What about the artistic life in London!?

There are so many things to tell about the Artistic Life in London !!

London could be actually renamed the “The Capital of Art”, because it groups together all the different kinds of art:

Music

Everybody will agree that a lot of famous bands’ went through London (The Beatles for example). And still today you find hundreds’ of little bands’ music every night in the pubs and in the clubs.

But what stroke me about the music here, it is the persons who are playing an instrument or singing in the tube. They are really numerous, and it is definitely not like in France where they are often beggars. Here we can hear some real musicians very talented. I heard that in London, you even have to pass an interview to be able to play in the tube.

Theatre

Theatre of course! If you have ever been in London, you must have seen everywhere some musical theatre poster. If you are looking for something to do a night, you really have to go to one of them. You can find a lot of movies adapted for musicals. And if you look for a ticket carefully, you can find some really cheap (the first price is relatively expensive).

Museums

London is the Museum Paradize! If you like going to museums, you will be verry glad here. First because all (or almost) the entrances are free. But also because you can a lot of verry interresting museums. My favourite for now are: The National Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery and The Tate Modern.

Fashion

I wanted to talk a little bit about the fashion in London, because it really surprised me when I arrived here for the first time. In France you clearly have a clothing fashion which changes over the years. But here, you have no fashion. My point of view is that the city is so cosmopolitan than finally nobody really imposed his style.

However, there is each in London the very famous Fashion Week (which occurred in February).

A little bit more about London

Today, I would like to talk about the social rituals at London. The life here is not very different from the life in France, but we still find some differences with our country.

First I have to talk about a point which really struck me since I am here, the food. If I say “The food in France” you will tell me: Cheese, bread, cooked pork meats, patisseries… Here, there is the famous Fish & Chips, but except it, there is not a lot of very “typical foods”. You can’t (and I tried to) find a “typical English restaurant”.  Actually, what you always find everywhere here, is Fast-Food. Especially the very well-known Starbucks (each 100 metres you are sure to find one). And the all day, you can see people in the street eating a burger, a kebab, crisps or even Chinese fast-food…

 

(Discovery of Starbucks)

Now let’s talk about symbols. Of course the very first symbol of the UK is the Queen of England! She is very famous and really loved by all the country, like all the royal family. All the English people are really involved in every event concerning the royal family. For example, we saw that again with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last year. The 60 years of Queen’s Elisabeth reign gathered more than a million of people. And I have to say that I feel very impressed by all the devotion of people for their Queen.

What about the national celebrations here? Without being a public holiday, what we can call here a national celebration is St George’s day. Of Palestinian origin, George de Lydda is a Roman army’s officer under Diocletian. At the beginning of the 4th century, when the emperor required the persecution of the Christians, he was delivered in the city of Lydda (Israel) to numerous tortures (burned, scalded, crushed under a wheel, etc.), which he survived supernaturally before being beheaded. Very quickly, we set up places of worship to his memory. Later, a legend will say that he would have killed a dragon. He becomes very popular with the Crusaders. Today, he is celebrated on April 23^rd, a day when we can see a little more than usually the English flag: a red cross on a white background à St George’s cross.

To conclude my post, I just wanted to notice all the little things which struck me here!!

-First, there is the fact here, the families eat the meal very early (like 6.30pm)

-Secondly, there is really less smokers than in France

-And last, I noticed that there is also really less dogs than in France. You rarely meet someone taking out for a walk his dog.

Sunny London/ Meeting with Ben Musgrave

For the first time since I a am here in London, I wore a T-Shirt to go outside. My sister came for five days, and we visited all London under a very shinny sun. Imagine, it was so warm that we ate an ice cream in front of Buckingham Palace!

Another point very interesting of my week was the meeting with Ben Musgrave, a play writer who wrote the play Pretend You Have Big Buildings. It was the first time that I met a real play writer, and it was really interesting. He explained to us how important was the place and our relation with this place that we are writing about. He also told us about his own story and why he decided to write his play Pretend You Have Big Buildings. I really liked having for the first time the writer’s point of view.

Tate Modern

This week, I have been three times to the very well known Tate Modern of London. I visited the all museum, and I also saw the exhibition of the moment : Lichtenstein. It was amazing! I don’t really like modern art as usual, but what Roy Lichtenstein did was really wonderful. It was very interesting, because all his paintings look like printed canvas; and it is just when you get closer that you realize it is really panited.

 

Another painting that I really liked is Seated Figure (1961) by Francis Bacon.

I imagined a short story about it :

The famous, the very well known Mr X was here, in front of me, in a blue sofa. Seated like that he looked like everybody. I wonder what he is thinking about right now.

I was seated on this blue sofa, alone, and I was thinking of how I got there. What did I do to finish today, seated in that very expansive blue sofa, waiting for the president to congratulate me, with a thousand of paparazzi waiting for me just behind the window. Just three weeks ago I was a tramp alone and cold. I was ready to do everything to get out of this situation, but what I did, I don’t know if I will be able to live with that.

Three weeks aago, a plane scratched in the middle of London during the night. I was here, with my dog. All the passengers were blocked into the plane, but a man, a hero, came and openned the door. He saved all of them because ten minutes laterthe motors exploded. And then he just went back to his car and left. One hour later, when all the medias arrived to understand what just happened, I stood up and I said that I saved everybody, that the I was THE hero.

Today, in this blue sofa, I would not be able to look my face again.

Perfect weekend

How could I describe how perfect was my week-end!
First, last Friday it was the return of the sun. Fours days without a drop of rain. Can you believe it? But the best surprise was that my parents came to visit me. They arrived with my little brother on Saturday monrning, and in two days I visited almost all the most famous places of London. First we went to Carnaby Street; to see all the little and very cute shops of course (I bought some tops and a pair of shoes…), but also in order to try the very typical “FISH & CHIPS” (I had to!). We went to a restaurant called The White Horse, and even if it was really fat, it was definitly really good! Now I can say that I am a real girl of London

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Then we visited Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster City with the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace… And all these places with a shinning sun, it was WONDERFUL!
Then to pursue our experience of London, we go to the omnipresent STARBUCKS and with our “grande hot chocolate with whipped cream”, with tasted a big muffin with blueberry, DELICIOUS. My parents finally left on Sunday, but the sun stayed, and now I am ready to go everywhere!

(Images from Google)

Regent’s Park

This morning I am walking in the Regent’s Park. Just a short walk in order to breath, and I am not disapointed. It is like a little piece of paradise in the middle of the big city which is called London. All the trees all around me look like they are dancing in the wind. Sometimes I feel like they are even singing. The smell of the grass and the smell of the flowers immerse me in the middle of nature. When I come near the lake, several curious squirels approach me, maybe to see if I will give them something to eat. I have nothing to feed them, but I like there presence. Far off, I can see a fox running after the swans. I don’t know if I am lucky or if it is usual, but it is the first time that I see a fox free! Now I am in front of the lake. The sunbeans are reflecting on it like on a mirror, and the drawing of the trees anthe clouds on the lake make me think of the painting of Claude Monet. This is the end of my walk, but for sure, I will come back!

Today I love London…

(Image: Claude Monet – Autumn effect at Argenteuil)

The National Gallery (04-02-13)

This week, I visited the London National Gallery. And I have been really impressed, there are some such famous paintings like some Van Gogh, some Cezanne, or even some Monet. And the most impressive is that the entrance is free. In France, we have some huge and famous gallery (like Le Louvre or Orsay Museum in Paris). But to get in, we have to pay. That is why I have been really surprised by the Gallery.

The inside is really huge and it looks like an old palace. The ceiling is so high, like the doors, and it makes the place almost intimidating.

I think that I will go back to the National Gallery, because even if stayed there more than two hours I feel like I saw only a small part of all the beauty of the museum.

 

By the way, another place that I really would like to visit is “The Barbican’s rain room”, it seems so strange, I have to try it!!

 (Image from google)

St Paul’s Cathedral (28-01-13)

This week, I went to the St Paul’s Cathedral with my class of “Art and Society in London”. It was WONDERFUL! The inside is really huge, very high. On the ceiling, there are a lot of paintings, and all the windows are in fact some stained-glass windows which colored the entire Cathedral. We also went upstairs (after having climbed at least a hundred steps…), and I think that it was a real chance to be able to see the inside from that angle.

At the end of my visit, I was sure that I had already seen that place before. But where? And then I found…

…MARY POPPINS!!!!

I am really pleased to have take that class (Art and Society), because it enables me to discover a lot of new places.

Let’s discover my program for next week!

By!

(Image from google)

When the snow moves in London (22-01-13)

Who said that London was a rainy city? Definitely not, this week-end it was more “The city of the snow!”  When I woke up this morning, I opened my curtains, and then, what did I see? All the streets totally white!! What a beautiful sight! I slipped into my boots (some new one that I bought especially for my trip to London), and let’s go for a walk at Regent’s Park. It was looking like if all the trees were covered with a tiny coat of sugar. SO CUTE!! But I have to confess that with my big scarf, my mitten and my hat, I felt like an Eskimo!

See you guys for more adventures !

(Image from google)

Beginning of classes (17-01-13)

Yesterday was my first day of classes. Honestly, I was a bit scarred on the morning when my alarm rang. I didn’t know what to expect. I travelled by my usual tube (the fantastic Nothern Line), and it was so crowded that I saw two trains leaving before being able to enter in one. A new facet of London that I am afraid, I will have to face every class day. But let’s go back to my classes. It was AWSOME! I have to confess that I was afraid it would have been a bit boring. But I was definitly wrong. It is really interresting, and finally not so hard to understand (even if sometimes I have to ask the persone next to me to repeat or to explain some words).

In short, the semester starts rather well.

See you guys !!