Day 12- Monday 7 June

So today was Montmartre Day [it's a neighborhood], and so that's where I went [after class. I actually got a new one today, in addition to the grammar, phonetics, where we spend half the class carefully watching the teacher's lips and the other half in the lab two floors down, where we put on headsets with microphones, repeat what the professor is saying and then listen to ourselves and do it again, only better. So that's rather schmancy, and we didn't get a lot done today because everyone was excited about the headsets, but tomorrow'll be better]. So first I went to the flea market, because I felt like I should, and was wa-ay too uncomfortable [though in a different sitch there were some decent sundress-things which I might get into one day. Basically, picture stalls along streets and packed into a small square, all selling usually a lot of one thing, with a repeating pattern of what is being sold: belts, sunglasses, shoes, dresses, tourist shirts, jewelry, African masks, socks, scarves, jeans, perfume, purses and then it repeats, for maybe three streets and two squares. A lot]. After the flea market, wandered and eventually made it to Sacre Couer from the behind [which was interesting, because it's less cutesy-tourist back there, and there were a whole lot of differently-dressed types of, I don't know, probably ethnic North Africans, and odd food stores half in Arabic and places selling similar clothing and so on].

Forgot to mention: Today was the first truly excellent day we've had yet- cool breeze, mild day in middle seventies [still haven't gone over to Celsius], nice sun with puffball clouds with just the right touch of imminent rain that added drama to the whole setting, and walking between classes I just wanted to run because it was such spectacular alive weather, so of course this was the day I went up Sacre Coeur's dome [which gives you a 50 km radius]. Up there, realized how many churches I still didn't know, so tomorrow is going to be a church day, but I did very easily recognize yesterday's museum, among other prominent buildings, and the view was great, even saw Charles de Gaulle airport because there was zero haze, first time yet. Stayed up there maybe an hour, and it was really great. The people who did the initial walking tour [day three or something] also offered one of Montmartre, so I did that and saw Moulin Rouge, the last real windmill [preserved only because its owners defended it and were hung on it by the invading Germans as examples to the other millers not to try to stop them burning the windmills] and last mini-vineyard in Paris [bottles sold at 3 000 euro each for charity, and reputedly taste awful], a statue of St. Denis [patron saint of France, very cool guy who, after being beheaded, picked up his head, rinsed it off and walked 5 000 paces south-west-ish until falling, and there they built a basilica and have been burying kings for over two millennia, which is craziness], Picasso's restaurant hang out, van Gogh's Parisian residence [actually his brother's], Sacre Coeur again [this time with commentary about the stone, travertine, which, when wet, apparently somehow exudes the grime and pollution it has built up and can be accurately described as self-cleaning. The places that don't get wet stay grimy, aka black, and I got the chance to touch it up on the dome and even chipping with a fingernail it does not come off. Our guide said that at night it makes the building appear to be flattened, since it is pretty much black and white, but even in the daytime some bits of it look more like they're painted than carved out of stone, really odd, but cool], etc. Fair bit of walking up inclines, because Montmartre is a hill, and Sacre Coeur is on top of it [thus the great view], but that meant lots of picturesque staircases and views of the city from the straight streets, all in a really nice day.

Weird stuff in Paris: Can't believe I haven't mentioned this yet- if you need to use the restroom you are doomed, like, in the archaic sense of the word where supernatural forces are working against you. Restaurants hide their restrooms and won't tell you where they are, McDonalds and Starbucks are well-known, easily accessible places, with unsurprising consequences, and there are public toilets but you need a sort of sixth sense to find them, and then there's a 50% chance it's broken, and then there will be a line if it's too near anything major, which it will be, because that's why they're there, but they're still hidden despite that. To Vik and E, who have not been to Europe: they have a grooved metal floor, one metal button, a porcelain throne and the rest is plastic. There are an inordinate number of plastic buttons. A voice will tell you, in French, that if you need help to press a certain button. If you are from Asia you are doomed to rely on your common sense and your continent's push towards minimalistic design. The sink is automated thus: put hand under the soap image, get soap, put hand under faucet image, get water, put hand under difficult to decipher box image and get hot air. Leave with a vague feeling of panic, toilet unflushed, door shuts and inside of plastic public restroom rinses itself entirely, leaving it legally clean and slightly humid, ready to serve the nation.