Oh no !

Pepette à Glasgow m'apprend ce matin que la célèbre Ashton Lane, la rue piétonne pittoresque dont je parlais ici pas plus tard que le 20 février, a pris feu ce week-end. Le restaurant à consonnance française Cul de Sac est le plus touché, avec le cinéma Grosvenor juste à côté. Le chic restaurant The Ubiquitous Chip, au bout de la rue, a dû être évacué. Le quotidien The Herald en parle ici. Laure, autre Française de Glasgow, donne également des détails sur son blog.

Tout cela est bien triste et rappelle étrangement l'incendie qui a touché le quartier de Camden Market à Londres il y a quinze jours -j'y étais le 12 février.

Je vais peut-être arrêter de parler des endroits que j'aime bien à Glasgow. Je n'ai pas envie de porter la poisse, moi.

Blague à part, je me réjouis qu'il n'y ait pas de victime et j'espère sincèrement que le quartier sera vite sur pied pour accueillir les clients cet été. La ruelle est vraiment à son meilleur quand on peut boire un verre à l'extérieur.

So sad : Ashton Lane, which I mentioned here only last week, has burnt down this weekend. The Cul de Sac restaurant and the Grosvenor cinema are the most badly damaged buildings, and shouldn't reopen for several months.

I might stop talking about my favourite places in Glasgow. I think I'm doomed.

Just kidding. I really hope Ashton Lane will recover soon and will be up and running for the next long summer nights.

Yet an other invention from Dyson

Did you know Dyson made hand dryers ? I discovered this one in an office's bathroom in London. I'm a big fan of Dyson's cool bagless vacuum-cleaners. Their hand dryer is just as powerful with a hot air system strong enough to pull your rings out of your fingers !

Lors de mon passage à Londres, j'ai découvert que Dyson, l'inventeur de l'aspirateur sans sac, faisait aussi des sèche-mains électriques. Il faut glisser ses mimines dans l'appareil, et un souffle puissant se déclenche aussitôt. C'est sûr, c'est efficace, mais attention à ne pas avoir des bagues trop larges, elles peuvent facilement être emportées par l'ouragan de salle de bains !

Dear old Ashton Lane

This picture of Ashton Lane, in the West End of Glasgow, was taken last Christmas on a cold winter day. You have to imagine it on a balmy June night, when there's still daylight at 10 PM and people are out having a drink. If you want to fall in love with the city (and possibly in the city), it's the place to go to.

Cette photo d'Ashton Lane a été prise lors de ma dernière visite à Noël, par une froide journée de décembre. Il faut l'imaginer par une douce soirée de juin, quand il fait encore jour à dix heures du soir et que les gens boivent un verre sur ses pavés. Pour tomber amoureux de la ville (et même dans la ville), il n'y a pas mieux.




In this cobbled street, you'll also find one of the last independent cinemas in Glasgow, the Grosvenor, a pub called Brel, a French-named eatery and a reknowned address for Scottish cooking, The Ubiquitous Chip.

Sur Ashton Lane, on trouve aussi, entre autres, un des derniers cinémas indépendants de Glasgow, le Grosvenor, un pub qui s'appelle Brel, un bistro avec un nom français et une adresse réputée pour la cuisine écossaise, The Ubiquitous Chip.

Paris-London (3)

As much as I enjoy going back to London, I've never found the city very attractive, too big, too polluted, with an anarchic architecture. Yet this time, walking around North London under a gorgeous sun, overhearing French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and even a little bit of English, I realized what a diverse and energetic city it is. But how much money do you need to afford a place like this ?

Bien que j'adore retourner régulièrement à Londres, je n'ai jamais trouvé la ville très séduisante. Trop grande, trop polluée, avec une architecture anarchique. Et pourtant cette fois, en parcourant le nord de la capitale sous un merveilleux soleil, en entendant des conversations en français, espagnol, italien, polonais et même parfois en anglais, j'ai réalisé à quel point cette ville était diverse et vivante. Mais combien coûte un appartement dans un immeuble comme ça ?

Or even this ?

Ou même là ?

Paris-London (2), St Pancras

One of the highlights of travelling to London by Eurostar is discovering the new St Pancras station. It's recently been refurbished at a cost of £ 800 million and it looks stunning with Gothic details and impressive glass panels.



It boasts a monumental sculpture, ideal for arranging meetings but not a landmark of British art (I prefer the similar couple in Buchanan bus station in Glasgow).

St Pancras station is also a massive shopping centre with all sorts of chic boutiques and restaurants, some with a French ring to them.



In St Pancras, you'll also find the longest champagne bar in Europe : 90 metres ! But I heard it doesn't live up to its hype.

St Pancras, la nouvelle gare Eurostar à Londres, vaut le coup d'oeil. Construite en 1868, elle vient d'être rénovée. Les travaux de 800 millions de livres (plus d'un milliard d'euros) ont mis en valeur sa superbe façade gothique et son immense verrière.

Une sculpture monumentale face aux quais sert de point de ralliement mais ne fait pas vraiment honneur à l'art britannique (je préfère celle de la gare routière de Glasgow).

St Pancras est aussi un véritable centre commercial avec toutes sortes de boutiques et de restaurants. On y trouve le plus long bar à champagne du monde (90 mètres) mais j'ai cru comprendre qu'il était assez décevant.

Nessie spotting

The Loch Ness monster has been spotted in the Seine in Paris...

The Scottish tourist board created this hoax to promote Scotland as the setting of the upcoming film The Waterhorse (Le dragon des mers in French), released on Feb. 13th in France. I'm almost tempted to go and see it. Unless Visit Scotland reads this and sends me a couple of tickets... ;-)



Le monstre du loch Ness a été aperçu dans la Seine.

Bon, il n'est pas difficile de voir derrière cette grosse ficelle une campagne de promotion de l'Ecosse à l'occasion de la sortie du film Le dragon des mers. Si Visit Scotland lit ces lignes et souhaite m'envoyer quelques places, qu'il n'hésite pas... (vénale, moi ?)

A suivre : la suite de ma visite à Londres. Ensuite, je reviens à Glasgow que j'ai un peu délaissé ces derniers temps.

Paris-London (1), Camden

Demolition work has started in Camden Market in London, to get rid of the buildings damaged by Saturday's fire. I was close to the site yesterday and I took a few pictures -along with dozens of onlookers.

Les pelleteuses sont en action à Camden Market, à Londres, où un gigantesque incendie a eu lieu ce week-end. De passage dans la capitale britannique hier, j'ai pris quelques photos du quartier bouclé par la police.

A large part of the market is still open for business however. A lot of people were eating outside along the canal on this gorgeous sunny day.

Une large section reste cependant ouverte au public. De nombreux passants en profitaient, attirés par le temps printanier.

It was all a dream

So, it seems that rescue teams overreacted slightly with the evacuation of a North Sea oil platform yesterday. Apparently, it was a false alarm triggered by the account of a bad dream involving a bomb on the platform. Next thing 500 people were being evacuated by the RAF. It was the biggest emergency operation in the North Sea and probably a testimony of the efficiency of the security procedures. Let's just hope they'll be as reactive next time a (real) threat occurs.

In Camden, streets could be closed for up to four days as shop owners are assessing the damage caused by last weekend's dramatic fire.

As for St Kilda, rats seem to have kept clear of the fragile island. There were fears that they might invade the World heritage site after a boat crashed on its shore. Rat traps have been put in place but there's been no sight of the parasite. So far, so good.

Plus de peur que de mal en mer du Nord, où l'alerte à la bombe ayant entraîné une opération d'évacuation sans précédent sur une plateforme pétrolière hier s'est révélée sans fondement. C'est en fait un rêve, raconté par une employée, qui de fil en aiguille aurait entraîné la décision d'appeler les secours. Oups !

Dans le quartier de Camden à Londres, plusieurs rues devraient rester fermées au moins quatre jours après le gigantesque incendie de ce week-end. Snif !

Quant à la pauvre île de St Kilda, menacée par une invasion de rats après le naufrage d'un bateau sur ses côtes, elle semble désormais hors de danger. Ouf !

Freaky news north and south of the border

The UK is in the news today.

In the North Sea, 170 miles off Aberdeen, an oil platform is being evacuated as I write following a security alert. 500 workers are to be airlifted and investigators have still to discover if there is an explosive device on board the Safe Scandinavia platform. It is believed the alert is not related to a terrorist incident.

In London, clean-up is under way in the site of the famous Camden Market, destroyed by a massive fire that broke out at 7PM last night and raged for hours. Camden Market is a landmark of the British capital with hundreds of stalls selling knick-knacks (see Blue's post of a few weeks ago). It also housed a trendy bar haunted by celebrities such as Amy Winehouse, the Hawley Arms, which is feared to have disparreared in the blaze.

I happen to be going to London on Tuesday but I might not be able to pay homage to Camden market -where I used to hang out when I was a good deal younger- as the area has been blocked off by the police. Fortunately no one was injured.

Meanwhile in Paris, it's springtime !

Le Royaume-Uni fait la une aujourd'hui.

En mer du Nord, une plateforme pétrolière au large d'Aberdeen est en train d'être évacuée à la suite d'une alerte, qui ne semble pas liée à un acte terroriste. Ce sont tout de même environ 500 employés qui doivent être mis à l'abri par la Royal Air Force et les enquêteurs doivent encore déterminer la nature de "l'engin" à l'origine de l'appel d'urgence.

A Londres, un gigantesque incendie a détruit le célèbre quartier de Camden Market, ses boutiques baba cools et son pub rendu célèbre par Amy Winehouse, le Hawley Arms. J'ai traîné mes guêtres parmi ses étals il y a bien des années et j'y aurais bien fait un tour lors de mon passage à Londres mardi prochain mais le quartier est bouclé. Heureusement, il n'y a pas de victime.

Pendant ce temps, c'est le printemps à Paris.

Coincidence round the corner

Le kiosque à journaux en bas de chez moi a affiché les unes de deux magazines de la semaine. L'effet est cocasse. Une chose est sûre : l'état de grâce est bien fini.

The frontpages of two magazines are displayed on my local newsagent. "What's going wrong ? " says the first. "Disappointment" says the other with a similar-looking picture of French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

St Kilda under threat

Terrible news at the front page of The Scotsman this weekend :

"URGENT action was being taken last night to protect the fragile environment of St Kilda – Britain's first World Heritage Site – amid fears that rats could leap ashore from a stricken fishing boat."

St Kilda is a remote archipelago of rocky isles in the Outer Hebrides. It was populated by a small fishing community until the authorities decided to evacuate it in 1930. I first heard about the fate of this forgotten population in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. I find it fascinating that in 20th century's Europe you could still find islanders living in almost total isolation.

Today, St Kilda is a National Nature Reserve and home to numerous seabird colonies. Visitors have to land by dinghy to avoid the risk of rats reaching the island. Hence the worry surrounding the fishing boat that crashed on the rocks. Rodents could decimate the island's seabird population.

As if there were not enough depressing news as it were.

Photos : ScottUHI, ccmbarnett, CaileanMac, Islãndßoy

L'archipel de St Kilda, tout là-haut au large de l'Ecosse, est menacé par une invasion de rats après qu'un bateau de pêche s'est échoué sur ses côtes pendant la récente tempête qui a frappé le Royaume-Uni. St Kilda, habité jusqu'en 1930, abrite aujourd'hui une réserve naturelle d'oiseaux marins. Les visiteurs doivent accoster par canots pneumatiques pour éviter, justement, l'introduction de rats sur l'île, car ils pourraient décimer les espèces protégées.

On peut en apprendre plus sur le destin étonnant de St Kilda au musée de Kelvingrove à Glasgow, qui lui consacre une intéressante exposition.

Making up for lost time

Je l'avoue, je n'ai pas été très assidue sur ce blog ces derniers jours. Ce ne sont pas quelques photos de restaurants qui vont donner le change (quoique, ils sont vraiment bien, allez-y). Non, vraiment, j'avais la tête ailleurs. Et pourtant, l'actualité me ramenait souvent de l'autre côté de la Manche.

Prenez l'affaire de la Société Générale par exemple. C'est notre Northern Rock à nous ! Puissance dix, même. Pensez -5 milliards d'euros engloutis par un seul homme. Plus fort que Nick Leeson ! (Je sais, c'est plus compliqué que ça. Je suis bien placée pour le savoir, j'ai bossé dessus. Je ne suis pas mouillée dans le scandale, je vous rassure. C'est simplement mon boulot de suivre ce genre d'info. Pour connaître les derniers développements de l'affaire, je vous renvoie aux sites d'actualité). Au moins, au contraire de Northern Rock, on n'a pas vu des files de clients affolés faire la queue devant les agences. Pas encore...

Que lis-je dans mes journaux écossais préférés ? Des conditions climatiques désastreuses sur tout le pays, un navire en perdition au large de St Kilda. Et moi qui ai prévu de passer mes vacances d'été dans les Hébrides ! Blague à part, j'espère que mes amies blogueuses écossaises n'ont pas trop souffert.

Photo : ArjunaWeeping

Et puis n'oublions pas, demain, Ecosse-France à Murrayfield, pour le tournoi des Six Nations de rugby. Pitié, Messieurs les joueurs écossais, faites bonne figure ! Que je n'ai pas encore droit aux sarcasmes lundi matin au bureau !

[Edit dimanche soir : encore raté.]

The Société Générale story is our very own Northern Rock-meets-Nick Leeson scandal. It's kept me on tenterhooks for the last ten days.

Scotland, like the rest of the British isles, has been hit by gale force winds. I hope all my Scottish fellow bloggers are safe and sound. I also hope the weather will be better for my summer holidays in the Hebrides.

Tomorrow, France meets Scotland at Murrayfield for the Six-Nation rugby tournament. Please, please, please, dear Scottish players, don't make fools of yourselves ! Or I'll be jeered at in the office on Monday.

[Edit on Sunday evening : more jeering and sneering are to be expected tomorrow at the office.]

P.S. Do you imagine Gordon Brown cavorting with a former model turned singer ? Me neither. In France, it's possible.

The unmissable Oran Mor

Je poursuis ma visite du West End de Glasgow avec une halte à l'Oran Mor, le bar à la mode sur Byres Road. Enfin, quand je dis le bar, c'est aussi un restaurant, une salle de concert, un lieu privilégié pour les fêtes d'anniversaire, mariages, office parties... Le tout dans une ancienne église. Ce n'est pas à Paris qu'on verrait ça.

Oran Mor on Byres Road is the most popular venue in Glasgow. It's a bar, restaurant, club, concert hall... housed in a former church. V. impressive.

Stravaigin²

In my previous post, I recommended Stravaigin, a restaurant on Gibson Street, in the West End of Glasgow. You may also like to try its "subsidiary" on Ruthven Lane, off Byres Road. It's charming and picturesque, although it was closed on Boxing Day when I passed it last December.

Si vous avez aimé le haggis de Stravaigin, comme je vous l'ai recommandé dans mon post précédent, vous pouvez essayer son petit frère Stravaigin², dans Ruthven Lane, une ruelle donnant sur Byres Road. C'est pittoresque et charmant, avec ses murs de briques peints en blanc.

Tasty haggis at Stravaigin

The French purse their lips when they hear the word haggis, which for them translates as "panse de brebis farcie" or stuffed sheep's stomach. It's a bit of a cheek when you think they can eat snails or frog legs and still consider themselves gourmets.

Anyway, I hadn't had haggis for ages until I ordered the Scottish delicacy on my last visit to Scotland last December. It was no ordinary haggis mind, but the award-winning recipe served in the hip Glasgow West End restaurant Stravaigin. There's more to haggis than tripes bundled in a casing. It's like a very spicy black pudding, served with locally-grown neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes). You also get a vegetarian version with plenty of oats.

The best time to taste haggis is probably on Burns nights, the celebration of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns on January 25th. Stravaigin holds a Burns night on Thursday 24th January with "piper, orator, live ceilidh music" not to forget the "obligatory dram of Inverarity whisky". Check it out !

Pour les Français, le mot haggis évoque un plat de tripes servi dans une panse de brebis. Mais c'est bien plus sophistiqué que cela. Surtout au restaurant Stravaigin de Glasgow, qui le cuisine comme un boudin très épicé avec une large portion de neeps and tatties, purées de pommes de terre et de navets. Mais non ce n'est pas dégoûtant, bande de mangeurs de grenouilles !

La meilleure occasion pour apprécier le haggis est la "Burns night", le 25 janvier, une nuit de célébration du poète national écossais Robert Burns. On y déclame des poèmes du barde dans une débauche de victuailles, de whisky et de musique. Vous m'en donnerez des nouvelles.

Apple store in Glasgow

There's a great Apple store in the centre of Glasgow, at the angle of Buchanan Street and Saint Vincent Street (I remember when it was a decoration shop called The Pier). I was never a big fan of the computer company. I find it arrogant, too marketing-driven and the hype surrounding the Ipod is ridiculous given the number of other, cheaper, more powerful MP3 players you could find on the market.

But I have to say the Iphone is amazing. There were several on display in the sleek store and I spent ages flicking through the files, enlarging photos and checking the weather. Shop assistants came asking if I needed help but there was no point : it's dead easy to use, even my 4-year-old son could work it out. I don't intend to buy it or anything, but all other PDAs look outdated next to it.

Un superbe magasin Apple a ouvert dans le centre de Glasgow l'année dernière. J'y ai passé près d'une heure à tester les iMacs et surtout l'Iphone, incroyablement simple d'utilisation. Il est beaucoup trop cher, mais tous les autres assistants personnels ont l'air ringards à côté. Et pourtant, je ne suis pas fan d'Apple !

Another gem from Ian Rankin

Santa Claus was very generous with me this Christmas. As well as the aforementioned designer chocolates, earrings, a necklace and various other things, he brought me the latest Ian Rankin's novel, Exit Music (Orion Books). Ian Rankin is well-known for his crime stories set in Edinburgh, among them The Naming of the Dead, A Question of Blood, Set in Darkness, Dead Souls... It all sounds very gloomy, but don't give up just yet.

His main character is Inspector John Rebus, a rebellious cop with a no-nonsense approach to Scottish politics. His team-mate is Detective Siobhan Clarke, an English "expatriate" who thinks better of having an affair with him, despite their mutual attraction. Rebus's arch rival is gangster Big Ger Cafferty.

They all appear in the latest opus, but the best thing about the book is the political background (the story takes place in November 2006, in the run-up to the Scottish elections which the Scottish National Party went on to win). As the investigation on two murders unfolds, you read about the smoking ban, the obsession with security cameras, the baffling architecture of the Scottish parliament, the prospect of independence and the arrival of Russian investors in Scotland. The style is fluid, ladden with colloquialisms ("I used to go to the kirk", "Oh aye ?") and references to Scottish artists (Bert Jansch, John Martyn, Douglas Gordon)...

I might as well quote a few passages. If you want to know more about today's Scotland, it's the page-turner you need.

Page 43 : When smoking had been banned, back in March, Rebus had foreseen disaster for places like the Oxford Bar -traditional pubs catering to basic needs : a pint, a cigarette, horse-racing on TV and a hotline to the local turf accoutant. Yet most of its haunts had survived, albeit with reduced takings. True to form, however, the smokers had formed a stubborn little gang that would congregate outside, trading stories and gossip. Tonight, the talk was the usual mix : someone was giving his views on a recently opened tapas bar, while the woman alongside wanted to know what the quietest time was to visit Ikea ; a pipe-smoker was arguing for full-scale independence, while his English-sounding neighbour teased that the south would be glad of the break-up -"and no bloody alimony !"
"North Sea oil's the only alimony we'll need", the pipe-smoker said.
"It's already running out. Twenty years and you'll be back with the begging-bowl."
"In twenty years we'll be Norway."
"Either that or Albania."
"Thing is", another smoker interrupted, "if Labour lost its Scottish seats at Westminster, it'd never get elected again south of the border."
"Fair point", the Englishman said.
"Just after opening or just before closing?" the woman was asking.
"Bits of squid and tomato", her neighbour stated. "Not bad once you got the taste..."

Page 299 : Tourist were milling around, a few interested in the Parliament building but the majority keener on the Palace of Holyrood across the street. One or two seemed to be puzzling over the vertical bamboo bars across some of the Parliament's windows.
"Join the club", Rebus muttered, stubbing the cigarette and heading inside. As he emptied his pockets and prepared for the metal detector at security, he asked one of the guards about the bamboo.
"Search me", the man said.
"Isn't that supposed to be my line ?" Rebus replied.

Page 300 : Rebus still wasn't sure about this vast, echoing interior. If someone had told him he was in an airport, he might have believed them. He couldn't tell what sort of statement it was supposed to be making. One newspaper report from a few years back had stuck in his mind, the journalist speculating that the building was too elaborate for its actual purpose and was, in fact, "an independent parliament in waiting". Made sense when you remembered that the architect was Catalan.

Si vous voulez en savoir plus sur l'Ecosse actuelle, lisez le dernier roman de Ian Rankin, Exit Music. Cet auteur écossais situe toutes ses enquêtes policières à Edimbourg, avec pour héros l'inspecteur rebelle John Rebus. Dans ce dernier épisode en date, il est question des élections au Parlement écossais (l'histoire se passe quelques mois avant le scrutin de mai 2007), de l'éventuelle indépendance, de l'interdiction de fumer dans les pubs, de l'obsession locale pour les caméras de surveillance, et de l'arrivée en masse des investisseurs russes. Oh, et il y a aussi une enquête sur un double meurtre, mais c'est presque le moins intéressant.

Kshocolât, a different taste of Glasgow

Among the many presents I found under the tree at Christmas, I got a mouth-watering box of rose and violet cream chocolates by cool Scottish brand Kshocolât. I had already heard about this Glasgow-based chocolatier reknowned for its minimalist packagings. I could judge for myself how refined it is. The design is by an other Glaswegian company, Third Eye Design. But it's not just about good looks either. The chocolates beat Thorntons any day.

An other reason to rejoice about Glasgow !

Encore une raison de se réjouir du dynanisme de Glasgow : on y trouve le chocolatier raffiné Kshocolât, vendu dans les épiceries fines du monde entier. Ses packagings minimalistes sont l'oeuvre d'une autre société réputée de Glasgow, l'agence de design Third Eye.

Mais non, on ne trouve pas que des deep fried Mars bars à Glasgow !

Easyjet vs Ryanair : who wins ?

When I visited Scotland over Christmas, it was the first time I travelled with Easyjet. The low cost airlines opened new routes from Paris to Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2007 and I was curious to see how it compared with Ryanair, of which I've been a regular user for ten years.

Photo : magpie1320

Ryanair was a revolution when it started operating to Glasgow Prestwick. First of all, it was so incredibly cheap compared to "full cost" airlines. I rarely paid more than 100 euros return per person. I even travelled free sometimes, they only charged taxes !

Then, as long as you tolerate the bus journey to Beauvais airport (in the early days you had to by the bus ticket at the bar of the James Joyce pub !), the flight is direct. How different from the incredible odysseys I experienced in the pre-Ryanair days : rushing through Brussels massive airport to catch a connection with KLM, travelling on a tiny propellor plane operated by an Air France affiliate, waiting long hours in Birmingham on a British Airways flight.

My best memory was when I wasn't allowed a seat on the Paris to London leg of my trip and I had to sit in the cockpit, between the (very friendly) pilot and copilot ! I'm usually rather fretful during take-off and landing but I really enjoyed it that day.

Anyway, judging from my last experience, I can say that it's very unlikely I'll use Ryanair again. With Easyjet :

-You take off from Charles de Gaulle airport. OK, it's terminal 3, the most inconvenient one. It looks like a warehouse and you have to take a bus to reach the aircraft. But you avoid the shuttle to Beauvais (1h40, 13 euros one way, pictured right).

-There's priority access for families. Ryanair has scrapped this years ago in favour of prebooking on the Internet.

-The flight doesn't sound like a bingo hall with constant invitations to buy a lottery ticket or duty free perfumes. The staff doesn't look bored.

-You arrive at Glasgow Airport (15 minutes from the city centre).

-You can compensate your carbon emissions online at the same time as your booking. For four persons we paid around 10 euros. I'm not entirely sure how the money is spent but it made me feel very righteous all the same.

-It's the same price as Ryanair. Even if you take a taxi to CDG, you save the trip on the bus to Beauvais, so all in all it's probably more economical.

Why bother ? Besides I prefer orange to the blue-yellow Ryanair logo...

Si vous envisagez un prochain séjour à Glasgow ou Edimbourg, un conseil : prenez Easyjet. Pour le même prix que Ryanair, vous évitez le long trajet jusqu'à Beauvais, le personnel est souriant, vous arrivez à Glasgow Airport (à 15 minutes du centre-ville) au lieu de Prestwick (plus d'une heure)... Y a pas photo !