Paris, Tuesday September 30

Sue Anne began the day with a wander around our neighborhood that culminated in a drawing session in front of a pastry shop. These were always favorite stops on all our visits to European cities, and she captured the offerings at this one for the enjoyment of all.

 

Then it was a great lunch at a Japanese place, one of those non-French establishments along the street that featured in Sunday’s blog. We had to date been pretty much feeding ourselves with food from the store, but this was a genuine sit-down lunch of skewered selections of fish and meat. It was delicious, and it stayed with us all day. In a positive way that is.

First time we’d seen this clever little warning label on a bottle of beer.

Just a couple of blocks away was the Café des Chats (Cat Café). We had just eaten so we didn’t go in, but we did get to see a few of the residents through the front window. The proprietors take in rescue cats, give them a nice home, and invite cat lovers to stop by for a meal in their company. There are strict rules about enticing the cats, feeding the cats, and the like. The cats are in charge, but if they decide that they would like to jump up on your lap and be patted, that’s their prerogative.

Here’s a link to an article about the place.

A few scenes as we walked down the sidewalk to the Métro station

 

Electric car recharging station. We saw quite a few of these around town.

Fancy stove, yours for just over €6000. Original price over €9000!

Then it was onto the Métro and off to Montmartre, in the north of the city. It’s home to Sacré Coeur Cathedral on top of the hill, lots of beautiful views, plenty of tourists, a continuing caution about pickpockets and various scammers, and a consequently high presence of police, and even more heavily armed soldiers in camouflage uniforms.

 

 First you walk up a hill lined with shops. Then you arrive at this first view. There’s still a long way to go.

 But for a spot of fun along the way, check out this double decker carousel off to the left.

 

Remember to turn around and take in the view as you get higher up.

 

 Almost there. You can see the myriad differences in architectural style between this and Notre Dame. No obvious morality lessons here; just magnificence!

But one similarity to Notre Dame is that the singer with the powerful voice we saw there yesterday was here today.

 Tremendous views of the interior!

We obeyed the rules. Most tourists appeared to believe that if they called that thing in their hand a phone, then it was OK. That plus the fact that nobody seemed to be enforcing the rules.

Trust us, it was marvelous inside.

Then down the back side of the hill. Lots of tourist stuff there. Here’s a scene that started out pretty typically.

 Till a wedding couple appeared. The groom was temporarily out of sight, but the bride lingered long enough to become part of the scene.

 

We then walked a couple of doors farther along to a crêpe shop, where we indulged in crêpes avec Grand Marnier. Sticky, but delicious.

Then we continued a bit farther to take in the view of the Lapin Agile (Agile Rabbit) Cabaret, made famous in paintings by Picasso and others and in the more recent Steve Martin play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which depicted fictional meetings between Picasso and Einstein at this location.

To our surprise and puzzlement, this photo shoot was taking place at the time. They captured lots of images of the model walking around with her balloons, but we had no clue as to what the ultimate purpose of those images was going to be.

One more shot of the Sacré Coeur, and it was time to go home. Agenda for the evening was to get ready to take the train to Alsace the next morning.

Come with us to Alsace, tomorrow!