a weekend in early february

Bright and early on Saturday morning, we paid a visit to Ben's shop (newly renamed Pentreath & Hall), where I picked up this charming print of the Houses of Parliament at their one-off crazy sale. In fact I'd had my eye on this since December. How I wish the Thames actually looked like that... Practically Caribbean!

After poached eggs and orange juice at The Delaunay (a favourite spot for breakfast with its remarkable David Collins designed room), we walked over to Lincoln's Inn Fields and dived into the Soane Museum for a quick browse. Always a treat. The rest of the day was spent at home with piles of newspapers, new flowers and many cups of coffee. I usually like to spend half of my weekend days hopping around the city and the rest of time at home, doing not very much at all.

I spent Sunday morning poring over my new book - an original copy of A Village in a Valley by Beverley Nichols from the 1930s, with illustrations by Rex Whistler. I've been reading quite a bit about Nichols recently (take a look here); he was definitely a character. Osbert Sitwell called him ‘the original Bright Young Thing’.

Later on we had lunch (steak frites and red wine) at Hardy's Brasserie on a quiet street in Marylebone - the perfect French bistro of the sort one always hopes to stumble upon in Paris but never actually does...

After lunch we strolled around to the Wallace Collection - one of my top London galleries. French Rococo madness. The fabulous title of this painting caught my eye.