Paris // Part Two…

Last updated on 24 June 2024

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Sorry for the long gap between Paris posts! Life around here at the moment is chaos! But in a good way. Mostly. It’s sorting, and throwing away, and tidying…all ready for Monday when the packers come and pack away our house. But perhaps more on that later. Now, Paris!

We left off after day one, which was Tuesday. On the Wednesday we spent time in the area where we were staying (Montmartre), and saw the Sacre Coeur and wandered through the streets.

The Sacre Coeur was really amazing. It’s such an incredible building. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside, but it was really beautiful. There were several musicians playing on the steps, and one had a harp, and it was amazing! There was a market at the top, just below the Sacre Coeur, and we bought mulled wine, hot chocolate and hot apple cider to warm us up (it was really cold!).

Funny story: There was a Tunisian potter at the market who had his little stall up and he was making little pots and vases. He sold some big ones that he had already made, but then he was making small ones as people stopped to watch him. I made the mistake of lingering too long, and he asked me what my name was. Because ‘Anjali’ is hard enough to understand in English let alone French or Tunisian, I told him my middle name (Claire). Then he made a little pot thing, wrote my name on one side, then said:

“And what’s your boyfriend’s name?”
I told him I didn’t have one, and he said,
“That’s okay. I’ll put my son’s name on it.”

HA! So funny! Then he handed me the little pot and I looked at it and put it back on the table. He said it was just a donation if I wanted to keep it, so I gave him some coins and carried this little pot around with his son’s name on it for the rest of the afternoon. It was quite amusing! He’s there in the top of this picture:

After the Sacre Coeur we wandered through the streets, peering into shops, stopping to look at market stalls that seemed to pop up out of nowhere, and eventually made our way back to the hotel. We still had a few hours to kill before we had to leave for the airport, so we to a hike through the dodgy streets of Paris to find the Moulin Rouge. And even though we had to look at our feet as we walked past scary adult stores (yeah…you know what I mean), it was totally worth it. I love the movie, so just seeing it because of that was awesome. Unfortunately there were two huge trucks outside it, and then, as you can see here, the building next to it was covered in scaffolding and plastic. Still awesome though! 🙂

And then we headed back to the airport! And that was that! We really needed a much longer time, but considering we were leaving just two weeks after we went, it was pretty good to squeeze that trip in, and I’m very glad that we did. I would have hated myself if I hadn’t made it to Paris before I left this hemisphere.

My favourite part of the trip was probably the padlock love bridge. Yes, I know. That’s ridiculous when there are so many famous landmarks and buildings…but it’s true! You can read about that in the Part One post. I also really liked all the street art, especially in Montmartre. Here’s some of the street art: