Drunk Bishops and French Weddings

Freinds, Romans, Countrymen. Lend me your ears. (and 500,000 pounds if you have it so I can buy an apartment in London's docklands...)

I am on a plane (for a change), doing my bit for climate change so I can realise my dream of growing grapes in Britain. This time coming back on BA 2027 to Houston from London, and before that Toulose, France. Why? Well, my Token French Freind (TFF) was getting hitched, and I thought I would drop in on the proceedings. Why do I have a token French freind I hear you say? Well, it's annoying, but what can you do? You try and dislike a nation for making better cheese, having faster trains, making wine out of grapes rather than nettles and God-knows what else as well as having the impertinence to shoot one of our Kings in the eye. It seems simple, but then no, they go and make freinds with you and then you end up at their wedding.

To make matters worse, they are all so damn nice it's not funny.

Ah well.

So, TFF currently works for BHP Billiton, but in our London office, and I met him whilst he was over in Houston on an internship some time ago. I headed over to London last week, stayed the Thursday night, and headed on to Toulouse on Friday evening, getting in late, but not late enough to prevent a couple of Guinesses with TFF. My persuasion to drop the whole idea and run away before going through with the marriage failed, so on Saturday afternoon we all convened at the Capitole in the very middle of Toulouse for the civil ceremony. It is an incredible building, nicely decked out in the Tricolour, and with an ornately painted interior. Quite amazing place really.

After the ceremony, we headed out to a Chataux for the reception - not your mind's eye image of many spires and turrets (just the two) - more analogous with an English stately home, but of course with better wine (and faster trains)...

As you might expect, we were greeted with champagne, and dived into the meal with beautiful wine, a starter of smelly cheese (not it's real name!), duck (local speciality) followed by the best Foie Gras I have ever had, then followed by more duck in a crusty but flaky pastry shell with potatoes and mushrooms. I think there were other courses too, but the wine was, well, flowing... After all this we had a desert (I think - can't remember!) and then cheese (of course). Then we had more wine, lots more champagne, and danced (or in my case jumped around the dancefloor looking like a right prat) until the early hours of the morning.

Rather brilliantly, TFF and Spouse had obtained some cowboy hats, and proceeded to open the dancefloor with a line dance in light of their impending move to Houston! This went down very well, and was scarily very good!

So, back to Toulouse on Sunday afternoon, and flew back out to London at 7am on Monday morning.

I once again had a great time in London. Met up with Mum and Tom 'n Lindi on Thurday, and we had a great meal at Qui Lon, the best Indian restaurant that I know on the planet. It's at 41 Buckingham Gate, Victoria if you're in the area.


We had a really nice stomp round the capital this time - it was the first time I had been over to Bank, and walked round the Lloyd's building before finding ourselves at the foot of the Swiss Re tower (more popularly called 'The Gerkin'). I quite fancy working around here for a bit - very cool!

We also stumled upon Southwark cathedral just around the corner from the replica Globe Theatre which was a surprisingly interesting place. Chaucer and Shakespere (or at least what's left of them, which presumably is not a lot) are interred here. Apparantly Shakespere was buried during the morning, which was unusual for the time, but most of the mourners had to get back to go on stage for the matinee performances! You can just imagine them all pulling out their sundials and checking the time ("You know, I really have to run..."). Also of note was a plaque with the names of the past and present Bishops of Southwark. The current incumbent is the Rt Rev Tom Butler who really should be known as Tom Butler the Lashed, after his excellent attempt at a christmas party last year.

Also for the first time went into Tate Modern. Nice view from the cafe up on the top floor, but the paintings were a little bit of a dissapointment. I think most of them were not finished, while others were obviously good attempts at showcasing the work of local primary schools. As you can tell, I need to work on my vocation of being an art critic, but I think I have got my point across pretty well in this case.

Once again, another great little trip over to Europe.

Labels: France, london

posted by Sam @ 13:08