Revenge of Les Random Shoes

This is another one of my delayed entires.

I should have posted this at least a week back, but due to my vertigo attack, I was unable to finish writing it.
Here it is at last.

Here is the list of my week:

23rd June - BONHAMS AUCTION

24th June - CARDIFF TOUR

26th June - LONDON TOUR

27th June - SIX COAT (Cloth Ears)

Today les boot was on the other foot, so to speak.

Back in March I went on a day trip to Paris to see the locations used in City Of Death. This weekend I returned the favour and gave a guided tour of London to Jonathan, the tour guide I had in Paris. All this ironically only two days after attending a guide tour of Cardiff myself!

I had organized a two-day tour back in February for my friend Bob Mitsch while he was over here for the Time Quest 2 event, so I have a good idea of where to go and what to see, though I have a couple of special requests to include as well.

Now, as much as I’m pleased to see Jonathan again, today wasn’t really the best day to choose for this by any means: I have had a manic week which included a Bonhams Auction, a trip to Cardiff, as well as my birthday! - AND tonight it’s Matt Smith’s season finale - and I’m afraid I fully intend to be home for that regardless!

Anyway, Jonathan and his brother had bought their EuroStar tickets before telling me the date, and since they are non-refundable and non-transferable, the day will have to happen as they need, though not as long as planned and I will have to head home by 5pm in time for the episode.

I met them bright and early off the 8:30 train at St Pancras, which was thankfully on time. Our day was pretty packed, so we heading straight off for our first location: an old traditional greasy spoon cafe on the Farringdon Road. So what Doctor Who story was this in?

Well, none actually, but one thing on Jonathan’s checklist was to have a typical English breakfast, which he thought was beans on toast. Now I’ve never had that as a breakfast myself (maybe an afternoon filler or a lazy dinner), and I know of no-one does.
So we had a full English breakfast instead – a real artery-clogger (see left)!

From here we walked to St martin Le Grand, to see the first of the two surviving original period Police Posts in London. It hasn’t been in commission for many years, but it’s great that it has been kept as a reminder of times past (see right).

The Pyramids Of Paris

After months of planning and arranging, finally the City Of Death guided tour was ready to make a start!
Jonathan had invited me back in January, and before the end of the month I had bought my tickets.

He had planned the tour out to make sure we visited as many of the locations used as possible.

Count Scarlioni’s Chateau
47 Rue Vieille du Temple

First up was Scarlioni’s Chateau, which is number 47, Rue Ville du Temple, not far from where we had all met up.

As we approached I could see the grey stone walling and the imposing, intricately carved wooden doors. It was certainly one of those locations that looks exactly as it appears on screen, and as big and as impressive as you imagined. (Sometimes a location fails to meet expectation, when you find it faces some unattractive view, or has been made to appear larger by use of wide-angle lenses – or is it just me?)

Jonathan explained that the location is far from what it appears, and is not a chateau, though it is very large. I gather it has at some point been a restaurant.
One thing I was keen to see was the skylight window that often follow an establishing shot of the wall and doors. The doctorwholocations.net website does not show this, and I wondered if it had been filmed elsewhere and its location wasn’t known. But sure enough it was right above the door to the left. It would appear there is a courtyard of some sort behind the doors, around which the house is set.

I took my screen-matching photos and it was a good location for all of us to get the first group shot – and what location to take it!

Les Random Shoes

Well today I am up at the crack of dawn – actually even earlier – it’s 4am!

I am off to Paris for a special one-day event at the invitation of Jonathan Le Targat, who co-runs a French Who fansite called gallifrance.free.fr.

A funny series of events have got me to Paris.

Jonathan contacted back in November to enquire about buying a Seven Hanky. I sent him the details and he was very impressed with what I was doing.
He then said he wanted to ‘partnership’ my hanky with his website – he said his English was not very good – but let’s be fair, his English is much better than my French!

What he was offering was to advertise my hankies on his site so that his members could get access to classic series replica props and costumes. At least, this would happen when the site was revamped and up and running.
Basically, if I could supply some images and a written text about them, he would translate it and add it to the site.

I was more than happy to oblige and received some free publicity in the process.
In return Jonathan wrote a review of the hanky he bought, and you can read that in my Customer Review page.

Then just after the new year he contacted me again, this time talking of giving me a special members card, which would give me access to future paid events for free. I didn’t quite know what he meant, but he was asking for a photograph of myself to go on this card.

I dug out a picture of me at Crich, posing with the original Police Box they have there, and he was most impressed! (see right)
He later explained that I was a special member of their association – I guess a sort of honorary member. I was very flattered.