SANDRA O'CONNELLbrings this week's update...
Paris may be the city of love, but London has a lot more to do with St Valentine’s Day. For a start, the world’s first known Valentine’s letter was composed there (albeit by a Frenchman). It was written by the duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt.
Indeed, the association of St Valentine with lovers is down to Geoffrey Chaucer, an Englishman (with a French name). It was Chaucer who started the tradition of writing poetry on St Valentine's Day with his work Parliament of Fowles, nominating Valentine as the patron saint of the marriage of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. The patronage stuck, with Valentine having been appropriated by couples ever since, alongside Cupid and Venus, who also feature in Chaucer's work.
Couples looking to celebrate London’s links with lurve this Valentine’s could buy a London Pass, which gives free entry to a range of attractions, from Tower Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
londonpass.com