Marylebone and Me

Flat hunting again has made me remember how I really have to appreciate living in the quartier. The chances are that come September I will end up in the less fashionable part of Marylebone (behind Marylebone Station--the gateway to the Big Smoke of my teenage years) or in Fitrovia, which is pretty trendy and has an almost Tribeca-like feel to it, in places, but which still isn't quite as nice a neighbourhood as my current quartier (I wouldn't complain, though, if they decided to make a UK-equivalent of Mad Men set on one of the agencies on Charlotte Street--Charlie's Angels?).

Having been mostly absent from the quartier recently, I decided to dedicate much of the day to giving it some attention, with breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien, a wander through the Wallace Collection and some window shopping at Daunt Books, the Conran Store, Comptoir des Cotonniers and Matches, followed by some Antipodean coffee and a nibble at Providores. The quartier is so eminently wanderable and I keep coming across new shops and cafes like De Gustibus on Blandford Street, which takes me back to my days at the Sandwich Shop of Dreams where De Gustibus were our ciabatta suppliers ("sun-dried tomato, spinach or plain?"). Of course, many other parts of central London are pretty wanderable too, although tend to lead you into grottiness if you wander too long and often lack the simple elegance of Marylebone.

Still, despite the flat hunting, I do have five months left in my current location so I should definitely making the most of having about five top-quality bakeries and patisseries within strolling distance and such an abundance of French shops. In fact, which other part of London would allow me to pretend I do actually live in Paris?