How Much Do You Love London? Could You Love It Any More?

There is that old Samuel Johnson quote that goes......

(Nathalie L'Ete painted shopfront in Islington)

something like: "if you are tired of London, you are tired of life".

The Paradis family's latest visit should have been tiring......we walked about six miles each day

of our two week visit.   Those days were invigorating, beguiling, rapturous.....

anything but wearing.  Every journey out seemed to

invite further exploration.

It probably was much due to the lovely dry weather we enjoyed, but the old, churning town seemed

especially vivid and vital and sweet tempered.

(Morito at Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell)

Friends don't believe us when we exclaim how good the food in London is these days.

It was Craft Week and even more than usually, what England does best was on show

all over London in high - and low places.

(Detail of an embroidered top at Couverture, Notting Hill)

From Clerkenwell to Chelsea, from Notting Hill to

Bermondsey.  It was far too easy to fall in love all over again

(Cloth Shop on Portobello Road)

with London's layers and lively wit.

From the new and the jazzy

(The Cow - Notting Hill)

to the cozy and the old reliables......

(Anthropologie, King's Road Chelsea)

The Chelsea Flower Show was being prepared for

(home grown flowers, Designer's Guild)

and Mother Nature was putting on her very best show.

(Upstairs room, The Island Queen, Islington)

There was a celebration of the Queen coming on......

("The Shard" at London Bridge)

glassy, sheeny progress.....

(fruit and veg at Borough Market)

the triumph of the quotidien...

(LASSCO architectural salvage - Bermondsey)

New worlds to stake out and create

and old fashions to celebrate.

It's not possible to put a single finger on London's pulse

to capture just "the one thing" that makes it tick...

Rather it's your lucky job to grab hold of the panoply.

As much as the placid, private places.  London offers you (and me) all this.

Could you be more grateful?  (I couldn't!)  Could you love it any more?   I COULD!!!!!  Because it continues to yield such endless pleasure.

These are just some highlights.  Come back if you think you can handle more.