We had a delicious trip to London and Paris, spurred on
by the fact that our dear friends, Kent and Joyce Miller, are spending a few
years living in London for Kent’s work.
Great cities with great friends? Sign us up!
Kent and Joyce live on a charming street in the Holland Park
section of London that could serve as a setting for My Fair Lady. We could just imagine Freddy singing, “On the
street where you live” right in front of their lovely flat.
When we arrived, although we had flown all night (stopping
briefly in Iceland) we told Kent and Joyce that we were ready to go, so they immediately
took us on a long walk. As Anne’s sister
Mary, in Jane Austen’s Persuasion,
insists, “I am very fond of a long walk.”
And so are we. Over the course of
our eleven days in London and Paris, we walked 73 miles, averaging 6½ miles
per day. Whoa.
Our first walk took us through Portobello Market where Kyle showed how a red hat should be worn. We loved strolling with the crowds through the stalls, enjoying a chat with a young woman from China who was selling Chinese batik. Afterwards we walked on to Primrose Hill just north of Regent’s Park where we were enchanted by a view of London stretched out before us. Kent and Joyce introduced us to the aptly named Shard, a modernistic skyscraper that looks like a shard of glass. Our ramble ended at Horse Stable Market in Camden Town, a giant serpentine old stable yard repurposed into a shopping and dining area where we devoured fish and chips at Seawise. And there was more great food to come!
Our next day found us on a train to see the White Cliffs of Dover. We love trains—seriously love them! We relished watching verdant countryside and quaint towns as we passed from London to the coast. Another walk took us along the white cliffs where we examined the cliffs and discovered that they actually are made of chalk. We loved the feeling of the wind blowing along the steep drop-off. They are, after all, cliffs.
Later we took a brief boat ride around the harbor. Tourist alert: When you go to Dover and take a boat ride
with White Cliff Tours, realize that your skipper won’t actually take you to
the White Cliffs—that title is not descriptive but honorary. After circling the harbor, we headed back to
the pier. Which we had just left. We had to use our telephoto lens to see the
White Cliffs. Sigh.
We promised there would be photos of food. We found a delightful little restaurant in
Dover called, appropriately enough, Blakes of Dover. The waiter still had a couple of teeth and
spoke with a heavy Eastern European accent, which made us a little dubious, but
the food turned out to be delicious.
Mary enjoyed the best of all the meat pies she would eat in
England.
The next day was Sunday, and it was Kent and Joyce’s stake
conference. We enjoyed meeting with the
delightfully diverse group of saints at the Hyde Park chapel. Kent and Joyce had to take care of some
church duties afterwards, so we ducked into the adjacent Victoria and Albert
Museum. What a fascinating place! As Joyce described it, it is like someone’s
attic. Not mine or yours, but an
international adventurer with very deep pockets. Such an eclectic conglomeration of
treasures.
 |
| Whimsical chandelier in the Victoria and Albert Museum |
On the way home, we walked through Kensington Gardens in
Hyde Park where we saw the Albert Memorial, an ornate monument honoring
Victoria’s Prince Albert. Immediately
across the way is Royal Albert Hall.
Looking at these monuments to Victoria’s love for Albert, we were
touched and saddened by her loss, even all these years later.
In the evening, we attended Evensong at St. Martin in the
Fields, a lovely old church adjacent to Trafalgar Square that has, in their
words, “thriving English and Chinese speaking congregations.” The music was sung by a small choir whose
clear voices reverberated through the chapel to the accompaniment of a powerful
organ. Beautiful. This church has a Dickens connection—he
spoke at the church hall at a fundraiser to benefit a nearby hospital, and he
used it as a location for an important scene in David Copperfield.
 |
| St Martin in the Fields |
Afterwards we strolled through Trafalgar Square where to our
amazement there were almost no pigeons!
Evidently a successful effort has been made to clear the pigeons and
their droppings from the square by disallowing any feeding. As we walked on down to the Thames, we were
delighted to find an Eleanor Cross after which Charing Cross was named. The Eleanor Crosses were ordered by Edward
Longshanks to mark each of twelve places the wagon bearing her body stopped
when bringing Eleanor back to London.
She died in 1290 while on her way to meet Edward in the north of
England. We had seen the Eleanor Cross
near Northampton while on our family heritage trip in 2001. We later learned that the Eleanor Cross at
Charing Cross was a Victorian reconstruction.
Not ancient, but beautiful!
As we walked along the Thames in the pleasant spring
weather, we were intrigued by an Egyptian obelisk and two guardian sphinxes. The obelisk was originally erected by
Thutmose III in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis around 1450 BC. It was brought to England in 1878 (notice
judicious use of passive voice) because the Victorians wanted an impressive
monument to the victory over Napoleon in 1815.
Its twin was sent to New York City in 1881 as a gift. The sphinxes were
Victorian creations.
Further down we caught an impressive view of the clock tower housing Big Ben.
After passing the houses of Parliament, we walked around
Westminster Abbey where we were surprised to see sculptures of some modern
characters in the 500-year-old niches.
In the late nineties it was decided to create statues of modern Christian martyrs, so Martin Luther King, Jr., was honored along with (right to left) Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, killed by the Bolsheviks, a Ugandan Anglican evangelist who was killed by the Ugandan army, and a young woman from South Africa who was murdered by her parents for becoming a Christian.
The next day Kyle and I struck out on our own for a literary
walking tour of Chelsea, a charming and definitely upscale section of
London. After passing innumerable
designer clothing stores in which paced largely idle and discerning clerks (we
wouldn’t have passed muster, we are sure), we turned down some residential
streets where the real tour began.
We first saw the house where Bram Stoker lived—the author of
Dracula. It was a charming white
building with wisteria floating dreamily and fragrantly down from the second
floor windows.
Americans were not excluded from our tour—we found the pleasant
corner home where Mark Twain lived for a time.
Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Grey, among many others, lived in this building. Wouldn't you love to be remembered as a "wit"?
Perhaps the Holy Grail of our tour was finding the home
where George Eliot, one of our favorite authors, died. She wrote Middlemarch, Silas Marner, Adam
Bede, and The Mill on the Floss, among other novels.
Another pleasant building was home to Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) and Algernon Charles
Swinburne. Rossetti was an artist and a
poet whose sister was Christina Rossetti, author of the famous poem “In the
Bleak Midwinter” which contains the lines
What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.
We were delighted to find the home of Leigh Hunt, a
Romantic poet, because he is the author of a poem Mary loves: “Jenny Kissed Me.”
Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from
the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into
your list, put that in:
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that
health and wealth have missed me,
Say I'm growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me.
One of Kyle’s most
admired historical characters is Thomas More as he was presented in Robert
Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons. Thomas More had a home here for decades, and
he worshiped in the small church behind this statue.
If you’re a PBS fan, you may be familiar with Victorian
writer Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, usually called Mrs. Gaskell. She is the author of Cranford and Wives and
Daughters, both of which were made into television productions by the
BBC. She was born in this house.
Silly old bear! Yes,
A. A. Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh, had a home in Chelsea where he lived for
many years. The home is under
renovation, and the construction company put you-know-who on their sign. 
After all this walking, we were in the mood for a small
smackerel, so we prowled the high street until we happened upon a…bakery of
course…named Chelsea Quarter Café where we dined on the most delicious clotted
cream and scones, along with soft baked egg sandwiches and a lovely salad. We asked if we could go downstairs where the
air conditioning was blowing, and they let us, even though it was not currently
being used for customers. So
considerate. 
Later, motivated by Eliza’s love for William and Kate, we toured Kensington Palace where we learned much more about Queen Victoria’s life and reign.
OK, so have you ever seen such a ridiculous style of dress? What does it say about the wearer? Does it remind you of anyone you knew in high school?
It's all about popular.
It's not about aptitude,
It's the way you're viewed,
So it's very shrewd to be,
Very very popular.
Probably everyone in court was MAD to get to the dressmaker and have one of these made. Maybe it's about making sure no one sits next to you.
Rant finished.
 |
| Mary, very underdressed, in front of the gardens at Kensington Palace |
The next day was a rainy one, so we planned an outing to the
British Museum. We found ourselves
standing in front of the Rosetta Stone.
Not a kiosk in the airport selling language learning programs, but the
real Rosetta Stone. It was
thrilling. We were astounded by the size
of the museum and the scope of the things on display. At one time the sun never set on the British
Empire, and the collection in the British Museum certainly reflects that.
 |
| Time and place don't matter--this is just captivating. |
 |
| Sometimes it was the details that enthralled |
 |
| Joyce has mastered the London bus system |
Afterwards we took a walking tour through the pouring rain with a charming guide who introduced us to several Shakespeare and Dickens-related sites in central London. Tut, tut, it looks like rain!
We came to an area called Cheapside which we learned did not
originally mean cheap, but shop—a shopping area. The streets were named after the product sold
there. John Milton was born on Bread
Street!
 |
| Mary's love in his natural habitat |
 |
| Joyce and Kent commune with the Bard. |
We saw the church called St Bartholomew-the-Great which was
founded in 1123 (amazing), though it has been rebuilt several times since
then. Evidence of its antiquity is that
the entrance is below the current ground level.
Opposite the church is the entrance to the church courtyard
through enchanting old half-timbered chambers that link two buildings, one
quite obviously more modern. Our tour
guide told us that after the Great Fire in 1666, these rooms were covered in
debris and only discovered years later to be intact.
After our tour we wandered over to the Borough Market, an intriguing
maze of shops, mostly food, where we enjoyed fish and chips.
 |
| The Shard towers over the Thames and everything else. |
 |
| St Paul's Cathedral from the other side of the Thames |
 |
| Fish and chips--how very British! |
 |
| Gorgeous artichokes in a stall at Borough Market |
 |
| Borough Market |
We finished out our afternoon by going to Leighton House
Museum, the home and creation of Frederic Leighton, Victorian painter and
sculptor. The main floor of the home
which he designed contains an “Arab Hall” decorated with 14th, 16th,
and 17th-century tiles and carved wooden lattice-work windows which he
collected during his travels to the Middle East. Sadly, no photographs were allowed inside the
house, so the photo below is from the Internet.
After spending some time getting to know Lord Leighton, we walked home through Holland Park, near Kent and Joyce's flat. Beautiful in its spring blossoms.
 |
| Kent and Joyce in Holland Park |
In the evening we dashed over to Harrods to look over the
famous food court. Seriously overpriced
but beautiful eats.
The next day we took the subway to Kew Gardens southwest of
London where we spent a gorgeous day tramping through the extensive grounds and
touring Kew Palace, the smallest British royal palace, where we learned a whole
lot about King George III, the much-maligned and mentally ill king during the
American Revolution. In the royal
kitchens, a table remains scored with countless knife strokes from the many
royal meals prepared on it. Very
evocative.
 |
| Kew Palace |
 |
| A much-used table in the royal kitchen |
 |
| Kent, Joyce, Mary and Kyle in the treetop walkway far above the ground |
We’ll be quiet now and let you enjoy the gardens.
There had to be one more literary tour before we left
London, didn’t there? We discovered that
Wimpole Street had several literary associations. Does that name sound familiar?
George Bernard Shaw chose Wimpole Street as the home of his fictional Henry Higgins. Can you imagine Freddy hanging around here?
In addition, Arthur Conan Doyle began his career as a
dentist on this street, although, fortunately for us, he ended up making his
living by creating Sherlock Holmes.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning lived here with her domineering
father who refused to let her marry Robert Browning, leading to their nighttime
elopement to Italy. “How do I love thee?” I’ll run away with thee!
Less literary but also interesting, Paul McCartney wrote “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Yesterday” while living on Wimpole Street.
Dickens alert: If you’re
tired of Dickens, skip the next few photos.
We NEVER tire of Dickens!
Charles Dickens wandered endlessly around London scouting
locations for the events in his novels.
This is the house where the evil attorney, Mr. Tulkinghorn, was murdered
in Bleak House.
Pip lived with his friend Herbert Pocket in rooms off this
square in Great Expectations. Dickens described it as “the dingiest
collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together.” He continues, “We entered this haven through
a wicket-gate, and were disgorged by an introductory passage into a melancholy
little square that looked to me like a flat burying-ground. I thought it had
the most dismal trees in it, and the most dismal sparrows, and the most dismal
cats, and the most dismal houses (in number half a dozen or so), that I had
ever seen.” Whew! It’s much nicer
now.
Nearby we found the building that was the model for Tellson’s
Bank in A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens
described it as, “the triumphant perfection of inconvenience. After bursting
open a door of idiotic obstinacy with a weak rattle in its throat, you fell
into Tellson’s down two steps, and came to your senses in a miserable little
shop, with two little counters, where the oldest of men made your cheque shake
as if the wind rustled it, while they examined the signature by the dingiest of
windows, which were always under a shower-bath of mud from Fleet-street, and
which were made the dingier by their own iron bars proper, and the heavy shadow
of Temple Bar.”
One of our favorite books by Dickens is Our Mutual Friend. John
Rokesmith and Mr. Boffin ducked into Clifford’s Inn for a private conversation,
and Dickens describes the spot as “the mouldy little plantation or
cat-preserve, of Clifford’s Inn, as it was that day…Sparrows were there, cats
were there, dry-rot and wet-rot were there, but it was not otherwise a
suggestive spot.”
After some refreshment, taken in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese,
one of you-know-who’s favorite pubs, we took the train out to Reading where Scott
and Marissa Gardiner and their darling kids Gavin and Maya are living. Marissa is Kyle’s brother Brett’s
daughter. THEY treated US to dinner at a
charming seafood restaurant overlooking the Thames. Little Maya surprised us all by eating a mountain
of mussels. Truly.
The next morning we set off for our weekend in Paris. It’s a difficult life, but someone has to
live it.
We caught the high speed Chunnel train from London’s St.
Pancras Station to Gare du Nord Station in Paris. Have we ever mentioned that we love
trains? Just LOVE them. And we loved watching the England countryside
whiz by followed by the black of the tunnel and then the French
countryside. Our hotel, the Avalon, was very
close to the station, and after reconnoitering the neighborhood, we settled on
a great boulangerie helpfully named…Boulangerie. Well, we were in Paris, after all. And it was delicious.
The first wonder of Paris we saw up close was the Arc de
Triomphe, and we found it mesmerizing as we popped gopher-like up out of a
subway station. Built to honor those who
fought for France in the Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, it took 30 years to complete,
being finished in 1836.
Afterwards we got on the Big Bus for our evening tour of
Paris. First impression: What a glorious city. What grand boulevards
and vistas. What charming sidewalk cafes
and lovely parks. What magnificent
architecture. We were amazed and enchanted.
 |
| Les Invalides |
A highlight of our night tour was watching the scintillating
lights scurry around the metal structure of the Eiffel Tower.
The next morning was Sunday.
Before we went to Paris we did some research and discovered that the new
Paris Temple is located in Versailles, and that the Versailles Ward meets
nearby. And both are very near to the
Palace at Versailles! So we took a combination
of subway and train to Versailles, then took a taxi to the church. We loved attending the meetings, though we
don’t speak French. During sacrament
meeting a young woman from China was confirmed a member of the Church. Of course, we were happy to spend the rest of
the block attending Sunday School and Relief Society (Mary) with her and
getting to know her better. We did our
best to reinforce her good decision to join the Church.
Kyle met a very kind senior couple elder who asked about our plans for the rest of the day and then offered to drive us to see the temple which is under construction. As it turns out, he is overseeing the construction, and he shared with us some of the challenges that have had to be overcome in order to build the temple. The temple is very close to the Palace of Versailles, and the Church is being very careful to consider the feelings of the neighborhood. There will be no Angel Moroni, and the profile is quite low, not predominating the buildings surrounding it. The stone is a harmonious color with others on the street. We were so happy to see this beautiful edifice which will bless the lives of so many in and out of the Church.
Afterwards the missionry couple drove us to the
palace. So kind! As we entered the massive courtyard we were
stunned to see hundreds—perhaps thousands—of people waiting and a serpentine
line that filled the courtyard, doubling back on itself five times. However, when in France… We got our tickets and went to the back of
the line. Though rain threatened, none
of it fell on us, and two and a half hours later, we entered the palace.
The main palace is massive, and there are several in the complex
that makes up Versailles. The grounds
are expansive--2,014 acres, 230 of which are gardens.
The style seems to be opulence and excess, and the “Sun
King,” Louis XIV, seems to have believe that the sun literally rose and set with
him. There was a special ceremony that involved watching him waking up in the morning. Favored courtiers got to watch him eat. And the palace--so many rooms. So much gilding. So many statues. So much marble. Impressive, yes, but we wondered whether the
people of France had enough to eat.
Probably the French Revolution answered that question.
The next day we explored Paris using the Big Bus. We’ve decided we definitely need another trip
to Paris someday. We began with the
Louvre and felt that we could have spent days just exploring that. Mary stood open mouthed in front of painting
after painting, statue after statue. We
did see the Mona Lisa, which we decided is a case of being famous because it is
so famous. Worthy, yes, but there is so
much more to see in the Louvre!
 |
| Glass pyramids in the courtyard of the Louvre |
 |
| Glass pyramid from the inside |
 |
| DaVinci's "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne" |
 |
| "Winged Victory" |
Notre Dame was impressive—all those flying buttresses and
gargoyles.
And of course the Eiffel Tower. Built for the 1889 World’s Fair, it was
intended to be taken down afterwards, but it still stands and is visited by
more people than any other paid tourist attraction in the world.
We took the elevator up to the top for an unforgettable view
of the stunning city of Paris. We rode
the elevator part way back down and then walked through the skeleton of metal
for the final descent. Truly amazing.
 |
| The Arc de Triomphe from the Eiffel Tower |
 |
| Looking down on the Palais de Chaillot |
As we made our way back to the train station, we were charmed
to see that the Gare du Nord subway entrance was one of the original Art
Nouveau entrances built around 1900. We
had seen the one in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in D.C. and
were thrilled to see one still in its original location. Mary loves the sinuous curves of Art Nouveau. Encyclopedia
Britannica says, “The distinguishing ornamental characteristic of Art
Nouveau is its undulating, asymmetrical line, often taking the form of flower
stalks and buds, vine tendrils, insect wings, and other delicate and sinuous
natural objects.” Look closely and you
will see this exemplified.
And then it was all aboard the train and a quick ride back
to London. We’re so grateful to our dear
friends Kent and Joyce for their kindness and hospitality. And we’re so grateful to everyone throughout
history who built these two great cities and made them such a gift to the world—and
to us.
