It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

HELLO EVERYONE!

The end of term is approaching therefore I am really starting to feel festive! As I have said in my previous post, I felt like I had to write a post about Christmas as it's such a big thing in the UK. It is only the 11th December at the time I am writing and I already feel like it's being the Christmas seasons for weeks! There have been Christmas decorations for awhile now and I had my first mulled wine at the beginning of November, something that would never happen in France unfortunately! I am going back to Paris in less than a week and I am really looking forward to see the city decorated for the occasion, as well as all my relatives to properly celebrate Christmas: I have watched Love Actually twice, have bought my Christmas jumper and done all my Christmas shopping so now I'm ready!

There is not much to add to what I have said already but I just wanted to share some pictures of the various Christmas markets I got to visit during my Erasmus year and this year or even cities decorated with Christmas lights so here you go:

CARDIFF

It was my first Christmas market in the UK and I loved it so much! It was also the day of a football match for which Wales was playing so the ambiance in the streets was just amazing!

LONDON

How could I mention the UK without London? Winter Wonderland (pic 1-4) is big and amazing, however, even if I visited it at the end of November, it was O V E R C R O W D E D...! I had to queue 40 minutes to get in but I got to see it in the dark, which was even better since there were Christmas lights everywhere! If you fancy going to a small amusement park and getting some mulled wine and sweets, you should definitely go! (also if you're not broke, it's fairly expensive). The last picture is Harrods, the British Galeries LaFayette! I didn't take any pictures from the inside but it's definitely worth seeing!

I had to take a picture with phone boxes on it #playingtourist

BATH

The last Christmas market I have visited this year: Bath. This city is beautiful during the whole year, but it becomes even more amazing during Christmas time: they make a real effort to decorate everything is unbelieavable, you even have Christmas decorations in the phone boxes! The market is probably one of the most popular in the UK and you can see it by how crowded it is from November onwards!

Fancy going to the North Pole?

BOURNEMOUTH

I went to Bournemouth mid-November to visit my friend Camille (thank you for hosting me again!) and I was pleasantly surprised to see they already had the Christmas market! Unfortunately I didn't get to take many pictures of it as it was raining the whole weekend.

When the pub is also decorated so it makes you feel at home>>>

NORTHAMPTON

I paid a visit to my good friend Julia in Northampton and even if they didn't have a Christmas market, there was still lights everywhere like in this street with a Christmas tree at the end! 

WINCHESTER

Last but not least: Winchester! This city is one of my favourite in the UK so I really love the Christmas market there. It is even better as it is next to the cathedral which I would recommend if you are nearby!

Have you been to many Christmas markets this year?




Julie XX

Museums of London + sorry for the disappearance

Bonjour bonjour!

I hadn't expected to disappear for so long from here but unfortunately I have been quite busy these last few weeks. As I said in my previous post, two friends of mine visited me during the half term break, we went on day trips and to the clubs and we caught up -we had ~banter~ basically- plus my French university finally decided to give me access to my courses so I have a whole month of lessons to catch up. I also need to start my UCAS application to apply for universities next year as I want to do a PGCE in the UK and I've planned quite a few day trips in the following weeks so no time to get bored. The funny thing is that I never have 0 visit on here, I secretly wonder if my mom is coming on here (hello Mom?!)

Anyways! As the title of the article suggests, what I want to do here is to share some museums I would recommend in London (I've told you before my blog wouldn't be exclusively about my job, haven't I?)



As you probably know, most museums in London are amazing... and free! They are so many of them, amongst which you can find:

- the British Museum in central London. If you cannot really decide on what kind of museums you want to visit, I would recommend going there. It's huge - visiting the whole building would take more than a couple of days!- and you can find things from every continent! It is dedicated to human history, art and culture; in fact it is similar to the Louvre if you're familiar with this one (but without Mona Lisa!).
Personal recommendation: Have a look at the Egypt and Ancient Greek sections, I would say they are my favourite

- the National History Museum in South Kensington (a place where you can also find the Victoria and Albert Museum). There you can find specimens from various species in times (yes, they do have dinosaurs!). This museum is brilliant but also looks amazing. I have some pictures from my visit two years ago and I might edit this post so I can share it with you on here. It's a nice place to visit when you do not really want to read long texts and just want to look around.
Personal recommendation: If you spot a school group, avoid the dinosaurs section!

- the Science Museum in South Kensington. I have to admit: science isn't my thing. But I have decided to visit as many museums as possible and be adventurous so since one of my friends wanted to go there, I gave it a go (hello Alice!). Actually I enjoyed it and learned some new things as signs with simplified explanations are displayed (let's ignore the fact that they were for children, okay?) and the vintage cars in there are just amazing (see photos).

The Science Museum

- the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square that I have visited recently. There you can see famous masterpieces from the Renaissance to the 20th century, from Turner to Van Gogh. I enjoyed the paintings but even the building is worth the visit: last time I went I couldn't help staring at the ceilings and the columns!

The National Gallery

There are also museums that aren't free of charge but which are worth visiting. You have probably heard about the Sherlock Holmes museum in Baker Street, I have never been there myself but it''s definitely on my to-do list. However I wanted to mention the Clink Museum. During my year as an Erasmus I would walk past it almost everytime I went to London so last year I decided pay a visit. This museum is a former prison therefore you can learn more about it, its (most of the time innocent) prisoners and what was their life like. Many torture devices are displayed, it seemed funny at first but it gets rather spooky the more you stay in there especially because of the sound effects so beware! 👻

The Clink Museum

📚Funny thing I've heard in the classroom:

"I am not getting married, more money for me since I won't have a wife who will spend my money!"

Do you have any favourite museum in London? Any recommendation? Feel free to share :)

Julie XX