Our youngest daughter’s adventure into post-school life saw us gallivanting last week…for just a very few days…what madness, but what fun!  It’s been quite awhile since my last opportunity to gad-about on the other side of the world, so we thought we’d make up for lost time….

As you can imagine, my list was long, but as the gallivanting was in truth about people (and especially said daughter), it still is…

The few days were smattered with delights, from smiling friends to delicious morsels, but given the time of year and constraints on time, not much was seen of gardens!  As a result, the wallpaper lining the corridors of Kit Kemp’s fabulous new Ham Yard Hotel in London added a bright note to the weak, late-winter London sunlight (top image & above).

And I can’t imagine a fabric more punchy than this fabulous bull’s-eye pattern on our bed-head! Fabric aside, I was excited to see playful collections of lampshades by the PET Lamp Studio Society hanging from the ceiling at Ham Yard….I keep cutting out images of these exquisitely patterned shades made by artisans displaced by Colombia’s guerrilla war, but hadn’t seen them before in real life, where they’re even more fabulous than I’d thought.  Sadly I didn’t capture an image (but click on the link above to learn more). The entire building is a vibrant buzz; of people, pattern, decorative art, flowers and fun.  Just as well it was a short trip, as I fear it broke the bank!

Paris saw me tick a couple of yet-to-see establishments off my wish-list. The tiny atelier of handmade ceramics, Astier de Villate was enchanting, with just three small vessels making it into my suitcase (decisions, decisions!!). While the clear-cut, clean, pure & simple space of Le Labo contains more information than you can imagine about all things that grow and smell. Yet more decisions….which eau de parfum was it that our eldest daughter has hankered after for years?  Hopefully I got the right one!  Merci yielded a couple of fab serviceable tablecloths, though there were many more goodies I wouldn’t have minded bringing home. 

Truly though; it’s the magnificent architecture and layout on the grandest scale that captivate the senses in Paris, but this wasn’ t the trip for clicking spectacular images.  The Parisiennes do, however, wrap parcels better than anyone else in the world!

From a delightful lunch with daughter’s godfather at The Ritz (still the place for a celebratory occasion), to Skye Gyngell’s new restaurant Spring, the always delicious River Cafe, Italian classic Caraffini, to coffee with the girls at Ottolenghi, a quick lunch at Daylesford Organic and a splash of Parisienne brasseries, food was high on the agenda and very spoiling. And yet…. the most memorable and satisfying morsel was the simplest of all...of course: Pain au beurre Francaise! 

It’s a wonder I haven’t returned all roly-poly! Kitchen Garden, here I come….!!