London: Papillon Shoes

This was so not a shopping trip for us. First of all, we still have a box of shoes from the Cookie closet giveaway,  and second, we are just trying to be more careful. (I'd rather spend on food and wine and travel.) But after seeing all the amazing children's shoes that our friend's daughter had from Papillon, and hearing their very reasonable prices, I decided we had to check it out, and could possibly buy one pair. Besides the shoes being very cute, I loved that the woman running the store had some kind of certification that she was authorized to fit shoes properly. They also have lots of the shoes now in women's sizes. We bought a lovely pair of tall black boots (just for Clara) for the fall.

London: Lamb's Conduit Street

We had a couple of hours on our last day in London, and asked our friend Paul what his favorite street in London, right now. Lamb's Conduit in the Bloomsbury neighborhood was his first choice, so off we went. We stopped in at Oliver Spencer, a really lovely store that carries men's and women's clothing, all of it great. Then we had a quick lunch at the Spanish restaurant on the corner, Cigala , and a perfect macchiato at The Espresso Room (Paul said this is probably the best espresso in London). This area is a block away from the Coram Fields Park , which I had high hopes for, since its website looks great. From the site, it appears to be a country farm in the middle of the city, but instead it's a bit sad, with a couple of bunny rabbits in hutches, and some chickens and goats in gloomy pens. But it is a big open space nonetheless, with a large playground area, so it's just good to know it's there, if you find yourself in this neighborhood. I am linking to a neighborhood report done by Monocle Magazine, because I think it will give you a nice sense of the area. 

lunch at Cigala--Clara loved those potatoes...

London: A Birthday Party

Late on Sunday afternoon, we were invited to the birthday party of a two year old boy, who is the son of our friends' babysitter. We had such a blast: they are Indian, and Sylvia, the mom, was cooking for days before the party. The food was so good, we just kept eating, and eating. Thank you Sylvia.

London: Cheshire Street

After we had lunch at St John Bread and Wine, we drove around the East End of London. One of the places I really wanted to visit on this trip is a shop called Labour and Wait. A friend had told me about it, and it seemed like the English version of Manufactum, a store in Munich that I am pretty much obsessed with. It was really small, but had a very nice edit of things. Also on that street (Cheshire) were a couple of other cute shops. It's definitely a street to check out, as is the area around Calvert Street (I really liked the look of this cafe called Leila ), and around the new-ish Terence Conran hotel called the Boundary.

(above four pictures from Labour and Wait)

(Above two pictures from Mar Mar, right next to Labour and Wait, a very cute shop with a more whimsical, French-y vibe)

(Above three pictures from Shelf, also on Cheshire Street--great notebooks and clever kid gifts like an old-school camper)

(Above two pictures from Leila's Cafe and Shop on Calvert St.)

London: St John Bread and Wine

I already mentioned that we are not only meat-eaters in our family, but my husband has fantasies about opening up his own butcher shop and restaurant. So it makes sense that one of the most exciting restaurants for Matt to go to, is St John, owned by Fergus Henderson. Fergus has a couple of books out, the most popular being Nose to Tail Eating, and while Matt only makes the madeleines out of it, we all appreciate the philosophy behind the book (don't let any part of the animal go to waste). We went to his main restaurant the last trip, and weren't in love with it, but primarily because it was too much of a destination vibe, and had staff that didn't seem to know the menu or the wine list--and if you are going to a proper restaurant, you expect a bit more. St John Bread and Wine is more informal--you can just pop in and buy bread, granola, wine...or you can sit down to a lovely lunch. It's not very expensive (six of us ate and had a bottle of wine and bottled water for 96 pounds), and we got a booking the day before. It's also right across the street from the Spitalfields Market, which we didn't go through, but had it been a rainy day, or had we not been in a crowded market the day before, we would have. Instead, we checkout a cute shop on the perimeter of the market called Albam (men's clothing), and got a nice coffee at Market Coffee House. Oh, and I almost forgot, we had a nice star sighting at St John--Maggie Smith. 

Love the simplicity of this.

There's no kids menu here, so you need to ask alot of questions to figure out what to order for them. We initially ordered the duck egg with potato, but it turned out to have too much horseradish in it. They loved this Middle White Faggot & White Beans (faggot is a meatball that is made with offal).

The duck egg that was unsuccessful for them, but very successful for us.

Celery Hearts and Crozier Blue. Delicious.

Foie Gras and Duck Liver Toast

Spitalfields Market

Albam the men's shop

Christ Church from 1729, across from Spitalfields.

Inside the Market Coffee House, which looked like they had nice pub food and desserts, but the wait for the coffee was forever. It's good to build wait time into your expectations when you are out and about on the weekend.