Day 15

V&A

Knightsbridge

July 25

Another beautiful day. In the morning, I went to South Kensington to join a London Walk. Before our guide arrived, I walk on Bute Street to look at the french books shop. South Kensington is well know to be the french quarter of London.

With the guide, we went to Victoria and Albert museum. She introduced us to some masterpieces of the museum. This museum is so big, it is like a little town. Londoner call it V&A. It is the world's greatest museum of art and design. In this somptuous victorian building, there is 146 different galleries; enough for me to get lost. You can’t see everything in a simple visit. My favorite expositions were the fashion and the statues of Rodin. I will have to go back. After the visit, I had a scone and coffee at the café of the museum. It is affortable and there is a lot of choice for lunch time.

Since I was not to far from Harrods, I thought it would be great to stop for a few minutes. Oh my!!!! I stayed there for 2 hours. The big summer sale is on the last days. There was a big crowd. There were people coming from the 11 doors. The food hall is even bigger and impressive that it was in my souvenir. I took my time to visit the first floor where is the women fashion. I didn’t buy anything, except a calendar. Harrods is situate in Knightsbridge, where the architecture is beautiful.

Talking about department stores, I think London is the megapole of department stores. There is Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridge, Liberty, John Lewis, House of Fraser, Top Shop, Debenhams, Fortnum and Mason, Marks and Spenser… All have good range of shopping, well some better than others… The quality of Mark and Spencer can variate a lot from on place to another; it depend in which area it is. And I am not talking about « grands couturiers » : there is so many all around the different areas of London I couldn’t named them without missing some.

London is really a place to shop… if you have the money to do it of course !