London Bridge melange

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We're here in a small hotel right near the London Bridge station, where you can catch a train, the tube, a bus, or part of the London Overground transportation line. Very convenient! But - very chaotic and noisy, too. Right outside our window there's a skyscraper going up, the already narrow sidewalks are made narrower still with construction scaffolding and barriers, The railway trestles pass over the streets, and beneath the spans, the Borough Market has been operating since roughly 1014 AD.

Here are vendors of all kinds of food, both fresh and prepared. You can buy a fresh peach, a basket of flowers, a a duck sandwich, a Pimm's cup or some Thai green curry.

Spanish ham - complete with pigs trotter

We watched a butcher shaving thin slices of cured ham off a pig's leg. We peeked at the charcuterie, and at the place that sells meat pies.

It's all so colorful and great to look at that it draws all kinds of sightseers and photographers - who often photograph one another!

We grabbed a sausage on a stick and sipped a cup of hard cider. The constant roar of trains overhead punctuates the environment.

The road beyond the market is a walk-street where workers and tourists cluster outside the Market Porter pub, its Victoriana shadowed by the giant new skyscraper known as "The Shard" that rises over this part of town.

In fact, the whole area is a fascinating mixture of very old and almost sci-fi new - and on a rainy, unseasonably gloomy July evening, it had a feel similar to that of the downtown Los Angeles depiction in "Blade Runner" - a multi-cultural, historically layered, always moving and always changing place that our modern cities have become. And have always been, if you think about it.

A new city!

St. Pancras station in London (Click all photos to "embiggen")

We arrived in London today! I've been so busy that it's hard to find time to update the blog, and I don't want you all to think the exhausted tone of my last post is the dominant sentiment here. We've just been constantly on the go!

Travel day

We're traveling today. See you later!

Spent

Vacation is exhausting! Big cities are stressful, even when one is visiting in leisure.

We're trying to fit a lot of experiences into a short series of days, and, frankly, it's overwhelming.

Lots of walking. Shopping. Lots of eating and drinking.

Incredible food. Amazing sights. Sore feet.

I am just plain tired.

Paris street art

On a wall in the 4th arrondisment in Paris.

Dining in a magical world

Detail from the walls at Julien

When you step inside the doors of the little brasserie, Julien, as its website says, you step into un monde féérique - a magical world.

Julien is located at number 16 on the narrow Rue de Faubourg St, Denis, just north of the great golden stone arch of the Porte St. Denis.

The arch, built in 1672, was erected to commemorate the military victories of King Louis XIV, and replaced a gate built in the medieval walls of the city. Naturally, urban renewal followed, and the street north of the arch, the Rue de Faubourg St. Denis, became a busy, high-class district.

Ah, Paris!

Gargoyles on the belfry of the church of St. Severin

Saturday night, after midnight, the storms broke and we heard thunder and lightning crash above the sheltered medieval courtyard in Dijon. Sunday dawned with blue skies chased with fast-moving puffy clouds. We took the 11:01 TGV from Dijon, and as the high speed train bucketed across the rolling countryside toward Paris, the skies darkened and roiled with more stormclouds.

It only takes an hour and a half to cover the 163 miles between Dijon and Paris, and the speed is almost dizzying. The rain caught up with us briefly, streaking the windows with water, but soon we left it behind. We made it to our Paris apartment in time for an evening stroll and an early dinner.

The two garret windows at center are ours

Our flat is in a touristy neighborhood, so the evening streets are full of roaming camera-hung hoardes. Directly across our building is the beautiful old church of St. Severin - our garret windows look out onto the belfry.

If you crane your neck, you can see the top of the Eiffel Tower from one window, and from the other the towers of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame's towers, on the right

We found a grocery and provisioned ourselves for breakfast, then ate serviceable couscous and tagine at a tiny Tunisian joint. Later, we sat at an outdoor table of the brasserie on our doorstep and sipped a glass of wine while watching the crowds pour by.

Our street

The restaurants here are all geared to the tourist crowd, with menus in English, serving popular French dishes like soupe a l'ognion or "authentic" Savoyard fondue. We'll be wandering further afield for our fare, but in the meantime, there's nothing wrong with a glass of cheap rose and a dish of peanuts as we people-watch.

A trip to Beaune

How lucky can you get to have a friend who lives near the fabled Cote D'Or wine region in France? On our second day in Dijon, our friend Nancy drove us south to the town of Beaune, right in the heart of wine country.

Images of Dijon

Facade of the Church of Notre Dame

We're enjoying our time in Dijon. Here are some views of the city.

We spent the morning strolling through the streets of the ancient center of the city. Above is the cobblestoned Rue Verriere, lined with medieval half-timbered shops.

After lunch we went to the Museum of Burgundian Life. The inscription on the little faience plate above reads "I will always be amorous with a bottle of old wine."

Entering through one of the narrow streets that opens onto the central Place des Armes.

Carved wooden doors on the Palais de Justice

The buildings here are both ancient and majestic.

The Museum of Burgundian Life is housed in a former Bernardine convent. Here is the lovely garden in the central courtyard.

A bottle of wine with dinner.

Later today we will drive down to the town of Beaune for some sight-seeing.