Paul

London, England, United Kingdom

Ah, the perils of ordering coffee when traveling in a foreign country! (Even if they do speak English.) What if you order the wrong thing? What if you screw up your order so badly that they laugh at you? What if you freeze up when the person behind the counter asks you what you want? What if you take so long that the person behind you stabs you in the back with a butter knife? Hey, it could happen.

Actually we loved going to Paul when we were in London. The South Kensington location of this French bakery was across the street from our hotel. Once you get down that “Americano” means “watered-down espresso” and that it's the closest thing to regular coffee, and that “white” means “with milk,” you’re golden, and you won’t look like the obnoxious girl in line behind up one day who ordered a grande skinny decaf latte. Let me tell you how well that went over. Although, I have to admit that I didn’t know the proper term for the pastry my wife kept ordering. She said her grandmother calls it an “elephant ear.” I didn’t find out that the correct term was “palmier” until our last day. I had just been calling it “one of those.”

For some reason, although Paul is a French bakery, I expected English people to be working there. Nope. They were actually French. And it didn’t take long to notice that more than half of the people in line were also French. I know this because they spoke French to the French people behind the counter who spoke French back. It wasn’t until about the fourth day of our trip that we noticed that our hotel was next to the French embassy. Keen powers of observation, I tell you.

In any event very much enjoyed our lazy mornings sitting on the sidewalk sipping our coffee and reading the London Times, pretending to be true Londoners, or Parisians as the case may have been. Paul is a chain, and they have locations throughout London.

By the way, I highly recommend our hotel, The Pelham. They have one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever slept in. They give you bottled water every day. The have complementary copies of the London Times. And heated towel racks (!).