London

Last night in Nice - a last stroll on the Promenade on a stunningly warm night. Farewell to my dear friend Brucie, the perfect companion on the road. We had a great time together. (click to enlarge)

Nice from the air - you can see just how long the Promenade is, all those people sucking up the southern sun, and on the top right, the peninsula BK and I walked around yesterday. And then ... mountains.

Londres! You can see Tower Bridge if you look hard enough. An easy if cramped flight, a long tube ride into the city, and here, my great luck, Lynn and Denis's son Christopher and his family are away for Easter and have left the keys of their Marylebone flat for me. It's a lovely bright and central place, a true home for five days (after which I move into a hotel for my last two nights). I'm in heaven.

I put on some warmer clothes and went to buy extremely expensive groceries. Guess what was in my basket? British ham, of course. A chunky loaf of wholewheat bread, cheddar cheese, brown British eggs, rhubarb yogurt. When in Rome ...

What a city, so jammed, vibrant, insanely busy and noisy. Tonight, I'm going to stay in and read and mull. Went to the glorious Dault Books on Marylebone High Street, a fabulous old-fashioned bookstore where the salespeople know their books, and bought Lauren Elkin's "La Flaneuse" that I've been wanting to read, about women strolling in cities around the world. And there, on display in a major way, Canadian writer Madeleine Thien's new book. A writer can only dream of a bookstore in London paying that kind of attention. How wonderful for her.

And now, I'm stretched out on Christopher's sofa, listening to church bells and sirens far below, as dusk falls. One week left of my journey. I am full of sights, sounds, feelings ... and tastes.