paris/london

so, one minute we're in paris the next we're in london.
not quite next minute (try24hrs later). bizarre.
the weekend past we wandered into the city to do a little shopping. absolute chaos: full tilt consumerism with wall to wall people grabbing things to buy like it was the end of the world. crazy. after all that we needed to escape to a park to try and capture the last of autumn's sweet sunshine. we headed to le jardin du luxembourg where we found the non-shopping half of paris doing the same thing: enjoying the subtlety of autumn. there were people playing chess, people playing cards, kids on ponies, a science fair, people playing pétanque. it was just like one of manet's paintings (but his was at les tuileries, and everyone was wearing tophats)..... we kicked leaves, looked over shoulders at games of chess and cards and tried to guess which people has recently left the science fair.
zip, cross country, cross former battle-fields, past wargraves and mining towns. onto a ferry and plonk, old blighty. we parked up road-side to sleep the rest of the night before driving north to london in the morning, stopping briefly in canterbury for an english breakfast enroute.
and london; big, busy, double-decker buses, tubish underground, not a sign of the wombles.
popped into the kiwi embassy for a quick kiaora and passport exchange (surpirsingly bloke there didn't comment on appauling photos), sampled some delicacies from home like buzzbars and peanut slabs (mmmmmmm) before wandering off to do almost exactly the same thing, but in london. look in on shop windows (carnaby st, regent st, oxford circus)- monopoly anyone?
but then we saw the national gallery was holding a quick exhibition: 'from manet to picasso' and there's nothing like being impressed by impressionism while you're already being overwhelmed.
london, eh? showing us scenes of paris. which is busy sampling bits of london.