Je t'aime, le cool

Le cool says it all in the name. Le Cool offer a refreshing group of guides to the coolest cities in Europe. Somehow, they feel quite anti-guidebooks actually, they're pretty hotch-potch and not designed to tell you the big touristy monuments. Le Cool cover Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, London and Lisbon. If you're a bit sick of Lonely Planet and like the independent feel, these are a great option.

You can get your hands on really awesome guide books which are super pleasurable to read and look at or you can go cyber and virtual-click your way through weekly magazines (also including Istanbul, Dublin, Moscow and Budapest). The weekly features are nice because it's obviously really up to the minute, and often you'll be visiting a city for a long weekend, and want to see the most hip-happening/hot-off-the-press/just-opened/one-night-only stuff, including gigs, cinema, festivals, talks, protests, clubs and museums.

This week it tells you where in London you can Make a Dress in a Weekend (Prescott place if you're interested), or go to an Alice in Wonderland inspired Manhattan Tea Party and Underground Markets. It is bursting at the cyber-seams with le cool stuff to do. It's even le cool if you live there.

What other people say,

“The guidebook for people who hate guidebooks”
The Guardian

“The travel guide for the been-there, done-that set”
New York Times

“Your hippest good friend”
The Independent

“Get your hands on one ASAP”
Grafik

Things to do in London

Sometimes I hate London. And this allows me to smugly agree with myself, that would be a terrible place to live and it's better to put two fingers up to the capital and say, 'I'm happy with my countryside, thank you very much'. But at the moment I love London and all it has to offer, as is apparent from my recent splurge of London loving posts.

I don't know a whole lot about the place, but I do know there is SO much to see and do. I'm more of a mooch about and soak up the spirit of the place kinda' gal. So I really enjoy to just sit and have a coffee and generally watch the world go by. Unrelenting trudging makes my feet hurt and soul drop into my shoes.

Some places I like, 

Flat White is a coffee shop in Soho. It sounds a bit pretentious and blah, in a way it is, it takes forever to get a coffee in this place. It took me a special diversion to get there with my family in tow too. But the coffee is yummy. I think the people who started it are australian, I didnt know the australians were any good at hot coffee, but it turns out they are. Strong, smooth and damned good.

I love bookshops almost as much as I love coffee. In fact in Bath, Topping and co have it so right. They bring you over a free cafetiere of lovely good quality coffee whilst you browse the books in their oak-lined shop. Heaven.

In London though, I really like Daunt Books in Marylebone. Books are categorised into country. That's basically enough said to tell you how amazing it is. You come out feeling like you've been around the world in 80 minutes.

Also in Marylebone go to divertimenti which is a super nice all-things-cookery shop.
In Covent Garden there's another two-birds-with-one-stone vibe going on. Maggie Hambling’s sculpture of Oscar Wilde. I saw an exhibition of Maggie Hambling's work called No Stright Lines at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge a few years ago and it was spectacular. You can sit on the sculpture like a seat, and read his lines, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’  Sure to put a smile on your face and take the weight off your feet.

In one of my last posts I mentioned Spitalfield's market, great for new deisgners, clothes, food and niccynaccky things. I love markets, they really expose the spirit of a place and the general hubbub is often quite stirring. Other nice markets are the obvious Potobello Market for antiques. Nearby the Lazy Daisy cafe is a good good good for a coffee. Brick Lane market is good. Its quite a random selection of stuff, lots of old and kitsch things, household and clothes. I recommend Camden for palm readings and mystical experiences. Camden also has a good coffee bar called the Bean 'n' Cup.

My art gallery pick is the Whitechapel Gallery. I don't know much about art or good galleries but I liked this one for a change.

If its summer, and right now, Im lusting after summer, I think Greenwich is jsut a beautiful place to hang out and laze on the grass at the Greenwich Park. It's the oldest royal park, and has a good dollop of quintiscential english loveliness.

Graffiti and Cupcakes in London

I love big contrasts. The things that smack pattern and conformity in the face. On a recent mooch in London I saw some lovely contrasts. A big city has a veritable plethora of visual loveliness I find.

Firstly I saw this graffiti near-by Brick Lane, the Indian corner of London. I quite like graffiti sometimes, because (i) it makes use of an other blank canvas, (ii) it's often subtly clever (iii) it's not money-making so it's really honest, (iv) it often represents a current social thought or feeling and (v) you never know when you might find it.

Then I went to the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy, which incidentally is really good. It's a selection of Van Gogh's work across his working lifetime, alongside letters to and from his brother Theo up until a few days before he died. Anyway, really near to the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, is Fortnum and Mason. The epitome of all that is over-indulgent luxury. It's been going strong since 1707. I saw some cupcakes. I wanted to eat them. Instead I looked on longingly like a child in a toy-shop.

Finally, I'll share with you Leon. More culinary deliciousness. I stumbled across the one in Spitalfield's market. Disppointed the market wasn't on, I soon recovered on spotting Leon. It's great seasonal food at shiny lovely prices. It's light-shades are made of recycled oil cans, and the food is served in brown cardboard boxes. The food is simple, I took the chilli with a chunk of lemon and some pea and carrot coleslaw. Very wholesome and very easy to recommend. I bought the bookwritten by founder and resident foodie god Allegra McEvedy. I really like Allegra's style, in herself and her food. As a bonus, the packaging is recyclable, they use produce from local farms, and give left over food to charity. This is a great, pretty ethical whilst oozingly cool restaurant.