Sacre Coeur, a nice walk and a concert

We are all getting used to staying up late, rising late and being lazy in general.  Today was no exception. 

A part of our routine any time we come into or leave the apartment is for Sullivan to look for the "little kitties".  There are at least two somewhat scrawny cats living in the hallways of our building.  They crave all the attention we will give them.  Sullivan loves them dearly and often pretends that he is a kitty or a puppy which makes for even dirtier knees.  Today we spent five minutes trying to figure out how this cat got up to the high perch he was on.

A quick metro ride up on line 4 to Sacre Coeur Basilica, in the neighborhood of Montmartre, the highest in Paris.  This church was only consecrated after the first world war and is more revered by tourists than by the Parisians.  Apparently it's not old or ornate enough.  It is interesting, however, as it is way up on top of a big hill that can be reached by a funicular train, as was our method of choice.  Also, the interior decorations are all mosaic tiles (and lovely ones at that) and not painted.  We took a lap through the interior and made a modest donation towards the restoration of the grand organ.  It's ironic that the surrounding neighborhood is most famous for the Moulin Rouge cabaret and continues to house Paris' red light district.

We ate our baguette and thon catalon (tuna in a can with tasty Catalian red sauce) in a cute nearby park with a great view and a large pigeon house.  There were plenty of pigeons.   I was most happy that no fingers were sliced today during lunch.  

Montmartre is renowned for its street performers and this guy was the best we saw.  A soccer ball juggler, he did his act of juggling a ball with his feet and head on a pedestal over a big 20 foot drop off.  Then, while kicking the ball with his feet he shimmied up this light post.  This guy was good.

There seemed to be a lot of guys just standing around.  Hanging out on a nice Sunday afternoon?  Waiting to pick pockets?  Something else?  We also saw a handful of soldiers armed with machine guns walking around.  On our way out, there were about 10 police vans full of officers pulling up at the bottom of the hill.  A protest?  Something more sinister?  We decided it might be a good time to leave.

Which reminds me:  we were very happy to have left England a couple of days before all of the rioting started.  You'd think that western Europe is a pretty safe place to travel with the family and I never would have imagined a big public safety issue in London.  I think that our kids' memories of this trip and impressions of traveling abroad might have been quite different had the riots occurred while we were still in London.

Our walk back south took us through some new (to us) neighborhoods that aren't as glamorous as the main tourist areas.  Lots of shops for wedding gowns and suits (costumes) and wedding planning.  Several temp agencies offering a sundry of jobs.  Check cashing businesses.  Several homeless folks on the streets.  Pockets of what appeared to be African, middle eastern and Asian immigrant neighborhoods.  I can only dream about eating my way through the restaurants but am reminded of hard times for many here as well.  We are fortunate indeed.

We made our way a mile and half or so back to the Eglise St. Merri for a 4 pm (free) classical music concert, as is held on most Sundays.  This afternoon was an impressive pianist who played five pieces from what we think were all French composers, all in this 500 year old cathedral.  Sully slept almost the entire time, M&H did some drawing, became bored and then finished with Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone.  Although we repeatedly had asked them to not talk at all, their excitement earned them one set of "stink eyes" from the couple in front of them who turned around when they were whispering.  Overall they did very well for an hour and a half.  Erica and I enjoyed the entire scene tremendously.

Post-concert reward was a leisurely drink and some ice cream at a cafe nearby.  Here Sully tries an olive with the Beauborg modern art museum in the background.  More interesting street performers.  My personal highlights were a 60ish year old ballet dancer (only received a few coins which seemed about right--it was just bizarre), an energetic group of young capoeira martial artists and a ball manipulator who was pretty good.

Quick stop at Paris Plage again, with a trip through the misting machines.  Here are our "old people" with their gray hair.  Dinner, skype calls with our folks and voila--another day is gone.  Tomorrow we plan to return to the Bois de Vincennes to the adventure park for some high ropes and zip lines.  Until then.  .  .