Lothbury

Lothbury

September 29^th

We packed up our bags in the morning and then noticed that there was a flea market that had set up on the street.  Once we were packed, we headed down to check out the flea market and to get some breakfast.

It was still early for Parisians (10 AM) and the stalls were just being set out. April purchased a lovely candle holder and then we spotted a table with what appeared to be antiques.  I ended up purchasing a crystal mustard pot, supposedly from 1920. I was afraid of carrying anything so fragile, but the owner extolled the virtues of bubble wrap, and I was convinced.

We then went over to the Café Madeline Bastille which was right beside our building and had a continental breakfast of orange juice, tartin (half a baguette sliced lengthwise, slathered in butter and covered with jam), and coffee.

We then went to collect our bags, lock up and get a cab to Gare du Nord. We were a little worried about how long it would take to flag a cab. We had always seen lots of cabs, but they always seemed to be occupied.  Anyway I bet that we would flag a cab in less than 30 minutes, which April was pessimistic and thought we would be more than 30 minutes and might need to get the café to call one for us.  As luck would have it, we were able to flag one down in less than 10 minutes.  That, of course, meant we were at Gare du Nord around 11:45 for a train that left at 14:13.  We sat in the station watching the announcement board and its constantly flipping letters as trains departed and the others moved up the list.

Boarding the Eurostar was uneventful and, like on our trip from London to Paris, our coach was just as the end of the ramp to the gate, and so we were some of the first to board the coach. 

We arrived at 3:30 London time and then went to get a cab to our apartment.  The queue for cabs was very long and it probably took 20 minutes before we got a cab. The driver was very friendly and agreed to pick us up Thursday morning to take us to Heathrow.

When we arrived at 7 Lothbury, Jen, the greeter from onefinestay, was at the front door.  The apartment building, and flat #9, are magnificent! In Paris we were living like regular Parisians, but in London we are living like royalty. The ceilings must be 20 feet high and have the original carvings from when the building was the Overseas Bankers club. The owners must be very artistic as there are antiques and beautiful art pieces through out the apartment.

Onefinestay arranged everything for us.  We received an iPhone for our use while we are here, and it is programmed with information on what’s around us, what restaurants the owners recommend, etc. If we have any questions, we just press their icon and they’ll help. For example, we couldn't figure out how to turn off the lights in the main area, so I send a text. A while later they told us exactly where the controls were.

Onefinestay also had a welcome kit with cereals, tea and cookies for us to help us settle in before we could get groceries.

By this time (5:30ish) we were getting hungry and so looked up the owner’s recommendations for restaurants.  It turned out that Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant Barbecoa was only 3 minutes away.  We decided to walk over on the off chance that we could get in.  I was sure they would laugh at the suggestion, but when we went in we were told they could take us, as long as we were done by 7:30.

We had a great supper.  Both April and I had the barbeque ribs, which came with watercress and champs, which we found out was mashed potatoes with onion. We also ordered a bread platter, which came with home-made naan, crusty bread and a dark rye.  For dessert we shared the lemon meringue pie.

We walked back to the flat and have settled in for the night. Tomorrow we have to go to Leicester Square to pick up our London passes and we’ll then head out to Hampton Court.