Mme et M Benaut à Londres. Pt.2

Right!
While the lovely Mme and MB frolic in beautiful Paris with M.Eric, we shall continue our four day post of their London adventures.

First up, let's head across the city to the charming Bloomsbury area - home to Virginia Woolf and her chums - where we shall find street after street of elegant Regency mansions and …

… er … The Imperial Hotel.
In its defence, it was built on a bombed out area of Russell Square, but MB and myself (fellow Architects) did have to chuckle at the sheer 1960's Las Vegas awfulness of it.

Having said that, it is much nicer inside and the Benaut's room on the fifth floor boasted amazing views over central London, including - just across Russell Square - the magnificent roof of the British Museum, where we shall be heading in a little while.

I arrived a few minutes early and had barely settled in to the astonishingly comfortable leather sofa when into the foyer strolled our hero, the unmistakable figure of Monsieur B. himself!
Yaaaaay!
Hugs and grins all round.
The one thing you'll notice when you get to meet Mme and MB is a wonderful, warm-hearted openness that makes you feel you've been lifelong friends.

We headed up to their room for many more hugs with Mme (something I miss already … hee hee) and planned our day like overexcited children.

I must apologise for posting this shot (yeah, right) … Mme said "I think my eyes were closed on that one", but the piddly little screen on the back of my crappy camera made it look like they were open. It was only when I got home and launched Photoshop that I noticed both Mme and MB were snatching a brief nap.
I know I'm dull company, but sheesh! We'd only met five minutes ago and already they were asleep.

And so we wandered across the square to the magnificent British Museum, one of my favourite London hang-outs (hey, it's free and a truly awesome place to watch the girls go by).
The first thing anybody does when they walk into the central atrium is look up. I've posted many photos of the roof, so you all know how spiffy it is.
Of course, MB and I immediately got stuck into the technical side of the construction … Boys, huh … We grow old but we never grow up.

We didn't have much time so we whizzed around a few of the more spectacular rooms in the BM.
Everybody wants to see the Rosetta Stone and the Benauts are no exception.

I've seen it so many times I snuck around the back, where nobody bothers to go.
Through the glass you can see Mme and MB photographing the front.

And here they are again. The scrummage around the Stone makes it impossible to photograph properly unless you come here in winter.
Of course, being as tall as MB is an advantage.

Now THIS would look FABULOUS in Mme's beautiful garden!
We couldn't quite fit it in our pockets but it would have been great for the cats and koalas to play on.

Elgin and his thieving cronies made Lara Croft look like a rank amateur.
Tomb Raider? Pah!
Hell, let's steal the entire temple!

MB's an Architect. I can quite imagine a replica of this appearing as a quaint folly in their Adelaide garden one day.

Ah, one for Lynn … The "Cheltenham Ladies" caryatid, with The Adelaide Lady outshining it.

To my eternal guilt I am afraid I rather walked Mme's feet off. Doing London in an afternoon is a mad dash and we covered more miles than was strictly necessary.
I grovel abjectly at your feet in humble apology, Mme.

But at least we found a nice chair in the Elgin Marbles room so Mme could rest for a minute while MB and myself tore around the place, taking photos of anything and everything (note his "action photographer" pose. Hee hee).
When MB unloads his camera in Adelaide there will be many, many more photos of all this. I'm assuming you've all seen the marbles so I'm just photographing Mme and MB, but if you want to dig in my archives (the London label might be a good place to start) there are dozens of British Museum photos in there, though you may have to dig deep.

I was trying to get this lady scratching MB's head, but it came out that he's resting his cheek upon her rather lovely bosom.
And who can blame him?

While Mme checks out the café below us, MB does the Architect pose, with a beautiful neoclassical pediment, Ionic columns and that glorious modern roof.

Before we dashed off to our next destination we simply had to hunt through the hundreds of mummies to find these babies for Sascha and the tribe back in Adelaide.
Mummified cats! Cool!
You'll notice I am on my best behaviour and there are no pussy jokes … er .

One last shot of that fabulous roof and that equally fabulous MB.

Where are we heading tomorrow?
Tune in to find out.