La Sylphide in Paris

Hugo Marchand. It's a name I had to look up when I got home but all those sitting near me at the Paris Ballet knew him and whooped when he came on stage after his performance in La Sylphide.  I suspect some went to the ballet just to see him.

Taking their bows

He was the star of the evening although I think the ballerina who danced la Sylphide was actually the main role. She was excellent, he was unforgettable.

In the Palais Garnier

It is a long time since I have been to a ballet and I didn't realise it is rather like opera where the audience will clap an aria. The ballet was a story as an excuse for a series of set pieces each of which were applauded.

Hall in the Palais Garnier

I went because it was performed in the Palais Garnier which I had seen a model of in the Musee dOrsay. It is an elaborate building with a famous ceiling by Chagall.

Palais Garnier entrance hall

The building didn't disappoint and nor did the Chagall. You couldn't wish for anything more ornate - and the ceiling is beautiful.
In fact every time you look up you see another artful ceiling.

Chagall ceiling

Ceiling in adjoining hall

Paris

Paris! What a pleasure to be in a city that looks as if it is loved. Flat footpaths that are easy to walk on and aesthetically designed buildings.

View from the steps of the Palais Garnier

Central Paris, like central London, is noisy and busy but I don't find the noise and crowds oppressive here. I am trying to figure out why I feel so much more comfortable in Paris than London despite lack of language here. I guess I am simply more European than British.

Bollards at the Louvre

I have landed in a part of Paris with many Africans and African shops.  I took a Metro to  look around and landed in an area with five Japanese restaurants and a Japanese food store in one block.

The Metro is so well signposted it could be a model for other cities (I'm looking at you Sydney).

Chunnel tunnel

Getting on the Eurostar train to Europe at St Pancras station in London, is a bit of a hassle with security and customs just like the airport,  but once you are on it is oh so easy. You speed across the English countryside (and several tunnels) then into another tunnel and suddenly you pop out in the middle of French wheat fields.

It makes you realise just how close these countries really are.

Salisbury and the Magna Carta

Salisbury is an hour and a half by train from London and near Stonehenge so it is a perfect place for a day trip. Southern Rail offers promo return fares.

Salisbury

It's a pretty little place but its main claim to fame is its wonderful Gothic cathedral and adjoining Chapter House which houses one of the four copies of the Magna Carta still in existence.

Seeing the Magna Carta was worth the trip by itself. It is written on cow skin parchment in such beautiful but tiny writing you wonder how the scribe managed it. He must have been young with a steady hand and excellent eyesight.

Photo of part of the Magna Carta

The Salisbury Cathedral is one of great beauty. It is very plain grey-brown stone, built in the 13th century, with high arching columns. How did the builders manage to get those columns so perfectly round I wonder. Wooden lathes and lots of elbow grease said the friendly guide, Steve Dunn. 

How did the stonemasons get these surfaces so perfect in 1220? 

Steve Dunn was a mine of information and said that the interior of the church would once have been painted (you could see traces on the walls and roof if you looked hard enough) but that this was all scrubbed off during the reformation as it was considered too Popery. It remains the oldest purely gothic church in exsistence.

The scrubbed version of the church, which lacks any of the fancy trimmings that came in the later gothic, is entrancing. 

Gothic cathedral at Salisbury.
(Photos don't do it justice)

There is a modern and stunning window in one wall dedicated to  'all prisoners of conscience'.

Window dedicated to all prisoners of conscience

One of the things the cathedral houses is the world's oldest working clock. I found out just how complicated clocks are when I was at Dunedin art school and attempted.to make one. It was so complicated I gave up. This clock in Salisbury was constructed in 1368 and is still working.

World's oldest clock

There are lots of tombs in the church and a wonderful plaque to the 'vertuous (sic) and religious Elhonor Sadler'. I said to Steve Dunn that she looked like someone you wouldn't want to cross and he replied that she had had a reputation for timing the sermon with an hourglass and then complaining if it was a single minute less than an hour.

'vertuous and religious'

An interesting exhibition of figures by artist Ama Maria Pacheco called Dispersing the Night was set up through the cathedral. The figures included John the Baptist's head on a plate ...it seems to have followed me from Leipzig where Salome cut it off.

Dispersing the night

There was also a floral tribute to the victims of the Grenfell fire. (Steve Dunn's comment : 'We'd be remiss if we didn't have one.)

Floral tribute to Grenfell victims
at Salisbury Cathedral

As you can tell, I was captivated by this church and it's history. Definitely recommend a visit!

Stonehenge

On Sunday I took the train to Salisbury, then a bus to Stonehenge. It was a brilliant sunny day and I was pleased I went by bus and was not one one of the people in the long queue of cars winding around the wheat fields.

One of the attractions of Stonehenge is that it is set in the field, far from a town. You can walk a couple of km through the fields to get there...or take a shuttle bus. I didn't have time for the walk but if you are planning a visit it would be a wonderful way to arrive.

Stonehenge: You can tell the size of the stones
by comparing with the people behind them

The stones are exactly as they look in the photos but being there is the thing. If I was to go again I'd aim for early morning (or evening) and take some time to walk there and then just sit there.

Some tours promote themselves by saying you'll be there before the crowds, and they have a point as this ancient site has millions of visitors. I left about 1pm by which time the ticket queue was very long.

There is a rope around the site to protect it, close enough from the stones to give you a good view but far enough to disperse the crowds. I think the National Trust does a great job of protecting the site and informing the public. There were lots of helpers

Posh London

You too could have a river view like this ... if you had the dollars.

Houses on the Thames
at swish Bermondsey.

If you don't want to buy, you could  rent. Here's an ad to show you what you'll pay for a 2 bedroom flat in one of these river-front houses:

£2340 per month is A$3960.

River walkway at Bermondsey

Houseboats on the Thames at Bermondsey

London sketches

I have carried my little sketchbook with me in London but haven't found many places to sit with a sketchable view.

This, though, is right up the top of the Tate Modern which is a converted power station. There are lots of girders and steel struts.

Tate Modern ceiling

Another unexpectedly quiet (well relatively quiet) place in the teaming mass of humanity around Covent Garden was the garden behind St Paul's church (not the cathedral). The outdoor space is full to the brim with weathered garden benches.

Back.of St Pauls

People squeeze between them to take a seat or lie down. I sat there and painted the wall that bounds the garden. It seemed to me a typical London scene: red brown brick, smudgy white window sills, external pipes and shutes. 

London wall

Turandot in London

I've just seen a fantastic Turandot at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It chased away all my London blues. Both singers and orchestra under the baton of Dan Ettinger were very convincing.

Christine Goerke was a fabulous Turandot. It is a tricky role because not only is it very demanding technically but the story demands that Turandot be a ruthless 'ice maiden', scared of intimacy for most of the Opera only to declare herself for love at the end.  Christine Goerke did a wonderful job today of suggesting vulnerability while still espousing violence.

Ping, Pang and Pong  performing acrobatics at the same time as singing (how do they do it?) and tenor Alexandrs Antonenko was a strong Calaf.

I was sitting high in the gods but heard every word of both lead singers. Such extraordinary voices.

Turandot performers take a bow.

Good things in London

Here is some of the good stuff about London:

1. There are so many diverse areas, so there is something for everyone. I have stayed in  the bit around the Thames this visit, so my comments have been about a small area.

2. You can get excellent salads in take away pots almost everywhere (or everywhere I've been) so eating good food is entirely possible, even for the tourist. The salads are inventive and tasty but expensive.n

 £1.25 for half a carrot and some houmous dip.

3. You can buy Bratwurst with Sauerkraut at the Borough Markets - something I searched for in vain in Leipzig which is awash with pizza places and Lebanese food. There are also lots of other good things at those markets like Italian Parmesan in large lumps and specialty Indian tea in the 35gm lots. (The first time I went there I was so dismayed by the grubby surroundings I didn't see any of that!)

Borough Markets are in the dead space
under a series of bridges near London Bridge.

4. Interior spaces in pubs and the like are as cosy and hospitable as their reputation. Perhaps London is really an interior city and people just use exterior spaces to get to another nice interior space?

5. Local university halls rent out rooms during uni holidays making it possible for non-millionaires to stay and see the many and varied 'sights' and musical offerings.

6. The people. But I've said that before!

Concrete London

I am adapting to London as the days pass, but still I wonder what they were thinking when they built these concrete bunkers on the Thames River. This is the National Theatre, part of Southside which is one of London's entertainment precincts. (There is a similar but smaller commercial building in Sydney designed by a famous architect and I always wondered why he remained 'famous' after creating such a person unfriendly building.)

So much concrete could kill a precinct but the inventive citizens of London have found a way around the architectural nightmares that are built around them. They colonise the in-between spaces with all sorts of makeshift structures, like tents, containers and caravans and set up shop in them. These temporary-permanent structures are everywhere and serve as canteens, pubs, ice cream shops etc. They don't add to the beauty of the area but at least they are functional.

Container food outlets at Southside.

Outside the National Theatre sits a sculpture of two naked women with perky breasts. It is called London Pride. It apparently commemorates the Festival of London which was held to cheer people up after the war.  I think it rather suits the building.

'London Pride'  by Frank Dobson

Not all of inner city London is concrete. There are some attractive council buildings, like those outside my window. They are older and brick and were probably considered old-fashioned by the concrete architects. I wonder which will survive longest.

My view, with council flats and London Shard behind them.

Bollards

Bollards are spreading like a measles rash. Understandably there are a few in London.

Bollards on London Bridge

Bollards have also popped up in Melbourne and the population is responding in true Melbourne style.

Bollards in Melbourne
(Screenprint from junkee.com)

Addendum: oh dear, the thought police don't like the artwork

London city - the pretty bits

This is the Oxo building, not far from the National theatre. It is full of design studios and shops and is one of the prettier buildings on the Queen's walk.

If you keep walking east along the river you pass the Globe theatre, then a pretty brick pub built in the 17th century.

Globe theatre

Anchor pub

There are a lot of buildings I would call architectural failures in London, but interspersed between them are these old or ancient gems.

Exactly when did the ability to design nice looking budimgs die, I wonder.

London - Gray not green

Part of Queens Walk near Tower Bridge

Brits are famous for their gardens, but they seem to have locked them out of their capital city. London streets are narrow and noise levels high. I am finding the grayness and high noise levels overwhelming after the greenness and comparative quietness of Hamburg.

In Germany there is a lot of traffic calming, and planned islands of green in the inner cities, small oases of calm. I have yet to discover any of these planned oases in London.

London trees

There are trees but they are planted in concrete/gravel and the lack of undergrowth make them seem fake somehow.

Today I walked from Southwark passed London Bridge and the Tower Bridge to trendy Bermondsey (right side of map) and found very little greenery at all.

Over the Tower Bridge, north of the river I found a map of green spaces - it shows how few there are.

The map was next to a church (St Dunstan in the East) that had been bombed during the war and converted to a garden in 1967. It is one of the only green spaces in the area and the seats were full of lunching business folk when I was there.

Garden at St Dunstan

A lot of Londoners still smoke. Some use electronic cigarettes but many don't and there are still a lot of butts on the streets.

Cleaning the railing

I saw one house front being cleaned by a man in business clothes with a red cloth and I wondered if it is the continuous traffic that makes the whole city feel dirty. All of the parts of London I have seen so far are contaminated by vehicle noise and pollution. I know there are huge parks in the west, but it is the everyday city greenery I am missing.

Electric cars and buses will have a major impact here.

Londoners at a sidewalk function

London today

London!

One of the wonderful things about London is its multicultural edge.  People from all over the world live here and Londoners themselves are from very diverse ethnic backgrounds. Here is where you really see the effects of colonialism at work.

People are friendly, helpful and kind. It's a great place to be a tourist.

It is impossible to be in London at the moment and not be aware of the politics of the place.

Flowers lie on London Bridge and bollards are strategically placed in several touristy areas.

London Bridge

Grenfell Tower is in the news all the time as is the extraordinary incompetency of the conservative council of Kensington-Chelsea in which Grenfell is situated. The council tried to hold a council meeting behind closed doors and I heard a lawyer explaining on the radio that if you want to ban the public then media presence is even more important as people have a right to know what happens in council meetings. The autocratic tendencies of this arm of government are striking and there are calls for mass resignations.

Yesterday some citizens groups staged a banner-unfurling action in support of Grenfell residents.

Message

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/a-beautiful-message-to-the-grenfell-community-from-the-housing-estates-of-east-london/

La Traviata in London

La Traviata was on at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden last night, so that's what I saw.

The house has all the trimmings you expect with the names 'royal' and 'opera'; a wonderful red curtain which lifts to the sides like an old fashioned granny-curtain, very fancy lights by the dozen, and great acoustics. It is a pleasure to experience.

Lights in the Royal Opera House

Alfredo was sung by tenor Atalla Ayan and he was perhaps the strongest of the cast. The production was thoughtful and even the curtain became an actor for the evening. It was so gently raised for the third act we knew we were in for tears.

I was sitting next to a young artist, Suzanne Forrest, from Scotland. She is having a show of her work here in London and races back to Scotland for a show there next week. We found we had a lot in common and the company of she and her partner really added to my enjoyment of the evening. Her art is worth a look ... you can find it here.