Simply the Best Lovely Jubbly

This weekend we took advantage of the fact that England is, against all odds and evidence of history, having an actual summer. It has been warm and sunny for two weeks straight now, so what better to do than visit the beach? For our beach visit, we picked Brighton. This is a small, summer holiday spot that has been popular with the Brits for a few hundred years, though it's not on many Americans' visit lists. Since we are trying to live at least a bit like locals, it seemed like a good fit.

The beach itself is a short walk from the train station, and is stone rather than sand (a fact that my wife mentioned a few dozens times out of sheer shock.) It's really more gravel than anything else, which just is not at all what she expected. All along the beach are various bars, restaurants, and shops all catering to the vacationing crowds. When we arrived fairly early in the day, things were just opening up and were still quite quiet. The beach had only a few folks on it, and the bars and food stands were sparsely populated. Both beach and bar filled up quite a bit as the day progressed, so we were happy to have come early when it was less overwhelming. Can you guess what Lovely Jubbly is? We discussed it to some extent and decided that it is definitely a pudding/jello hybrid. I even suggested a method for making simply the best lovely jubbly which entailed freezing a pudding ball and then making a jello mold around it. We were disappointed to learn that it is, in fact, an expression meaning "great".

Another draw of Brighton is the pier. This is similar in ways to Navy Pier in Chicago, but much more historic and -- in my opinion -- more charming. It can be seen in the first picture of this post stretching out into the channel. It has arcades, restaurants, some carnival rides, and all sorts of delightful junk food vendors. It's been a center for amusement since at least 1911, and it definitely has a fun old-timey charm without overdoing it. And now, a transcript of the conversation had about the World of Donuts sign: Mary: How can the Uranus donut be earth shattering? That doesn't make any sense. Bill: You're right. That donut would shatter Uranus.

The other main draw in town is the Royal Pavilion. This is a pleasure palace that started construction in the late 18th century to house the Prince of Wales at the time. It was built in a strange, Indian-inspired mash-up style that was intended to show that even though they lost the US, they still had some awesome colonies. We had seen pictures in guidebooks before coming, but it didn't really prepare us for the absurdity of this overwrought Indian temple plopped down in this little seaside resort. It's very striking, and just covered in bizarre details for the eye to take in. The inside is even stranger, covered in primarily Chinese-style decorations and furniture. It was a real shame that they did not allow photographs, because it was one of the most over the top, amazing interiors we had ever seen. The main dining hall had a twelve foot dragon holding up the chandelier!

After wandering a bit in the shops around the Royal Pavilion, we headed back down to the beach for a last stroll before heading home. Things had definitely picked up. The beach was blanketed with picnicers and sunbathers, and the bars and cafes were in full swing. Quite a few ships had even anchored off the beach and were likely mocking the crowds they were glad to be avoiding. As we walked we reflected on our day and commented on the hilarious and daring bathing outfits of those around us (we spied a few topless women and a man in a pair of skimpy, skin-tight, neon yellow trunks.) We had expected a nice day, but it really turned out to be a fantastic outing. I would not be at all surprised if we made a return trip later in the summer to see it again, and this time brought our own picnic supplies.

Oeuf!...I Did It Again

Our second trip since being in London was actually a revisit of a place we had already been -- Paris. We had visited well in the off season last time around, and it had been a great trip, but definitely chilly. This time, we had (mostly) blue skies and much more comfortable temperatures. We also had already done most of the hugely popular sites when there were fewer crowds, which we were very happy for once we set eyes upon the masses outside Notre Dame. We briefly talked about redoing the church climb and revisiting San Chappelle (a favorite church from last visit,) but neither ended up happening.

Looking at the Seine, there was plenty of evidence that the weather had only recently turned nice. It was running very high, and came up over the footpath that runs along the side at several places. Since we had a more casual schedule than the previous visit, we did have a bit more time to just stroll and people watch. We got this shot during a lunch-time stroll, and there were tons of what appeared to be Parisian business people and workmen relaxing on their lunch break all along the river. They didn't seem to mind it being a little high.

We also solved a bit of a mystery on this visit. On our visit to Florence, we had noticed that near the river there were a few structures covered in small padlocks. Well there is a bridge over the Seine that makes that look like child play. The entire length of it is bounded by fencing, and that fence is invisible due to all the locks. It turns out that it's a tradition to write your and your sweetheart's names on a lock, then lock it to the railing and toss the key in the river. This symbolizes that there is no exit and that hell is other people, I guess, though the romantics probably wouldn't phrase it that way.

One museum that we had missed the first time through town and caught this time was the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages. Though one of the main draws for this place was out of commission while we were there, it still ended up being a very cool place. It had a series of small figurines that had been carved as part of a burial site, as well as these headless fellows. These are a series of statues of biblical kings that used to be in niches in front of Notre Dame. When king beheading was all the rage, folks tore these down and chiseled off the heads.

After the be-chiseling, Some brave soul collected the discarded heads and buried them in his yard to grow a king tree. Or maybe for safekeeping. Regardless, when the heat died down a bit, they were dug up donated to the museum. They are now kept in a room where they face their former bodies, which seems a bit mean-spirited to me.

Another area we spent a lot more time in this visit was the Monmartre area. This is an edgier, artier area of town. A land of can can dancers and dissolute artists. We did a walk all around this area, and also visited the Monmartre museum. This gave a great history and context for the fringe scene from the turn of the century and had many artifacts from that scene. It was very cool to see things like Talouse Latrec posters and the Lapin Agile contextualized. The walk actually brought us right past the Lapin Agile, which is still a cabaret to this day. They have shows a few times a week, though only in French. Neat! All of this was very close to Sacre Coer, which is not only a neat church but also one of my favorite stair climbs around.

One thing that definitely did not change was Paris's love of a well trimmed shrub. When we visited last time, we noticed quite a few topiaries, and we were worried that this fun feature may not be as obvious or neat during the spring when things were actually growing. Not to fear! We saw many very well trimmed shrubs, and even got to see some square trees in the park! While we like to tease and joke about this, it really is quite striking to see the rows of trees so neatly trimmed and aligned. It makes quite an impression and turns the parks into something very magical.

This time around, we also expected and respected the pace of the city a bit more. Last time we found ourselves constantly arriving for dinner before the kitchen was open, despite thinking that we had waited long enough. Either due to more practice with Europe, or just from eating dinners later since moving to London, that was less of an issue. We tended to stop for a glass of wine around six in the evening, then swing by the hotel before getting dinner. This was not only a lovely break, but also helped us fit in with the local schedule a bit more. We even managed to brave a few French (sometimes very French) stores on the trip. We shopped in a few that specialized in umbrellas, and got Mary a fun one with a printed black and white street scene. We hit a few purse stores as well, and while we didn't get the five hundred euro one, we did find one she liked that was more in our price range. We even picked up some fancy mustard from the Maille shop. I don't really have a good image for this paragraph, so I am using a jaunty sign indicating that there is absolutely no dog prancing allowed. Either that, or it's indicating the end of the dog prancing zone; I can never tell in Europe.

Overall, we had a fantastic time visiting Paris again. It was nice to take things a little easier, and seeing the city again in a different season was great. I suspect that we will be back a time or two during our stay here, and will continue to find pleasure in our visits. If nothing else, we have a boundless capability to find joy in the details. For example, this dude is positively infested with headless cherubim. Also, what's with the tiny alligators? What if the whole city is beset by tiny men and we didn't even notice? Clearly we need to visit again, just to check.

Afternoon Tea

Between a bit of a crazy travel schedule (Paris for a weekend, then two weeks later Rome for a week) and picking up a few new video games, I will admit that I have been pretty crap about keeping the blog updated. I do plan on posting about both trips, but since those will take a bit more thought, I figured I'd update with something we did even more recently: Fancy afternoon tea.

While afternoon tea with some small snacks is very common here a big fancy one is not necessarily, and is certainly not part of our normal lifestyle. Still it feels like something every visitor should do, so Mary set about researching. She came upon one that patterned all their desserts off fashion items, and since the photo had little shortbreads iced to look like handbags, she was sold. We were not sure how much proper food to expect, so we went in hungry but not starving. We started with tea (duh) and some small sandwiches. We had four sandwich quarters, though we did order another tray because they were delicious. Mary was quite taken with an egg salad sandwich, and I with one that had some form of salad on it with figs. There were also ones with roast beef and horseradish, smoked salmon, and cucumber (naturally.) All crusts were removed, as we are not savages.

After the sandwiches, they brought out the trays. These included small savory items as well as desserts. The savories were great, with very intense flavors in one or two bites. I was quite taken with small cones of crab salad, which had a nice heat and peppery bite. Mary dug one with a small piece of melon topped with goat cheese mixed with mint. There were also little pie-crust coffins filled with roasted veggies, and a small fois gras shooter with some odd crispy substance on it. We could not always understand our server, so there were some mystery items. The desserts ranged from iced cookies (in the shape of shoes and lady torsos) to mousses to cookies topped with mousses. There was quite a wide variety of flavors and textures, and we both found things to fall in love with. Whenever we would get close to finishing off the items on a tray, a new one would be brought out replenishing our giant pile of sweets. It was good fun, though it did cause us to question our memeberships in the clean plate club.

In the end it was a very fun experience, and we came out of it stuffed. We definitely got enough food. Coming in the late afternoon, it was a fun sort of un-brunch that I could see repeating when we have guests in town. It did make me a bit wistful for my Pastry School days -- such as they were -- but I think I will leave the icing of bikinis to the pros, for now. Next week: Paris photos and commentary, really!