Our last couple of days in London were good fun.  A lunch at Wiltons in Jermyn Street is like stepping back in time.  Waitresses wear old-fashioned dresses with puff sleeves and tied with bows behind their backs.  The smoked salmon (wild, of course, from Scotland) comes with very thinly sliced brown bread, already buttered.  We go every time we are in London for the express purpose of having a Dover sole.  For someone who is not particularly keen on fish, a Dover sole is perfection - it seems to manage to be delicate and meaty all at the same time.

On Tuesday, Michael's cousins came up from Kent for lunch at Montpeliano restaurant.  Mary, Peter and Michael are all wonderful company, and this is an Italian restaurant that we have always enjoyed - I had a Veal Milanese here that was better than Il Cantinori - which is high praise!

Tuesday evening we went to Covent Garden to see Aida.  Superb singing - virtually every opera/concert we've seen has had its major star cancel, and someone we've never heard of step in - and in every case, the singing has been terrific.  Aida was no exception - no Roberto Alagna, but still a very solid cast, wonderful singing and acting and a terrific orchestra with a great brass section - very important for Aida.

Such a pity that it was spoiled, in part, by gratuitous, and gruesome violence and nudity.  Someone (I assume Director David McVicar) must have decided that human sacrifice would spur things along a bit, and half a dozen blokes wearing nothing but loin cloths were strung up by their wrists, and stabbed energetically by bare-breasted women who proceeded to smear blood all over themselves.  Eeww!  At the end of the act a very toffy English voice behind me murmured "I didn't care for the entrails actually" - my feelings exactly.  It felt like a very cynical decision to create controversy, and sell tickets.
In fact the quality of the performance was so good I'm sure it would have sold out anyway.  We had great seats in the centre of the stalls, and as spectacles go, it didn't disappoint.  No elephants - the traditional triumphal procession had a martial arts demonstration instead.  Amazing costumes, and a lot of dancers as well, so when everyone was on stage it looked very busy indeed.

That was our last night in London - it was certainly unforgettable.

Off to the very flash new St Pancras station next morning to catch the Eurostar to Paris.  Quick, clean, comfortable, we arrived in Paris around lunchtime - beautiful spring weather, and 8 days to anticipate.