Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Tuesday 20 December - Montmartre and Sacre Coeur

After a lot of rain overnight it was fine and warm today.  We walked over to Montmartre and admired the small parks maintained by the city in this area.  Montmartre was quite busy with tourists and I was disgusted to see a Christmas market right next to Sacre Coeur.  It is even worse because it makes the view of the Eiffel Tower difficult to get to.  Even worse, they were playing carols, loudly and in English.  Is nothing sacred?  It doesn't look as if Sacre Coeur is.

Sacre Coeur is still a beautiful building even though it is surrounded by the worst tourist things imaginable

The Merrygoround at the bottom of the Montmartre hill is normally for paying passengers only but the city has thrown it open for Christmas.
 We went to lunch to Le Miroir on the rue des Martyres.  I had foie gras de canard (as last time) and roast beef stuffed with bacon and mushrooms.  Mary had the roast beef and a gourmet coffee which came with a mini rice pudding.  The Luberon red was excellent.  There were only two servers out front (one told us they were one short) but six people crammed into the very small kitchen.  They were all working like crazy and did very well to produce such excellent food in a reasonable time and at a reasonable price.
A pink tool kit.

Macarons au foie gras, the height of decadence
After lunch we walked through Abbesses, along the rue des Abbesses and down rue Lepic past Le Moulin Rouge.  I went on to rue du Douai to visit the model shops and Mary went straight back to the apartment.  There are now six model shops on rue du Douai, the group of two on the north side has expanded into three.  Lots of interesting items but no bargains.  The model shop on rue d'Amsterdam was also good, but again, no bargains.

Wandering through the Gare St. Lazare I noticed a blazon on a suburban electric set.
Only the SNCF would do this.

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