London in October: bookshops and the long and short of Booker-prize long lists and short lists
We at Madeleine’s were in London last October …. And how we do love London in the autumn especially when the weather is great! But which large city in this world has had a book prize every October for the last 50 years? It’s fun to be in London walking around the book shops in Read more
Beating the cold weather in Hong Kong
If you are in Hong Kong during one of its “cold spells” like it is right now (“it’s colder than London!”), you can always take umbrage in the malls like The Landmark wherein lies one of our favourite places for a hot chocolate, Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon. It’s not cheap (and we Read more
Paris, the waters and the bridges
Have you walked the 37 bridges of Paris? At the moment, Paris is having another one of those big floods (“inondations” in French). Well, if you have walked the 37 bridges of Paris, your knowledge about the “zouave” or more accurately, the zouave du Pont de l’Alma, may come in handy … Weather reports in Read more
More on gutters and Oscar’s London
So, we at Madeleine’s love this Oscar Wilde quote that “We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars”. And we’ve included this into “Madeleine goes to London”. But Oscar, Oscar, where can we find you in London? Flamboyant and witty, the playwright, poet and critic was born in Read more
The London of gutters, stars, fantasy stories, acrostic poems, and Harry Potter
We at Madeleine Travels love the “lower ground floor” flats in London. While Oscar Wilde urges us to see stars from the gutters, we can certainly glimpse through to the partially subterranean living and dining rooms through the gutters in London (see Madeleine goes to London)! Might the Brits’ subterranean living tradition be related to Read more
Celebrate the best Shakespearean concoctions in London this summer and autumn
As we celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death this year, there are more than the usual amount of Shakespearean activities in London this summer. One of the most interesting is Henry V at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park with Michelle Terry in the title role; as the Financial Times put it, “[I]t’s hard to Read more
Summer 2016 – top 5 summer operas to die for
Going to an opera performance on a lazy summer day is one of life’s true pleasures, and so we’re sharing below our “top 5” for summer 2016 … What we are looking for? Great quality performances in beautiful outdoor settings over the summer months. With this in mind … be prepared to go to Europe Read more