that!