Since hopping across continents seems to be the CT way of life these days, I thought I’d join in on the fun. Next week I will be in London giving a talk at a conference at LSE on how people search for jobs online (the daylong workshop is on online recruitment in general). A few days later I will move on to Paris to meet Maria in person, finally! We already have tickets to the P.J. Harvey concert thanks to a friend of mine who is much more on top of these things than I am. I will give a seminar talk in an R&D group at France Télécom, but otherwise this will be my summer vacation.
Question: for someone who has pretty much seen all the touristy musts in London and Paris, what are less obvious things not to be missed? I realize entire book collections must exist on this, but I thought I’d throw it out there anyway.
In Paris in particular, there is a museum I visited years ago that I am having a hard time locating again. It is not one of the really famous ones. It featured contemporary art at the time and I think that is its theme in general. I recall that it was on a corner and possibly close to the river, although I am not sure (this was waaay too many years ago). If any of this rings a bell to anyone, please advise, although I realize my description is too vague to be of much help.
In London, the John Soane museum. Website here: http://www.soane.org/
Could you be thinking of the Musee Pompidou? (sp)
It features an unusual exterior: pipes running the length of the builing twisting at right angles, not unlike a popular screen saver of the day….
http://www.zeal.net/~karen/images/france/pompidou.gif
Thanks, Jeremy, but no, I was thinking of something much less well known than Pompidou. The museum I’m thinking about was in an older building, I think just one of several buildings on a block.
Fergal, thanks, I’ll have to check that out!
There’s Kenwood of course. Beautiful in itself and it has a fairly staggering art collection. And then Hampstead and Highgate are full of jewels - Keats’ house, the Hill (a small, gorgeous park between the top of the Heath and Golders Green), Highgate Cemetery, Highgate itself, etc.
Marble Hill is quite interesting. As is Carlyle’s house.
And then the view from Richmond Hill is perhaps my favorite thing in London. Unless that’s Kew. Or Hampton Court. Or - oh never mind.
go for a ride up the Thames in the DUCK - leaves from the Big Wheel.
Couple of tips from a Londoner:
The area around London Bridge is worth spending some time getting lost in - lots of layers of London in a small area, and there’s a good chance of seeing some of Banksy’s graffiti work. Go on a Friday or Saturday, and eat at the Borough Market under the railway lines. There’s also the (probably not genuine) Roman Bath, on Surrey Street, just off the Strand. There’s a window from the pavement where you can crouch and look in. Dickens’ David Copperfield took plenty of fictional plunges here.
For the best view of London (and lots of green space, and kites), Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath is worth a trip on the tube.
If you have any interest in interior design, while in London you might enjoy the Geffrye Museum on Kingsland Rd. and the William Morris House in Walthamstow. Lesser know musuems, but well worth a visit.
There is also a major exhibition of Edward Hopper’s work at Tate Modern which looks worth catching if you can.
We were just in Paris last week — Eszter, if you like
Francis Bacon there’s a good exhibition, mostly of his pope paintings, in the Musee Malliol, a couple of blocks south of Musee d’Orsay. They’ve also got a small but good selection of turn-of-the-century French painting and sculpture.
As of last week — not sure how closely tied to D-day this is — there’s a very good set of photos of the liberation of France posted on the fence on the western edge of the Jardin d. Luxembourg.
And of course the epicerie at Bon Marche is always an enjoyable tourist attraction…
Try visiting Brigitte Bardot in jail, if you care about civil liberties.
The Cluny Museum and the Maillol Museum are very good and often overlooked museums in paris. If your french is good enough pick up a copy of Zurban at the newstand, it’s the Time Out for paris.
Based upon your description the Pompidou (Beaubourg) is definetly not the museum you’re looking for.
It sounds to me as if you thinking of the Palais de Tokyo, which houses the Musée de l’art moderne. In the 8th arrondissement, probably metro Trocadero.
It’s not exactly a museum (although you do get great views of fine works of architecture), but if you rent a pair of rollerblades at Bastille on a Sunday afternoon, one of the roads along the Seine is open exclusively to pedestrians,roller-bladers, cyclists etc. It’s a great way to see the city (you pass under Pont Neuf, and go by Notre Dame and the Conciergerie,)for those who are up to it and it’s definitely off the beaten tourist track. Not to mention that it’s the freshest air to be had in the city in Summer.
If you happen to get thirsty while you’re in the neighborhood of the Tower of London you might stop in at the courtyard bar of the Grange City Hotel (Coopers Row). It incorporates a well-preserved stretch of the original Roman Wall.
Riverside pubs - it is June so you have the light late evenings. Spend some time in a riverside pub courtyard, gazing across the Thames at the tired old brickwork and try and figure out what is was that led this old port to leadership of the world. Hammersmith has a couple, Windsor too.
You seem to be thinking of the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, and of the Palais de Tokyo, side-by-side museums, but the first is closed this year.
If you get in Paris before the 28th, there is a quite interesting exhibition of Chinese classic painting at the Grand Palais. Among the smaller museums to visit there is also the Musée Rodin with its very nice garden. And the Paris Jazz festival should be on while you’re there.
Get a tasty slice of Cyprus. Ever since the 1974 conflict in Cyprus, London has become home to thousands of Greek and Turkish Cypriots which has provided a host of great restaurants and different foods. One of my several favourites was Andy’s Taverna in Camden, great for a table of 6-8 friends to chat and scoff the night away over meze and rich red wines.
Daytime and accompanied, visit an old address of mine: Peckham, Lewisham and the bad end of the Old Kent Road. Inspect the sixties towerblocks, rubbish and graffiti. Visit the market, go to a pub, eat some chips, sit on the bus. Consider how such deprivation could exist in a state with a welfare system and within a few miles of banks controlling trillions of dollars.
Guardian article Nov.2000: They call it the Peckham frontline. It is a desolate stretch of road, lined by rundown shops. The children and teenagers who loiter along this stretch of Peckham high street, on their way to and from school, are used to violence. Backpacks slung over shoulders, they pass by, oblivious to the yellow police boards calling for witnesses to the latest assault or stabbing. They are also, by and large, oblivious to the drug dealing - often conducted openly on these streets, and often by youths much like themselves. And just as they accept the violence here, the children accept that it will follow them into the school playgrounds. It is not uncommon for schools in this part of south-east London to have security guards patrolling their playgrounds and CCTV cameras monitoring their corridors. But however accustomed these schoolchildren may have become to violence, nothing could have prepared them for the news that the blood of a 10-year-old had been spilt on these same streets. “He was just a tiny kid,” says Ellen, 13, tears welling in her eyes as she stares towards Oliver Goldsmith primary school.
You seem to be thinking of the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris…
That’s the one that popped into my mind when I read Eszter’s description. A lot of great Calders and Brancusis.
If you visit the Sir John Soane museam, ask to see their collection of original Hogarth prints (tucked away behind some panels). There is an absolutely hysterical series there that I haven’t seen anywhere else, about electioneering in rural 18th century England.
And in Paris, if you want a bit of third-world funkiness, rendered with gallic elan, and some amazing African food and clothing shops, visit the Chateau Rouge district. (Metro Line 4)
Second the recommendation for Barbès, (Métro Barbès Rochechouart or Château Rouge), a very nutty place I once spent a year in.
If you like shopping in Paris all the Grand Magasins have been refurbished and are looking particularly swish, especially the new Galeries Lafayette.
If you want something really odd and find yourself in Montparnasse, go to the Gare Montparnasse and try the world’s first treble-speed moving walkway (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3001182.stm)
Also (thought quite well known) the Musee Guimet of Asian and Oriental works is quite good.
In London the markets are always worth a visit. Columbia Road flower market on Sunday is nice, as are Borough and Portobello markets. The John Soames museum is shut on Sundays, but it very near the LSE so you could probably go before/after your lecture. Also the Museum of London (in the City) has been improved a lot in recent years.
In Paris, I like the “Parc des Buttes Chaumont” in the 19th (Metro Crimee); it was build by Napoleon III, and is a fairly natural park, rather than a formal garden like most of the Paris parks. The guignol there is awesome, if you speak French. The area around the park is also interesting; it’s a mixture of ethnicities (Senegalese, Algerians, Orthodox Jewish, and French). It is a thus a good area to get Algerians or Moroccan food.
They unfortunately lowered the speed of the montarnasse walkway. Bit sad, but the grannies were flying all over the place. Half of the times out of order too.
Last update from the south of buttes chaumont area (i-e belleville, more or less) : the chinese are taking over. Clandestine workshops, restaurants, ridiculous pastries and huge mercedes. I’d advise a bo-bun or canard laqué at da-lat (vietnamese, belleville place).
Buttes chaumont is a sight too. Not only for the place (which is ok) imho, but too for the way they carved false wood bark in the concrete that makes the stairs and stuff there. To “make natural”, you know. You rarely see bad taste so intensely concentrated.
The nearby canal st martin, if not too crowded, is well worth a stroll and a beer. Oberkampf can be nice too, now that it’s uncool again.
As someone else already said, I’m sure you’re thinking of the Paris city modern art museum, but it’s closed for renovations this year.
It’s not a small museum by any means, but I’d highly recommend going to the Louvre’s current exhibit on art in Paris in 1400, which is part of a national collection of exhibits on art during he reign of Charles VI. Some of the most extraordinary illuminated manuscripts I’ve ever seen, and when I went (for the second time) yesterday, it was nearly empty.
I also like the Rodin Museum (in the 7th, around the corner from the Invalides) and the Musee Carnavelet, about the history of Paris, in the 4th (and it’s free!).
Museums? The Soane, of course, which is the best house in the world. And the Wallace Collection, which is invariably deserted during the week, and is a great way to catch your breath from the morass that is Oxford Street. (Heavy on the Fragonard, but the big gallery with the Reynoldses et al has something for everyone.)
Brick Lane — from the beigel [sic] bakery nr. Shoreditch station down through the Bangladeshi restaurants; hunting Hawksmoors; Chiswick House; um… the London: City Secrets guide is wonderful.
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review