Day 4: Monday 31 March 2014

After my petite dejeuner (breakfast) of orange juice, coffee, bread & croissant I walked to Notre Dame cathedral.  Still one of my favourite parts of Paris.  Very busy there lots of tourists and school groups.  As I was walking around I could hear a choir practicing.  It turns out it was a college choir from England and they were about to perform a short concert in the cathedral, so I sat down for half an hour or so and enjoyed the music and the ambience.

Choir in Notre Dame Cathedral

After that I caught a train to Montmarte and Sacre Coeure.  Sacre Coeure is the big white church on the hill of Montmarte and overlooks all of Paris.   I was standing looking across the vista that is Paris enjoying all that Paris has to offer in the springtime; beautiful weather, great view across the city, man playing the harp nearby and a police officer chasing a black man.  It appears the black guy was one of the blokes selling cheap souvenirs near the church, something happened (I don't know what) and he is being chased by a white man.  There is a bit of a scuffle and the black guy drops his bag of cheap souvenirs and he is off.......  Then a policeman takes off after him but has no chance of catching him.  So I still don't really know what it was all about but it was exciting anyway.

View of Paris from Sacre Coeur

After that I decided that I would walk down the hill to the big department store, Galleries Lafayette.  This walk takes me past numerous sex shops, the seedier parts of the Pigalle and the cabaret Moulin Rouge.  Once I arrive at Galleries Lafayette I decide that a drink and lunch are the go and head for the rooftop bar, alas the rooftop bar is no more, so I had to settle for a champagne and roll in the champagne lounge.....its a hard life!

For dinner I went to a restaurant near the hotel.  The restaurant is called Le Bastide Odeon and is supposed to cook in the style of and using the produce of the south of France.  This is the first proper restaurant I have been to so far, as in it isn't a café, bistro or brasserie.  Naturally I started with a Kir Royale (champagne & cassis), for entrée I had smoked salmon on a bed of potato salad with mayonnaise and served warm.  For my main course I had roast chicken with sauted potatoes with lots of garlic accompanied by a white wine from the south of France.  All in all very delicious and served by a couple of young very thin French waiters wearing tight suits.  I think tight suits might be the current fashion for a certain group of young men in Paris.

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