Yesterday, 11 July, the French community in London celebrated Bastille Day at the banks of the river Thames in Battersea Park. That's La Fête Nationale, the French national holiday, commemorating the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789.It was difficult to spot the cultural bits amid all the food booths. There was a strong demand for crepes, baguettes, sandwiches, cheese, French cakes but also non-French food. Typical for the British, they queued patiently to get some food. I couldn't bother to stand in the hot sun and went for a sandwich with chicken and pig paté for which you hadn't got to queue.
On my way home I walked all the way back through Battersea on the South of the Thames and Chelsea on the opposite side. Chelsea's King's Road was a hotspot for punks when I last went there as a teenager. Today it's one of the poshest and most expensive areas of London. At no. 430 fashion designer Vivienne Westwood has her shop with its landmark, a very fast backward-running clock.
I stopped at the Serpentine Bar in Hyde Park for a coffee and a muffin. It's one of my favourite places in London and even the nearby Hyde Park Barracks in their hideous design look quite beautiful reflecting the beams of the sinking sun.
Dear Bettina,
ReplyDeleteare the British really still standing in queues? I had the impression that they do it the European way now - on busstops e.g.
It is not easy for a German to estimate if queues are still a commen rule.
Greetings
Lutz