Our last day in Paris

This is the last day in Paris so we are going to do a bit of a “Remembrance of Things Past.”  We walked to the other are of Montmartre where we have spent so many months and had the best coffee in Paris at the cafe, le Nord-Sud adjacent to Jules Joffrin Metro station. The price of the coffee is less than half of what we paid on the Champs des Elysees.

Le NordSud

The warm weather has brought out flowers all over the city and many windows are redolent with flowers reminding one of the Indian summer which is coming to an end.

Flowers

This is a very non-tourist, working-class area, which we know very well and where we  feel comfortable and at home.  We walked on to Monoprix, a large grocery store, the equivalent of Publix  or Food Fair in the United States and Woolworths or Coles in Australia.  Only here can we buy marvellous zip-lock bags with slide closures.  What a funny thing to buy to take back to Australia, but it does make for an interesting answer to the question, “what did you buy while you were in Paris?”

We wandered around old haunts, shops we knew and we chatted to acquaintances before going to the Butte to meet our French friend from Australia for a long, late, leisurely lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, Chez Plumeau.

Chez Plumeau is on the Butte but not in the centre of the tourist area.  We got up to the Butte on the funicular and waited there for our friend.  Just above us loomed the dome of Sacre Coeur and just below us were the peddlers selling outrageous junk for equally outrageous prices to tourists.

Sacre Coeur

Bag and Souvenir Sellers below Save Coeur

Later, in the early evening, we walked through the sleazy sex district of Pigalle.  Furtive middle-aged men were trying to make themselves invisible as they wandered in and out of the sex shows and sex shops.
After an early supper (baguette, pear, Roquefort and wine) we completed our packing for an early departure on the morrow.