10-23 Brighton to London

All good things must come to an end, as they say, and our sit in Brighton was now over. The four of us had breakfast together and Graham drove us to the train station where we caught the Gatwick Express to London Victoria. We weren’t feeling ambitious enough to take the tube and then walk, so we got an Uber to our AirBnB. It’s located on Sloane Avenue. If you’re not British, that might not mean much to you, but it’s a ridiculously posh neighborhood and home of the Sloane Rangers. According to Wikipedia, “In the United Kingdom, a Sloane Ranger, or simply a Sloane, is a stereotypical upper-middle or upper-class person, typically although not necessarily a young one, who embodies a very particular upbringing and outlook. The Sloane Ranger style is a uniform, effortless, and unambitious although sophisticated one.” Think of it as sort of the British counterpart of a preppy, but on steroids. The stores in the area run to high end designer fashions, places into which I wouldn’t set foot. There’s a “used clothing and accessories” shop in the neighborhood which was featuring a £1100 Louis Vuitton handbag, a £3200 Gucci clutch and a £7000 Bulgari ring in the window. Used, indeed.

Our little studio flat is pretty tiny, but we’re not spending that much time there, so it’s fine and it has a tiny kitchen and a surprising amount of closet space, so it’s all good. We took a walk around the neighborhood. London roads are twisty-turny affairs so one sometimes turns a corner and discovers a little cluster of stores or restaurants. We found a little cheese store that way. Yup, more English cheese. This time we bought Caerphilly Gorwydd (cow), Berkswell (sheep) and Baron Bigod (cow). We also found a wonderful bakery/patisserie and I bought a Paris Brest pastry. We checked out all the restaurants in the area; we’re definitely spoiled for choice here. We were delighted to learn that right down the block from our flat is Claude Bosi at Bibendum, a restaurant at which we had one the best meals we’ve ever had, back in 2018. We’re sorely tempted to return. Anyway, we decided that we could use some lunch so went out to find a place to eat. We really didn’t want to have a 3-course lunch or to spend a fortune. We walked and walked and found an endless supply of cafes selling croissants and coffee and an equally endless supply of places that were closed.

Finally we ended up on Beauchamp Place. I remembered this street because way back in my 30s I was here on holiday and some British friends and I had made a date to meet on Beecham Place. Well I looked high and low for Beecham Place but never found it. That’s because “Beecham” is the pronunciation. The spelling is “Beauchamp”. But I digress. On Beauchamp Place we decided to try Maroush Lebanese Cuisine.

It’s a pretty cool place. In order to get to the dining room, you have to walk through the kitchen. The aromas were wonderful. The very efficient waitress took our orders and the food arrived in a flash. It wasn’t fancy, well, we didn’t order anything fancy, but it was so good. And very inexpensive. We had shawarma lamb wraps which came to the table wrapped in white paper. The manager

came to the table and unwrapped the top half for us. There were a lot of people in the restaurant speaking Arabic with the manager so I took that as a good sign. I was always told that if you want good Chinese food eat where the Chinese eat, so I assume it’s the same for Lebanese food. Beauchamp Place was a pretty good hike from the flat, so we started to stroll home and Bruce found a pub,

the Bunch of Grapes. I checked out some of the stores on that street then were ready for a bit of a rest. We walked to the flat,

watched a little telly and sampled those lovely English cheeses. I did a little writing then decided I needed a break from my not too comfortable chair, so we had another walkabout in the neighborhood. When we got back we had that wonderful Paris Brest pastry. Nom, nom, nom!