Three Markets and then Montmarte

Last night as we wandered around, Greg took a few more photos of storefronts after they had closed just to see how different they might look. We think we might like some of them better.

That last one is our favorite so far.

Sundays are a big market day in Paris, so we decided to visit some and at the same time, see a different part of the city. Plus Sunday nights many restaurants close so we thought we'd buy some things for dinner too.

But first a few deviations. Our favorite local boulangerie was not just closed but damaged! I don't know if a car ran into the side of it or what happened but part of it is boarded up. Whatever will we do? I guess we'll just have to walk a few more blocks to get our breakfast. Darn. Next we tried to get on a bus to our first stop but there was a sign posted in French that said something about a race being held today and how the bus lines would be affected. A nice woman tried to explain it to us but she just confused us more. So we headed to the Metro and hoped it still worked.

The Rue Mouffetard Market on the Left Bank was where we started. The street is lined with shops and you can buy produce, pastries, breads. It was a nice market, but seemed to be geared mostly towards tourists.

Just around the corner was a market in Place Monge. It was more of a mix of locals and tourists, and had a greater variety of things. Everything looked temptimg, but we just bought some salted almonds.

We decided to try to find the Cremerie in the St Germain area that I photographed our first day here. We kind of remembered where it was, but my CityMapper app remembered our route and we found it without a problem. Unfortunately, it was closed, but even with the panels covering it, it was still interesting.

And along the way, we found a few more we liked including the restaurant where we ate a few nights ago.

Are you bored with store fronts, yet?

It's been several weeks now since we found a Flat White, those wonderful coffee drinks we lived on in London. But we found them today at Costa Coffee. We like their coffee, their WiFi, and their bathrooms. And they're scattered all over London and Paris. We do prefer the local bars for coffee, but sometimes you have to go with what you know. (Rule #1 in Paris: Never pass up a bathroom.)

Next stop was the market on Richard Lenoir close to the Bastille. This market is held every Thursday and Sunday, and it's gigantic! And today it was completely packed with people, almost all of whom were locals. It's easy to spot the best produce stands because that's where the line of Parisian women are standing. We bought some peaches, apricots, and strawberries for breakfast, and then found a roast chicken for our dinner. This has been our standard go-to dinner when we are eating at home. It's easy and it's been consistently good, and it comes with amazing potatoes.

After a few minutes of rest during lunch, we took the metro to the Montmarte area. When I was here years ago, this was the one area where I didn't feel comfortable. My friend and I went to Sacre Coeur, and the area around it just seemed tacky and the shopkeepers were pretty aggressive. But this time, I found it to be a little funky with winding cobblestone streets and interesting cafes and shops. There were a ton of people there milling around, but we followed the crowds and enjoyed the afternoon. Here's a man singing with a dog wrapped around his neck, and sometimes the dog sings along.

OK, NOW are you sick of store fronts?

Everyone seemed to be out in the beautiful weather sitting in cafes, so we decided to join them. We stopped for a Kir. Greg had blueberry and I had raspberry. They taste kind of like fruit punch to me, but they were cold and sweet and tasted really good.

One last store front. This is one that I took because Greg didn't like it. But I thought it was very typical of this crazy area.

A few random observations..

We've had an interesting Metro day. We've been entertained on a couple of our trips. The first was a man who played the accordion for us, and the second was a woman who had a microphone and some kind of battery with a speaker and she sang. Both asked for money which is awkward because they certainly have a captive audience. It didn't look like either of them received much money. We also had four uniformed Metro employees step into our car and ask for our tickets. I thought this was interesting because in the short time we've been here, we've seen several people sneak past the turnstiles. Fortunately, Greg had saved our tickets so I'm not writing this from Metro jail.

We have seen many people asking for money here. It makes me uncomfortable most of the time. But not when we saw a guy who was sitting on the sidewalk with a paper cup attached to a fishing pole, and he was dangling it in front of people as they walked by. That was just bizarre.

I've been trying to wear my FitBit while we're on this trip. When we were in London, we were amazed at how far we walked each day, and now in Paris we find the same thing. Today we walked over 17,000 steps. The hardest steps are the ones at the end of the day up to the 5th floor and our apartment. (The highest score goes to a busy day in London with over 26,000.)

One last thing. This is for you, BB. No wonder you love French food.

Tomorrow... our last full day in Europe. If you're still reading this, thanks for hanging in there.