The Best of France in London with Stephen Bayley

London Festival of Architecture Sky Ride Podcasts

Led by Stephen Bayley, design guru and architecture and design correspondent of The Observer newspaper. He is a former Chief Executive of the Design Museum and in 1989 was awarded France’s top cultural accolade, and made a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Starting with the first ever building-as-an-advertisement – the Michelin Building, then onto Westminster Abbey to see the influence of Reims, Amiens and Chartres. Next stop, the Wallace Collection to view the unsurpassed collection of French furniture and art, and then straight onto Picadilly to see Erno Goldfinger’s homage to Le Corbusier. Jean Cocteau’s murals in the Notre Dame de France at Leicester Place provide a welcome pause and then straight on to the last Huguenot church in London – French Church, Soho Square. Final destination, One New Change in Cheapside by the current french starchitect Jean Nouvel.

Map (PDF)
Photos

http://www.archive.org/download/Lfa2010SkyRidesPodcastSeriesTheBestOfFranceInLondonWithStephen/lfa2010-skyride-stephen-bayley.mp3