A Splash Hit

The Châtelet is closed for two years for repairs. Their Christmas show this year is Singin’ in the Rain and it is staged in a temporary theatre in the Grand Palais.

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Categorised as Theatre

Out of this World

La Bohème at Christmas should be a sure-fire winner, impossible to muck up. Sublime music, lots of snow and children, achingly beautiful arias and a heart-rending finale.

Cognacq-Jay

Yesterday we walked to the Musée Cognacq-Jay for a dollop of culture. Lucky we didn’t want a scoop of pistachio ice cream because, like Edmund Crispin’s Moving Toyshop, Berthillon has disappeared.

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Categorised as Art, Travel

Paris

It’s a treat to walk across Paris on Christmas Day. I enjoy the architecture and the views. They are not spoilt by a plethora of Christmas bling.

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Categorised as Travel

Christmas Day

“The bearer, white-turbaned and bare-footed, pulls back the curtains to let in a blaze of sun. Outside the fountains are playing, the birds are shrieking. Cascades of stocks, carnations and petunias hang over the edges of ornamental pools.

A Long View

This sceptred isle has seen some changes that must have been bewildering at the time. But let’s digress before we even begin.

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Categorised as Business

We Three Trees of Orient Are

Parrotia persica (commonly called Persian ironwood) is a deciduous tree in the family Hamamelidaceae, closely related to the witch-hazel genus Hamamelis. It is native to northern Iran and southern Azerbaijan (where it is called Dəmirağac) and it is endemic in the Alborz mountains. (Wiki) It was Urban Tree of the Year in 2014.

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Categorised as Environment

Local News

Two years ago the NHS Trust that runs Charing Cross Hospital put forward a plan to re-build it. Work was intended to start this year and be completed by 2021.

A Degastation

Off to Cambridge and Degas feeling sick and giddy. I have doubled my dose of Losartan to 50 mg and now my blood pressure is so low I can barely function. Degas was a multi-tasker as the exhibition at the Fitzwilliam demonstrates.

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Categorised as Art

Studios

  If you drive over the Hammersmith flyover you are sure to to have noticed this parade of artists’ studios by Barons Court station.