As I write, the glorious autumn we have been experiencing over the past three or four weeks appears rapidly to be coming to an end. How wonderful it has been though, perhaps the best I can remember in half a century, and almost a compensation (but not quite) for the foul summer. A series of lovely weekends offered ample chance to enjoy the pleasures of Oxford - chief among them crunching through the leaves alongside the Thames in sunny Port Meadow. But I had a welcome opportunity, too, for a splendid mini-holiday in London.

It came courtesy of The Athenaeum Hotel and the Royal Academy of Arts, which are ten minutes apart (at a gentle walking pace) along Piccadilly. During the run of Paul Mellon's Legacy, in the Academy's Sackler Wing (which was reviewed in glowing terms by Theresa Thompson in last week's Weekend), the pair are offering a special deal on a Friday or Saturday night overnight stay for two at the hotel, costing from £225, with a pair of tickets to the show. Rosemarie and I were invited to sample the deal and -it hardly needs to be said - jumped at the opportunity.

Having never previously been aware of the Athenaeum, my first thought was that it must have something to do with the club of the same name. Visions of dozing bishops in wing-back chairs filled my mind. In fact, the hotel is sister to the uber-trendy Grove, in Hertfordshire, and shares its same design director in Martin Hulbert. American actors such as Patrick Swayze, Samuel L.Jackson and Richard Dreyfuss, have stayed there. This possibly accounts for its popularity with ladies who lunch - and, indeed, enjoy tea.

While we were sipping welcoming glasses of Taittinger bubbly, I was fascinated to observe a group of young women further down the room diving into pink champagne, pink cakes, pink everything. All it needed, I felt, was for the shade of Barbara Cartland to take her place as head of the table. Famous for the friendliness of its staff, I was told, the hotel certainly lived up to its reputation during that night's dinner (heavenly saddle of lamb) and at breakfast the following day, when I was delighted to find English kippers among a range of offerings that would not have disgraced a 1930s ocean liner.

In a two-hour 'hit' on the Royal Academy we managed to whizz round not only the Mellon show, but also those devoted to Georg Baselitz and Making History: Antiquities in Britain (1707-2007). I was fascinated by Baselitz's curious propensity for producing upside down portraits. Does he paint them the right way up and then turn them over? (Perhaps Theresa Thompson will tell us in her review on November 23.) Among Mellon's huge collection, I greatly admired Sir Joshua Reynolds's portrait of the coquettish Mrs Abington as Miss Prue in William Congreve's Love for Love.

After the shows, we crossed through Green Park in lovely sunshine, passed Buck House during the Changing of the Guard and headed towards Westminster for an afternoon ride on the London Eye. On this lovely day, the views in all directions were incomparable. The one directly down, though, is not ideal for one such as I with no head for heights. I was rather glad when our 'flight' was over.