O Tours de Londres offer French language tours of London. Guest blogger Hugo took an afternoon tour of London and and gives us his thoughts (in French, of course!) below:

“Visitez Londres est une expérience fascinante. En effet, la ville a été le témoin de 21 siècles d’Histoire… Cependant, il est parfois difficile pour de nombreuses personnes non anglophones de réellement comprendre et découvrir la capitale anglaise. Heureusement, Ô Tours de Londres propose un circuit au bord de la Tamise adapté à tous les francophones.

“Pendant près de 2h30, vous marcherez de la Tour de Londres jusqu’à la Cathédrale St Paul en passant notamment par le Tower Bridge. Sur le trajet se succèdent d’incontournables monuments comme la Cathédrale Southwark miraculeusement conservée, le Shakespeare Globe Theatre ou encore les ruines du Palais de Winchester… Vous découvrirez aussi l’incroyable histoire du London Bridge, l’unique pont de Londres pendant près de 18 siècles…

“Au total, cette balade guidée comporte 13 arrêts qui vous permettront de découvrir des lieux mythiques de l’Histoire de Londres.

“Les guides compétents, dynamiques et disponibles vous dévoileront, de façon simple et claire, récits et anecdotes. Ils partageront avec vous les secrets des rues Londoniennes et de la Tamise et vous emmèneront sur les pas de Guillaume le Conquérant, Henri VIII, William Shakespeare ou encore Charles Dickens.

“C’est après ce fantastique voyage dans le temps, que vous serez à même de comprendre l’évolution de Londres, de sa mentalité et de ses habitants.

“Accessible à tous, cette balade est proposée à un prix très abordable : 15 £ par personne (17,5 €) (Gratuit pour les enfants de moins de 8 ans). Alors oubliez la barrière de la langue et allez découvrir Londres et son Histoire dans la bonne humeur grâce à Ô Tours de Londres !”

Pour plus d’informations et pour les réservations, n’hésitez pas à consulter le site de Ô Tours de Londres : www.o-toursdelondres.fr

Hugo was a guest of O Tours de Londres.

More London tours

The dungeon has been terrifying visitors in its current location at London Bridge for almost 40 years. But it will close at the end of January and re-open in the underground vaults of County Hall on the South Bank in March.

Owners Merlin Entertainments promise the new dungeon will be “bigger, bolder and better”. Some of the attractions’ favourite characters, including Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper, will be making the move to County Hall. They’ll be joined by new villains, including a murderous Henry VIII “virtually played” by actor Brian Blessed; and gunpowder plotter Guy Fawkes.

Rides at the new London Dungeon will take visitors condemned to execution on a turbulent journey along the Thames; provide a “deadly drop” of three storeys; and a disorientating journey through Bazelgette’s Victorian sewer system.

Fans of The London Dungeon will be pleased to know that the usual band of torturers, plague victims, giant cockroaches and rats will be providing live shows and scares at the new venue.

The London Dungeon, Tooley Street is open until 31 January 2012. The new London Dungeon at County Hall opens 1 March. Prices for the new venue remain same same. Book tickets

Over the last few nights Southbank strollers have been treated to a series of dazzling light displays on seven of London’s most famous bridges.

To celebrate the 50 nights of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the road and pedestrian crossings have been fitted with thousands of LEDs, lasers, and searchlights that bring the bridges to life like never before.

The lights are on from 9.30pm until 5am each night, with special moments at each bridge every hour on the hour.

From east to west, the bridges taking part are:

• Tower Bridge
• London Bridge
• Southwark Bridge
• Millennium Bridge
• Blackfriars Bridge
• Waterloo Bridge
• Golden Jubilee Footbridge

Dazzle: Bridge Illumination runs until 10 September and is part of the Mayor of London Presents series of events.

Have you seen the bridges lit up? Let us know which is your favourite – Millennium and London Bridges are the frontrunners!

This week’s top London video is all about the dramatic new building in London Bridge, called The Shard.

You can see more London videos on our YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/user/VisitLondonVideo

I love this video by two 16-year-old brothers, Tom and Joe, made around London this month. It offers a real snapshot of the city in December 2011: from the Occupy Movement at St Paul’s to the Christmas decorations on Oxford Street, these boys have made a fascinating portrait of one day in our city.

If, one day, they grow bored of the, let’s face it, incredible Lego Action Disaster movies they’re currently making, I’m sure they could move seamlessly into news reportage with the skills they’re showing with this video.

Check out more London videos on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/visitlondonvideo

Have you entered our Only in London Flickr Photo competition yet? Add your London photos to the Visit London Flickr Pool and tag them onlyinlondon2010 and you could win two top price tickets to Jersey Boys and a night for two at the Thistle Marble Arch with a bottle of champagne!

Rominicole entered this stunning photo of London Bridge taken from the Thames path at London Bridge Pier.

I popped down to Potters Field Park this afternoon for the launch of Portavilion – a portable tent that’s coming to an open space in London near you this summer.

Rosy (the ballerina) is the semi-opaque tent’s name. Appropriately, the opening event inside Rosy was a Big Dance performance by the Siobhan Davies Dance Group in association with Sadler’s Wells. (Read about the launch of Big Dance this morning.)

Although the show was aimed at kids aged 3-7, I really enjoyed the 10-minute performance, which incorporated rubber balls, a cello and lots of bouncing and sliding.

To see Rosy for yourself this summer, check out her locations and performance times (you can visit and enter even if nothing’s on) at www.portavilion.com

So far my favourite is the one outside Regis House (opposite Monument Station on the north bank of London Bridge), which is decorated with peacock feathers. There are also silver ones, floral ones and a red bumpy one with tiny elephants inside it (check out the video) dotted around More London.

Which elephants have you seen and where’s your favourite? Don’t forget to add your photos to the Visit London flickrpool and we’ll show them off in a blog post at a later date…

OK, so at over 10 minutes, this is a little longer than most YouTube snippets, but we promise it’s totally worth staying with it. (And it’s Friday – you deserve a little break…)

This remarkable colour film of London was taken in 1927 by pioneering filmmaker Claude Friese-Greene.

We think some of the black-and-white information plates are hilarious!

London’s roads look so wide and empty with the slow, elegant motorcars moving gracefully along them. And there’s a fascinating section that seems to have been filmed right infront of where VL Towers stands in shiny More London today! See if you can spot familiar areas looking drastically different, and let us know what your favourite bits are…

Last night I dressed in a white boiler suit, hard hat and wellies. Accompanied by a scientist, I boarded a dinghy and floated through a dark tunnel lined with 600 silver balloons.

It was all part of Shunt Lounge‘s current installation, Super K Sonic Booooum by Royal College of Art graduate Nelly Ben Hayoun.

Sonic Booooum is a recreation of the Super K underground science centre in Japan, where scientists study tiny particles called neutrinos.

During the boat trip, your on-board expert (a scientist from Imperial College or Queen Mary University) explains the concept of neutrinos, and why they’re important.

And if you want more info, you can pop into one of the “drop in, drop out” lectures, where remarkably friendly scientists tell you more about neutrinos and answer all your questions.

Super K Sonic Booooum is at the Shunt Lounge until Saturday 14 Novmeber.

If you’ve never been to this amazing dark and cavernous venue, make sure you check it out soon, as it’s due to close this weekend.