Oh, how I adore London . . .
The past few days have been super spiffy: From a gorgeous picnic on the grass in the confines of Queen Mary’s gated garden within Regent’s Park (It’s amazing what you can purchase for ten pounds at Marks & Spencer’s food hall—why don’t American department stores offer glorious crab salad and Sauvignon Blanc in mid-size bottles for picnics?) to an amazing dinner at the very luxe Ritz hotel (the last time I dined here I sat just across from Maggie Thatcher, and I nearly fell into her lap on my way back from the loo). I wandered among the amazing department stores along uber-busy Oxford Street: Selfridges & Co. is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and has a terrific exhibition detailing the emporium’s incredible history, I picked up another cricket coat at the revamped House of Fraser, and I stocked up on incredible suede shoes and colorful socks at the aforementioned Marks & Spencer.
Stocking up on some picnic yummies at Marks & Spencer, aka Marks & Sparks.
I visited the Baroque exhibit at my most favorite museum, the Victoria & Albert, and then sat in its lovely courtyard and splashed about in the fountain and ate ice cream. I ate Welsh Rarebit at Fortnum & Mason, the quintessential food hall experience, and grimaced and groaned at the glitz and glam that has enveloped the once wildly stylish Harrods department store (check out the amazingly bizarre statue of Dodi and Diana, called “The Innocents,” upon the landing of one of the escalators).
In the courtyard at the Victoria & Albert, where I was soon to doff my shoes and splash about the fountain with the kiddies.
And now I driving off to Derbyshire to visit the fabled Chatsworth estate, the home to the Dukes of Devonshire and former home of the Dowager Duchess, Deborah, the last of the fabled Mitford sisters (she now lives nearby in the vicarage). Deborah is an amazing, best-selling author, and her latest is a must-read, Home to Roost: And Other Peckings. It’s a delicious book.
And now to tackle left-hand driving . . .