Gosh, I miss London. I woke up thinking about it this morning. I was booked to go – this week, in fact – but then cancelled because travelling from the EU to the UK seemed Covid-complicated. Also, I lost over 400 euros on a website called Reedsy, so that took a dent out of my budget. What is Reedsy? An online author services firm which serves as a bridge uniting authors and publishing freelancers in the self publishing industry. (don’t use it, I got ripped off twice.)
London has got to be one of the greatest walking, shopping, eating and cultural cities in the world. Happily, I have all my blog posts from my prior visits that serve as archives. This one was written a few years ago (pre-Covid, of course, and pre-Brexit too) during the month of August –
LONDON. An undeniably world-class city of 7 million inhabitants. Pulsating with energy. Dynamic and thrillingly diverse. Inclusive of all cultures and nationalities. Constantly redefining itself while holding firm to its history and heritage. In comparison, Paris seems….small.
Where to begin? I took over 300 photographs and walked 8 hours a day. So much to see, so much to do! I’ll start with one of my favorite places: Borough Market located under the London Bridge. As I strode across the bridge in the brisk morning air, sunshine and wind in my face and the river traffic coursing by, I felt utterly exhilarated. London does that to you. Take the District & Circle tube line to Monument. Stride across bridge. The market is beside Southwark Cathedral.
Old. Atmospheric. A setting and cast of characters straight out of a Dickens’ novel. Borough Market is one of London’s oldest food markets and sprawls under the brick railway viaducts. It’s a fabulous place.
Here’s a famous cheese shop (Neal’s Yard Dairy) that sells a stunning array of British and Irish cheeses. And guess what? The vendor was a Frenchman. I said to him in French – How is it that a Frenchman is selling English cheeses in London? “J’ai épousé une anglaise,” he replied. (I married an Englishwoman).
MONMOUTH COFFEE SHOP. I have only one word to describe this place and its coffee and cakes: bliss. Look how polite the English are as they queue up. In France, you’d be elbowed and stepped on in a scrum.
Borough Market consists of up to 70 stalls and stands. Producers from all over the country bring a range of fresh produce to the market, including fish, meats, vegetables, ciders, cheeses, breads, coffees, cakes and patisseries. Other stalls specialize in produce imported from abroad. Open Wednesday to Saturday. Pubs and restaurants too.
To see ALL my London posts, click on LONDON up top.
Juliet in Paris
Thank you for the heads up re Reedsy. I do subscribe to their email updates and attended one of their online events, but have not purchased anything from them.
It’s not my nature to publicly trash companies on my blog, but this is a start-up run by two French co-founders whose mission statement doesn’t seem to include “customer satisfaction”. I forked out a lot of money – nearly 800 euros – for a Portuguese graphic artist to design me a book cover. I loved his portfolio. What I received in return was so awful I nearly fell off my chair (and this after a year of corresponding, me sending him colors, sketches, likes and dislikes and showing him other book covers I admired.) I was reimbursed less than half, and I’m still furious. I feel positive that the “Nuno” who was represented on Reedsy was not the same “Nuno” who created my book cover. I had hired the guy on the basis of his portfolio; what I got in return was just horrendous. My complaint was ‘misrepresentation’, but they wouldn’t listen to me. In any case, the result is unusable. I wasted a year and threw all that money out the window.
Prior to that, I hired an English copyeditor who claimed she had edited the famous author, André Aciman’s, memoir. Not true, I discovered. And she was not a good copyeditor at all.