Theca Display cabinet

London has often been the focus of a turbulent relationship with the French. The capital of a country that for millennia has invariably been at war with its neighbours on the other side of the Channel, today – thanks for a high-speed rail link via fifty kilometres of undersea tunnel – London has never been closer to the French.

London can be a pretty hectic place. Every day the Tube – the oldest metro system in the world – carries some five million people through tunnels deep underground; busses ferry about the same number through London’s streets. It is a city always on the move, and when you find yourself with some free time, it can be important to take life at a slower pace, though that doesn’t necessarily mean needing to head out of town.