We've been back in London for ages now, but do plan to return to La Villette, to finish touring the music museum and, I hope, attend a concert or two. I won't stay in the same Airbnb that we used, which I am sorry to say was ghastly, but there are cheap chain hotels nearby which have everything you need.
*An English Travel Writer*
Thursday 23 November 2023
La Villette Park, Paris - WHAAAAAT?
We've been back in London for ages now, but do plan to return to La Villette, to finish touring the music museum and, I hope, attend a concert or two. I won't stay in the same Airbnb that we used, which I am sorry to say was ghastly, but there are cheap chain hotels nearby which have everything you need.
Tuesday 31 October 2023
Happy Halloween! And, at last, Paris

Friday 29 September 2023
Parliament, Photos and Paris
I thought I'd upload a few photos of what I've been up to lately. I've been pretty busy but mostly nothing interesting, just insurers, banks, dealing with theft, car, things not working, blah blah, all come at once in one horrible flood. So you'll be glad not to have to read about it!
However, there have been some nice times, so here are some random pictures of the last month or so.
The photo below was taken from the terrace at the House of Commons. K works in Parliament a few days a week and we had lunch with her there the other day. Parliament is in recess - on holiday - so we didn't see anyone famous but it seemed surprisingly busy inside those hallowed walls - mainly, I think, setting up for conferences.
T. has worked a lot on the sound reinforcement in both Commons and Lords (it's thanks to him and his mates that the MPs and onlookers can hear everything that's said so clearly.) So he knows the building quite well, but I have only been inside a couple of times before. Photography's not allowed in most places, but you can take pictures on the terrace. Only river views are allowed, which is a pity because the building has just been cleaned, restored and re-gilded and it is the most wonderful sight soaring above and flashing its golden details in the sun.
You must also not show any of the users of the terrace in your picture. But I broke that rule by including the two gulls you can see below. They are enormous and very much users of the terrace - their work is to keep tabs on the plates of chips which diners bring outside. You needed to be vigilant to keep them at bay.
It was lovely weather with warm bright sun and fluffy clouds in the sky, and, with the river running past, we loved chatting with K and eating what I must say was not a very good school-dinner type lunch. And it was, I'll admit, an added bonus not seeing any politicians!
One of the unexpected curiosities of the museum was an autobiography of Marilyn Monroe,who was interested in Freud's ideas and actually visited Anna Freud at the house while filming in London in 1956.
Sunday 27 August 2023
Two Fur Coats in Bantry House... and a Colourful Bathroom.
As I promised, here's some more from my trip to West Cork in Ireland. One of my favourite trips was to Bantry House. I'd wanted to see it for years, after K visited it and highly recommended it as "a bit crazy". So T and I drove out there one rather drizzly day.
Here's the house, distantly viewed against the Bantry bay's foggy backdrop. Can you make out the hills on the other side?
And here's a more formal view, backed by the tall cupolas of the house's two sets of stables in the background on either side. To have a set of huge matching stables gives an idea of just how much money was flying around in this place in the nineteenth century.
In those days, Bantry House was known for its contents - the Second Earl's astounding collection of fine art and antiques. In its heyday, too, there were 24 gardeners, making sure that the gardens and grounds surrounding the house were worthy of the stupendous contents.
But the title was extinguished in 1899 when the last Earl died without a son and heir, and the twentieth century brought a very different world. Independence was on the horizon for Ireland, after many centuries of occupation. It was finally achieved in 1922, and before that, in a spiral of upheaval, the British gentry's houses were quite often burned down by Irish republicans who didn't see why they were needed by anyone at all.
Even after 1922, and even with the houses that survived, there were problems. The Great War of 1914-18 changed society radically. After it ended, servants became harder to find, big landowners were hit by savage taxes, and everyone involved with grand mansions began to realise the palmy days were coming to an end. Many big houses, both in England and Ireland, were abandoned or demolished for purely financial reasons..
Bantry House, though, struggled through all this. This was probably largely thanks to a woman called Arethusa Leigh-White (below) who married the house's owner, Edward.
Clodagh Leigh-White, (above) was only a teenager when she inherited, so was only able to take control of the house when she reached the age of 21, in 1926. She seems to have been a pleasant lady, but not the brightest diamond in the diadem. She began selling off the house's contents to keep going, and also opened it to the public in 1946, but seemed to have no real idea of what to do apart from keep selling things. Unfortunately, it apparently never occurred to her to learn about the treasures she was selling, let alone get an idea of what they were worth.
The library is a gigantic room, and the rooms above had to be rebuilt so its ceiling could be as toweringly high as the earl required to suit his megalomaniac tastes. This set of doors used to lead into a magnificent glass conservatory, now vanished, and it now offers an unimpeded view of 100 steps cut into the hill. Only the earl, his family and their guests were allowed to use it (and they would have needed to be reasonably fit to do so) but the view from the top was really spectacular. Here it is in the house's heyday, with the conservatory in place.
Now, Bantry House relies on part time or volunteer gardeners. Inevitably the grounds lack the formal perfection of old, but recent owners have harnessed several years of EU-funded restoration, and with dedicated volunteer helpers and clever economising they have maintained a charming and creative setting for the house.