Only the Wind

 By: Andy Ferrari    10:38  Bayswater, fish 'n chips, homes, Hyde Park, Kensington, kfc, london, museum, pimms, pret a manger, sherlock   No comments

So we go back to London (lovely, lovely London. Yes, even if everyone was complaining about how cold it was. It wasn't that cold)

See? Not that cold

And you know, I was sorting out the pics and there's no way I can do this in only one post, so there'll be two. And also, I don't have half of the pics with me.

My mom was constantly very impressed with the supermarkets...and I was was constantly overflowing happiness for no apparent reason (I wonder why...)

I don't have as many food places to write about in London as in Paris, since we took a flat instead of a hotel, so we often dinned at home.

We stayed with Hyde Park Suites, who offers flats at the lovely Inverness Terrace, in Bayswater, one block away form the Kensington Gardens.

And this is Inverness Terrace...

...and me, trying to warn my father that he's going to be run over by a car.

It is very easy to go wherever you want from there, the tube station is one block away, at Queensway, and you can actually take the traditional double-decker (the regular ones, not for tourism) at Bayswater Road straight to Oxford street.

I don't really recall where this was taken, it's just to illustrate what is 
a double-decker, just in case anyone's not familiar with it

 The area is well served with supermarkets, it has a Sainsbury's and a Tesco right next to the Bayswater tube station, and a Marks&Spencer in the Whiteleys shopping center.
It also has the Bayswater Arms pub, where we had the famous Fish 'n Chips and a jar of Pimm's. I miss Pimm's...

Other than that we ate a lot at Pret a Manger, they have very well made fresh food, and a nice variety of sandwiches and soups. 

  

And this is their napkin ♥

 We also went o KFC at Earl's Court, where my father took this very flattering pic of me and my cousin

 And had coffee at Costa Coffee. Nice coffee in big cups with delicious muffins. There's one on the second floor of the Waterstones bookstore at Trafalgar Square.

And we went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The Sherlock Holmes Museum. And it's at 221b Baker Street. Embrace the awesomeness.

And I'm looking so odd in this pics but I don't even care

Next time I'm in London I'll go back and take more pics (every time I'm London I'll go back and take more pics...)

Ok, that's enough for today, so it doesn't get tiresome. See you in the next post

xx Andy

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You closed your eyes and said your goodbyes

 By: Andy Ferrari    13:52  au grain de folie, Brugge, café, cider, creperie, crepes, Damien Hirst, dupont, Earls court, fauchon, jour, Kensington, london, montparnasse, Paris, salads, st malo, tartine, Tate modern   No comments

Ok, let's start the writing! There is a lot to write about this 2 week trip, and I hope you will forgive if I have to go back and forth a bit as I tend to miss details and only remember them hours later.

My mother and I arrived in London the 23rd april. The weather was still a bit chilly, which I found very pleasant, as (forgive me heat lovers) I was growing tired of Maringá's endless summer. We stayed the first couple of days at the Earl's Court Youth Hostel, which I love (I very much enjoy having an available kitchen, for you can leave sooner and arrive later, with no risk of missing the meal hours and having to go out once more or going to bed with nothing but crackers on your stomach).

The Earl's Court area is lovely, filled with adorable buildings with brick and white exteriors, about 1 mile from Kensington Gardens.

There is a cute church near the hostel, and the very kind sir who was locking it up when we passed by opened it again just so we could see the insides.

During the next two days I dropped Maria Maria off (hope Mika gets her soon), we went to Tate Modern to see the Damien Hirst exhibition, saw St Paul's Cathedral, the Kensington Gardens, and I took my mother to see where the Natural History and the Science museums were. Oh, and Maks&Spencer. The food Marks&Spencer. The perfection of the tomatoes is just unbelievable.

On the 25th we took the train to Paris, where we met my father and grandmother. I didn't even see the trip happening, I slept and when I woke up we were already in France.

We did so much in Paris there's probably a very small chance I'll be able to place everything on it's right date and time! (but that doesn't really matter, does it?)

My grandmother and I stayed at Hotel Concorde Montparnasse. Very nice hotel, the staff was very kind and helpful, and the continental breakfast just perfect for us, with both coffee and fruit.

We ate some awesome food, and I kicked my vegetarian ways aside for these two weeks, because....well because I decided so and that's the end of it.

We went to the most commonly known sites, the Louvre, Versailles, Champs Élysées, Notre Dame, L'Arc de Triomphe, and everything else you all heard about, so I'll write about the other stuff you most likely didn't hear about.

Like the little place we ate at near Notre Dame. It's in the street right on the north side of the church, and silly me didn't write the name down....but it is a small créperie that has the crêpe cart on the outside, and a yellow glass work on the ceiling on the inside, and Tiffany like chandeliers. The onion soup is very, very good, and so are the crêpes.

The restaurant Jour is also really nice, it serves salads in the Subway style (you pic a base, and add toppings and sauce).

Dupont Café at Avenue de France, where my parent's hotel was, has great tartines (see the last two pics in this page), and two other addresses.

Then there is Fauchon, near the Pinacothèque. I'll just leave you with the pics.

Au Grain de Folie is a tinie tynie vegetarian restaurant in Montmartre. The food there is amazing, so well seasoned. It looked and smelled so good we forgot to take a picture (that happened a lot...), but here there's a pic of a dish and a dessert (see the text below the pic to know which ones).

Créperie St Malo at 53 rue du Montparnasse was a very pleasant find as well, and both the omelets and crepes were amazing, and Cédric, who waited on us, was very kind and patient with my yet quite flawed french (and I hope I'm not misspelling his name).

Of course we forgot to take pics of the omelets, but here are the honey almond crepe and the cider, which was also very nice. The looks of it fooled me, as I could swear it had a honey-like consistency (it doesn't).

Ok, I guess that closes the Food in Paris section. And this post, as I don't want this to get way too long. There's still Brugge, and London, and not only the food, but all the other nice things we found. See you in the next post.

xx Andy

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