London Walls 7

On Hackney Road

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Shopping and tweeting on Regent Street

Last Saturday, I was invited to my first blogger event: RegentTweet. Objective: shop and tweet on Regent Street. Sounds like a cool program right? Well I am not much of a tweeter (yet) but I am hell of a shopper, so I made it work all right!
The idea was to get many bloggers from various countries together on Regent Street and get them to share online what they could discover in terms of fabulous clothes, beauty products, food, drinks, etc... 

Meet the Bloggers

(do you like my mint pants?)

So there we are blogger girls who sort of know each other but not really in the real world. And it was quite funny to put faces on fab blogs such as Tea time in Wonderland, The Celinette, Vagabondes, Rêver d'Ailleurs, and Bao Blog.   

When you mention shopping in London, the first thing that comes to mind is often Oxford Street, and for good reasons. But in the past few years, I have been more and more attracted to Regent Street, which has been undergoing quite a transformation from old school cashmere scarfs and tartans souvenirs shops into up and coming cool brands such as Uniqlo, Superdry and Cos.

The place to be!

I hadn't been to Liberty in ages, and it's always such a treat just to be in a store that hasn't really changed since 1875! The architecture is lovely and the place gracefully decorated. It totally makes it up for the tiny stairs that reminds us that Liberty is not just another megalarge department store!

Fancy Liberty!

We received from RegentTweet a bunch of cards to help us choose where to go and what to do. Then, off we went shop hopping bracing the crowds for some serious action. It was quite an elaborate strategy to decide where to start and where to go next!

The cards

In many many shops, we received warm welcomes to see new collections (at Guess, Tommy Hilfiger, Ugg)... We were invited to try some new beauty products at Molton Brown and at Ren. We were welcome with champagne in several shops and fed at Whole Foods, Tibits and Freggo. It was quite a treat. We also scored some serious goodies:

The Goodies

The thoughtful organizers had planned some downtime for us in order to recover in style. This is how I discovered Aqua London, a very large restaurant and cocktail bar with some mean rooftop views. Right by Oxford Circus, it is a good place to know, if you feel like getting a break from the crowd.

The drinks!

So Thank you RegentTweet, this was a really fun day with fun people. I came home exhausted but so excited by the bloggers I met and the places I discovered. And by the way, I totally got into Twitter now (well at least I'm trying....@Britishette)

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My love affair with the V&A

I love the Victoria & Albert Museum. It's such a strange place with random departments. I am surprised everytime I go. And I am not even talking about the special exhibitions (which are great, but not free!).

Highway maintenance meet design...

See, it has kind of an old school name, Victoria & Albert Museum. So you would expect to see that:

Or something like that:

And you would be right You can see 18th century British paintings and sculptures at the V&A. And Stella had fun with it. But there is so much more! For example, I love to go to the Theater and Performance Rooms. They have the most unbelievable costumes on display:

I'd totally wear that!

You can even try some of the costumes (but those photos, I am not showing...). I also love the art deco furniture department, and the crazy jewlery room. Serious gems over there...Then you can check out at the Asia Department, to check out samuraï outfits (fashion inspiration comes in many forms).

Oh yeah!

Also I love the building. The mix between traditional construction and very contemporary architecture just cracks me up. I love to see the puzzled look on people's face when they walk in and see this:

Hmmm...

It is not properly speaking a museum for the kids, but I went three times already with Stella, and she loved it. There are far less people than in the nearby Natural History Museum (which is also great, just different). 

Natural History Museum? Nope, V&A!

I am not even starting about the cool special exhibitions, because that would be a whole post. But to have an idea, current ones include: Britishe Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the modern Age and Ballgowns: British Glamour since 1950. Check out the V&A's website for details. 

PS: In October, there will be an exhibition on Hollywood costumes, like Spiderman and stuff. I will certainly report on it (I'm such a superhero geek...)

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Back in London, back in the game!

The sun was fun, but I missed my pubs.
Plus, England is playing the quarter finals of the Euro tonight. Watch out Italy!

At the Thornhills Arms on Caledonian Road

At the Florence near Upper Street

I didn't need to explain that I was talking about football. Right?

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Britishette goes Greek 4: In style

Last Greek post I promise. No tips here, just a quick tour of what I wore during my short Greek week. I had a very strict dress code. Here are the holiday rules: 
No socks-No pants-No heels-No bra (sorry, a bit TMI).

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Britishette goes Greek 3: In Paros

I had no idea about the Cyclades, I could barely distinguish the many islands. It’s embarrassing how little I know about Greece. But I had been told Paros is pretty central so good for island hoping if I wanted to, and also great for the beaches.

We stayed at the little Pension Sofia, about a 5-minutes walk from the port of Parikia. Manoli and Sofia will go out of their way to ensure you have a pleasant stay.

They built a lovely garden in the front and in the back of the Pension, and it’s just a treat to read lazily  surrounded by flowers. Do try their Complete Breakfast in the morning, of course, also in the garden.

If possible, I would recommend renting a car or a scooter in Paros, allowing you to move around the island on your own terms. If not, there are buses and taxis around. We hopped on a Jeep with fantastic fellow travelers we met along the way.

The gang

How to know what to do, where to go in Paros? Basically, we just sat in a bar on the first night and talked to people in order to hear about the good beaches and the fun things to do. It proved much more useful than our Lonely Planet. So this is my advice: go sit in one of the many bars along the waterfront and sip Ouzo. Talk to everyone. We got to discover beaches with fine sand and translucid water, which you could never see from the road. It looked like paradise. In all transparency, bikinis might be optional on some of them. I give you full disclosure (literally!).

Sit in the water and treat yourself to a free fish pedicure!

Another tip from my Ouzo filled good tips search was a boat tour of Anti Paros. Basically, if you show up at the Port of Pounda at around 10am, you will see two or three boats, proposing a daylong tour of Anti Paros, with snorkeling stops along the way.

If you can get on the boat called Alexandrios, it’s the fun one. You will be lazy in the sun, drinking wine and listening (subsequently dancing) to Greek music. The crew will organize a BBQ on a deserted island for lunch and it’s a lot of fun.

Last tip for Paros: sit for dinner by the waterfront at the Taverna Giannoulis. Giorgio and Lia are the most adorable people and they will go out of their way to make you happy . Try the grilled feta cheese and the chicken souvlaki. They also have fantastic moussaka. I guarantee a fun evening. Lia will make you dance, maybe even on the table, so don’t be shy!

A regular night at the Taverna Giannoulis

There are many more things to do in and from Paros, but as I said, this was our first romantic vacation, and the plan was to take it easy. We duly obliged…

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Britishette goes Greek 2: In my beach bag

If you have read my previous post, you will understand that sun protection is more than a necessity in the Greek islands. So here's a peek at what I brought in my beach bag everyday:

-A hat

-Suncream: at least 20 (Rituals), but I also used some 50 in the beginning

-Sun protecting hairspay (Kerastase)

-Sun protecting lipbalm (Burt's Bee)

-Sunglasses (Wayfarer)

-A Cath Kidston plastic pouch to put some euros and the hotel key

And that's pretty much it!

After a day at the beach, I would just let my hair loose, enjoying the new waves and volume (no need for my overpriced B&B surfspray). And for a different look, I went for the loose braid. It only worked because the salt added so much texture to my usually very thin hair! 

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Britishette goes Greek 1: In Mykonos

Ok people, I just returned from my first vacation with Chris and without Stella. First baby-free holidays in 21 months! I had so much fun in Greece, I just have to mention it. I won’t do more than 3 or 4 posts, and will get back to London right after. Britishette just needed a little sun.

Helloooo Mykonos

Promising...

If you need a break from the kids or from the rain or from London, you can be sitting by a pool under a scorching sun in 5 hours. No kidding. This is what you do:

-Book the Easyjet flight to Mykonos. There is a departure at 6.25am from Gatwick (granted, the 3.30am wake-up call isn’t super-fun).

On the plane...

You will land at 12.20pm (there is a 2 hours time difference) and by 1pm, you’re sitting poolside, recovering. If you plan ahead, the flight can be cheap. I hear Thompson also has direct flights from London to Mykonos.

-Stay at the Hotel Alkyon in Mykonos, a lovely hotel with a glamorous pool. The staff there was amazingly friendly. Lias picked us up at the airport and Sofia settled us in our room in no time.

-Walk down to the port for a romantic dinner by the waterfront

Honestly, even for a 3 day weekend, it works: fly to Mykonos, relax for 3 days, come home. That's it.

If you can afford more vacation time, here is my 5 days option (the one we actually did):

-Fly to Mykonos, spend the night. Catch the 9.45am ferry to Paros the next morning. You’ll get to Parikia at 10.30am.

-Spend a few days there.

-On your last day, take the 10.50am ferry from Paros back to Mykonos (it arrives at 11.35am).

 -From the port, grab a cab to Mykonos airport and get on the 2.15pm flight to London (lands at 4.10pm).

The reason you have to organize carefully is that you have to plan your trip according to the ferry schedules as boats sometimes go only once a day. The schedules may also change on weekends and during the low/high season. 

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The wheels on the bus...

The rain is stubbornly sticking around in London. So when you have 1) a small kid, 2) guests for the weekend and 3) guests with small kids, what do you do? They are tourists, and the kids are, well kids. Here's my answer: the London Transport Museum.

It is right in the middle of Covent Garden so you can check the tourist site box. It is indoor so you can also check the rainproof box. I had heard of it as a great place to go with children so we went to check it out. And I must say it was great.
You start by taking an elevator that brings you back to the 1860s with carriages and horses (instead of the floors going up, the elevator indicates the years going back, pretty cool).

You move along industrialization and the first buses and train, and it is not a museum where you just look: you can climb in about anything.

There's a small children area with buses and boats their size, so they can drive them, or sit in the back if they prefer.

And then we have the full size buses, you can almost drive them!

At some point we ran accross a group of kids singing 'The Wheels on the bus' with a museum staff. They were all sitting on wheels-shaped cushions and clapping. Stella knows the song well from the nursery, so she was ecstatic. They have a lot more stuff to do for the bigger kids, including storytelling and craft workshop.

The museum entrance fee is 13,50£ per adult. The cool thing is that you can make them annual passes if you have your name put on it. So, even though, the fee is pricey for one visit, it is a bargain for the whole year. Now, it is our go-to plan when friends with kids are visiting. Check out the London transport Museum website for details.

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