For those interested, a selection of the photos taken during my trip are available on my Flickr.
A collection from the trip overall, including Tokyo, Wales, England and Paris can be found here:
A small selection of photos from the 2009 F1 in Schools World Championships, including pictures of a few of the team booths, can be found here:
The complete collection of my photography so far can also be found here:
To do Paris justice, I thought I should split up my post about it, otherwise there would be just one epic, picture intensive post to take up the whole front page of the blog, and that’s poor blogging form… This is part 1, part deux is to follow.
I’ll dedicate this first post to the pics of Paris I took.
The city of Paris from the Top of the Arc de Triomphe
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The Eiffel tower, during the day and at night.
Notre Dame Cathedral
The Louvre
The Rose Line aka the Paris Meridian
and… the Arc de Triomphe itself!
At this very point in time, I am sitting on the Eurostar on my way to Paris! I thought I should take the time to review the London shows that I was able to see during the time I was there.
I was lucky enough to make it to three London musicals, namely The Lion King, Billy Elliot and Oliver! Each of which was fantastic, whilst showing three unique styles of theatre.
The first show we saw, The Lion King, was the one we had purposely picked out as the one we had to see if by chance we were only able to make it to one. Whilst I don’t think I ever watched the Lion King film completely from start to finish, the play almost followed the film script and soundtrack verbatim in parts. The costumes were very innovative, with the performers integrated into the animals they were portraying almost seamlessly.
The style of dance in Billy Elliot was much similar to that in the Lion King, very precise, more concerned with getting even the littlest of movements right. The acting was what you would expect from a drama, matching the original film performance. It was much more intense than either the Lion King or Oliver, particularly towards the close of the first Act when riot police took the stage. It was very powerful.
[Edit: Having watched the film version of Billy Elliot on the plane from London to Tokyo, I am lead to conclude that the play was much better, in terms of delivering the plot and the power of the performances from the actors and dancers, Billy Elliot the stage musical is much an improvement on the film. Un-needed side-plots were ignored and the side stories that had a real emotional effect, such as Billy’s visions of his mother were emphasised].
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Both Billy Elliot and the Lion King worked well with the space they had on the stage, whilst I think they both had a lot of area to work with, it always felt like they were close to the audience. However, that is where Oliver differed. Oliver had a huge, deep stage, which they filled with a huge number of actors and dancers. Where Billy Elliot and the Lion King may have had a maximum of 20 or so actors/dancers on stage at any one time, Oliver would have had what seemed like 50+ at some points, on a stage setup like a massive streetscape.
All three of the plays used an amazing variety of sets and settings, the choreography of the set changes was almost impressive as the actors themselves.
I can’t see how anyone could ever be bored in London, regardless of all the touristy sights around the city, there are so many high quality theatrical shows, I think it would be impossible not to find something entertaining to do on any given night.
Tokyo.Japan
