My London: Joséphine de La Baume

Taken me on a late-night walk in Hyde Park in winter, at dusk. It felt very mysterious, like a Tim Burton movie and as though we were the only ones left in the park.

What would you recommend for a first date?

Notting Hill Carnival where it’s just about dancing and getting drunk — it would definitely release the pressure. It’s a good test of character. The anti-date basically.

If you could buy any building in London and live there, which would it be?

Tate Britain. It’s got an amazing central entrance with a spiral staircase and beautiful scallop-patterned floors.

Favourite London pub?

The Haggerston in east London. I love the idea of a place where people chill and talk nonsense for hours. In Paris, people sit in cafés all day, so the pub is the closest thing to that here.

Best thing a cabbie has said to you?

One of them told me that he found his wife’s sex toys, which he was confused about as he thought he was a good performer!

If you had to be locked in a building overnight which would it be?

The Natural History Museum. I don’t think I’d be bored for a minute. It’s a childhood fantasy — I was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was younger.

Earliest London memory?

As a kid, I really wanted to meet Mary Poppins. On a trip to the city, my mother stopped the car outside a house in central London and said: ‘This is where Mary Poppins lives.’ We rang the bell and the guy who lived there played along, saying Mary used to live there but moved house. My mother was crying with laughter and promised we would find her new house some day.

Who’s your hero?

Stanley Kubrick. His work is so epic, yet poetic. A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey are favourites.

Biggest extravagance?

Hotels. Once, I lived at the Portobello Hotel with my husband for a month in a room with a round bed and a gold bathtub.

What do you collect?

Old nude photographs from the early 20th century to the 1970s. There’s a photo shop in Paris called Photographie Rue Charlot, which sells vintage anonymous nude pictures.

Best meal in London?

Maggie Jones’s in Kensington for typical English food — it’s cosy and unpretentious with candlelight and great wine.

Best advice you’ve been given?

‘God will forgive you, it’s his job,’ from poet and artist Rene Ricard, whom I knew and loved.

What are you up to at the moment?

Filming Madame with Harvey Keitel and Toni Collette and then I play the great silent actress, Elsie Janis in a movie called The First.

‘Road Games’ premieres on 26 August and is available on demand from 29 August