Bienvenue à la bêtiserie: LDN

"Have you got any kind of like sort of punky, electronica, kinda grime? Kind of like new wave grime but kind of maybe like more broken beats? Like kind of dubby broken beats but a little bit kind of soulful? Like kind of like drum and bassy but kind of like broken drum and bass? Like broken beats, like break beat kind of broken drum and bass kind of...do you know what I mean?" -- oh that Lily Allen...she gets me every time (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26tts_lily-allen-ldn_music)

Ok, so I'm thinking of renaming this blog The Lazarus Project cuz it just seems to keep rising from the dead n' shit (that was like weird Biblical humor and I apologize if you guys didn't get it but I thought it was funny so whatever). Annnnyway, a looooooong time ago, I promised you guys a post of when La Bêtiserie went to London and I think I promised it within the following week, butttttt as you all know, that didn't happen. BUT DON'T EVEN WORRY, CUZ IT'S HERE! Whooooooop!

So as those of you faithful bêtiserie readers know, my Mom and sister came to Paris for a week in Feb, and then that weekend, we went to London. I had never techincally been to London/England before, with the exception of one short trip btwn Heathrow and Gatwick in order to catch a connecting flight to France when I was like 12, so I guess this would count as my first "real" time in England.

I was really surprised at how different London is from Paris. I'm not sure why, but I guess I had always pictured, from what I had read and seen and heard and stuff, that London was quaint and charming and proper and frilly. I mean, maybe it's just an American thing, but I guess I thought the whole place was full of stuff like Big Ben and Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Yet it simply is not. Like, not at all. London is a living, breathing, working city. It's modern and up-to-date and in some places, gritty and unpleasant. I guess the biggest difference that I found between London and Paris was that when in Paris, one feels like one is in a fairytale, almost captured in time. The city is so charming and quaint that it seems as if no one does any work, as if everyone is just going about their Parisian lives, eating baguettes, smoking in parks, walking tiny dogs, etc. It sometimes almost feels like a set-up or a façade, like everyone is just acting cutesy and French while racial tensions and poverty simmer on the outskirts of the city/in les banlieues. London is not like that. It's not putting up a front or pretending to be anything it's not. It's real, it's gritty, it's alive, and while in some places it's less than aesthetically pleasing, it's got an authenticity and an edginess to it that one doesn't really find in Paris. And I respect that...

But I still like Paris more ;)

Annnnnnd that was a long-ass rant. I'mma post some photos now to keep me from writing any more. Weeeeeee here they are!:

Adorbz

If I lived in London, I think I would live here...

I think I'm going to start giving titles to my photos. I call this one Why Did I Take a Picture of the Back of This Statue? or Nice Ass, Soldier!

Either one...

I think I would call this photo Church that I think was bombed during WWII but I'm not really sure which is proof of how little I was listening on the tour bus.

Rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?

Big Ben is a Big Beast, at least from this angle...

Also, as we were walking around Big Ben, getting ourselves lost, I overheard one woman say "Isn't it just crazy how all these tourists are walking around taking pictures of Big Ben? Like, they'll see it once in their lifetimes and I see it twice a day!" Now, that might sound like bragging to you, but it made perfect sense to me, because it's exactly how I feel about living in Paris. Like, in order to get home from class, I walk through the Jardin de Luxembourg. If I need a sunny place to read a book, I walk down to the Seine. I ate lunch on the steps of the Paris Opera the other day. Like it's a big deal to me how not a big deal these things have become in my life...

ANNNYWAY, moving on...

"Yo, whaddup, we're taking a pic with this mailbox because we're tourists and it's fine."

St. Paul's

And again...

One more time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBhQbmPwH8)

Tower of London -- note the ravens on the wall; these are 2 of 6 ravens that must be kept on the Tower of London grounds at all times, according to a superstition that suggests that if they are lost or fly away "the Crown will fall and Britain with it." BUM BUM BUMMMMMM (that was supposed to be this sound, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g9WjcGdxuM, in case you were wondering... )