England and Paris

This month we took a trip to London and Paris, with a side trip to Salisbury, England and Stonehenge.  The food was good -- mostly ate at Indian restaurants in both countries and enjoyed the baguettes and desserts in France.  We didn't take many food pictures, but there were a few places worth remembering for future trips.

Sunday December 4
After a red-eye flight to London, we arrived at 6am and spent 5 hours walking through the city before we could check into our hotel.  After a brief run and a long nap, it was late and we were ready for dinner. We walked to several locations looking for an Indian restaurant, and all were closed.  Finally we were able to found a Sri Lankan restaurant that we had passed earlier in the day at Grosvenor Place and Buckingham Palace Rd.  It was called Sekara, and the food was pretty good -- 2 chicken dishes (I think one was a Balti, which was new to us) and delicious naan.  A nice birthday dinner. :)  Afterwards, still on East Coast US time, we headed to Soho to find the John Snow Pub and sign the epidemiologists' log book!

Us with Big Ben

Me outside the John Snow Pub

The John Snow Pub Visitors' Log Book

Monday December 5
We took a day train-trip to Salisbury to visit Stonehenge. An amazing site to see, and a beautiful countryside location.  The town of Salisbury was also very charming -- an ancient English town dating back to 1220, with a famous Medieval Cathedral that has the tallest spire in all of England.  According to our Stonehenge tour guide, Old Sarum Airfield, just north of the city, was a major training field and plane manufacturing site during WWII.  Despite the importance of the location and the tall target of the cathedral, Salisbury was never bombed by the Germans.  After the war, they learned that the German pilots had been instructed to not bomb the cathedral, because it was a useful navigation landmark from the air.

After returning from Stonehenge, we ate at the Kings Head Inn, which has been operating as a pub/inn since the 15th century.  Unfortunately we weren't able to eat at the Cat Tavern (closed that day for dining), but we got a nice cat picture!

Beautiful day at Stonehenge

Salisbury Cathedral

An old gate in Salisbury's city centre

Outside the Cat Tavern in Salisbury, England. One day we will return to eat here!

Tuesday December 6
The big events of the day were a ridiculously long (but slow) morning run in London, a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and the Eurostar train across the English channel into Paris.  Mostly ate on the go this day.

The Globe Theater

Wednesday December 7
Spent the day walking Paris and touring the Louvre and Musee D'Orsey.  We had lunch at a Louvre café - baguette sandwiches/salads, and more remarkable desserts: pain au chocolat and "tarte aux fruits rouge" (literally "tarte of red fruits" with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and a small berry that I couldn't name but looked like a mini cranberry).  For dinner we wandered through the Latin Quarter (and many tourist-oriented dinner places) and wound up at Le Depart Saint Michel (at 1 Place St Michel, along the Seine) for our one "French food" dinner of the trip: steak, salmon, tarte tatin and tarte aux pommes.

The Louvre courtyard

Thursday December 8
A morning of running/caching in Paris where we discovered Arènes de Lutèce (a 1st-2nd century Roman gladiator amphitheater) followed by a tour of Notre Dame Cathedral.  After a long morning, we went to a chain baguette café (Brioche Doree at 20 Bd St Michel) for take-out baguette sandwiches which we ate in the park.  We continued a long tour of Paris and visit to the Eiffel Tower, then walked back towards our hotel neighborhood.  With all the walking exercise, we stopped first for a pre-dinner dessert meal of profiterole and crepes at La Dauphine (237 Bld St. Germain), then had dinner at Safran, an Indian restaurant back in the Cluny neighborhood.  Both were fantastic.  In the future will remember the St. Germaine neighborhood of Paris for less tourist-heavy outings.

Notre Dame

Eating my baguette lunch. Delicious sandwich, cold day.

Eiffel Tower

Night walking

Desserts at La Dauphine!

Profiterole and crepes

Friday December 9
Spent the morning in Paris, and the evening in London.  The British Museum has late night hours on Fridays, so we headed there to see the Rosetta Stone (among other world treasures) then went to dinner in Soho at Malabar Junction, an Indian restaurant.  The food was the best of any of the Indian restaurants we had tried on this trip (or elsewhere), although I was a little put off by the waiter over the small issue of tap water.  I asked for water, said I wanted tap water, and he rushed off to open a bottle of "still water" and charge us 3 pounds.  I told him I did not ask for it, and I got several apologies but no refund. Sort of set me against British waiters and their ridiculous custom of trying every time to charge for water that night. :P

Me and the Rosetta Stone

Saturday December 10
A cold, windy day of walking London and seeing Greenwich.  After walking from our Victoria Station hotel to Westminster Abbey and taking the Underground, we walked across London Bridge, toured past the Tower of London, crossed the London Tower Bridge, and sought out the first restaurant we could find -- an Indian place just across the bridge.  I lost the name, but from my searching online, I think the place was called Indian Fusion. The food (again) was delicious and impressive. After a trip to Greenwich, we had a English pub dinner close to the hotel (Victoria Pub), and got ready to leave the next morning.

London Tower Bridge

Last dinner in London