Before winter: Remembering my favourite season... about to end

 I realise we are now deeply entered in the Autumn.

It used to be my favourite season, but over the past 4 years, and especially because I lived in America and in Africa, Spring has taken my heart.

Being in London now, my so-loved city, I have found a new ideal, that I already experienced as a bliss in the mid-1990 in Paris, as a teenager, it is the Indian Summer.

Before we completely get out of it, here is an ode to my very special time-of -year. It comes from a column I started in a magazine called Metropolitan and distributed in the Eurostar trains between Britain and the continent. 

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London’s September is the new summer

I remember that from childhood, in Paris, September has always been the month when everything starts again. C’est la “Rentrée”. After a summer of holidays, closed shops, and the end of the season for most opera houses, theatres and museums, September brings a strange but intense renewal and everything starts again like most people are waking up from a long sleep.

Of course, London never sleeps, and especially not in the summer. On the contrary, in July and August, I find that the main cultural institutions rival to bring the best exhibits, concerts and attractions to the British audience as well as to the growing number of tourists coming from all over the world. Most Londoners remain in town during this time, working no less than in June or in January. The streets of the City are not emptier because it’s getting hot, on the contrary.

So when September comes, there’s not much to start again! There’s no “rentrée” in the UK. But there is this very special feeling of the late summer, the Indian summer, where the sun shines for sure and the air is soft and yellow. And then, finally, despite all its business and New-York-like activity, London allows itself to slow down a little. Dwellers take time to have late dinners on the newly arrived outdoor terraces, museums have a break between their summer hit exhibitions and their big plans for the fall. And the travellers book online a cheap last minute holiday package… 

In London, September fells to me like a last minute French summer. In France, September was my favourite time of year for its energy and feeling of renewal. In London, this feeling is there all year, September is just a rare time to escape… and feel the heat.