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City & Village Tours: 0208 692 1133
You’ll see London’s French Quarter, dubbed Paris’s 21st
Arrondissement, with its own very swish school funded
by the French Government. It’s a really entertaining
morning and something a bit different. Opt for free time
in the Kensington French Quarter for lunch or include an
Anglo-French pub lunch of roast beef and croissant and
brioche bread & butter pudding laced with French brandy
and served with Crème Anglais and a coffee. This is a
great lunch.
In the current City & Village Tours brochure there are
four afternoon options, a walking tour of French Soho
and a visit to Apsley House which is open until the end
of October. In this issue of The Kettle I describe two
options that are ideal for the autumn and winter
months starting with a visit to The Wallace Collection
Let Them Eat Cake - With the Wallace Collection
The morning tour is as described above with the option
of free time for lunch in the South Kensington French
Quarter or a pre-booked Anglo-French pub lunch.
Let Them Eat Cake is the common translation of
Qu’ils mangent de la brioche
, the words ascribed to Marie
Antoinette when she heard that the peasants had no bread.
As brioche was even more expensive than bread, the
dough enriched with butter and eggs, her words reflected
a disdainful disregard for the poor. However, as is the
way with these things, there is no historical record of the
Princess ever uttering these words. They might have been
pinched from Book Six of the philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau’s autobiography (yes Book Six! Thank goodness
Twitter hadn't been invented in his lifetime). Describing
When a party was planned for the 150th anniversary
of Waterloo the French ambassador declined his invite
saying he was too busy organising the following year’s
900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings! This new
day out looks back at 1000 years of argy-bargy with the
French. And the day isn't all history based - we also visit
London’s thriving French Quarter to hear about how
London is now the 6th largest French city by population
as a consequence of the 75% French super tax. In the
afternoon you can see some of the treasures of the
Bourbon Court at Versailles in The Wallace Collection.
We begin at 10.30am buying morning coffee alongside
the Tower of London – built by William the Norman not
to protect London but as a bolthole in case London
attacked him! The capital has often been a place of refuge,
from the Huguenots fleeing religious persecution and the
aristocracy escaping the Guillotine to the Free French
of WWII and the super tax refugees of today. The tour is
led by one of our English guides who, when they’re not
looking after our British groups are taking French visitors
around London. They reveal how the French see us –
they are always surprised that we are so nice! and they’re
absolutely fascinated by our monarchy but pretend their
interest is entirely ironic. We’ll have some fun with the
cultural differences – discovering for example why in
France it’s absolutely de rigeur to have your elbows on
The table whereas it’s a real faux pas in polite company
in England. The French are probably the largest minority
nationality in London - many drawn here to avoid the
75% super tax in France.
All Our Waterloos
With The
Let Them Eat Cake
tour
at The Wallace Collection
