1. Abbesses

Our 7.00am arrival at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport ensured we had plenty of rush hour company on our three leg train trip into town. Nonetheless we successfully negotiated our two changes and arrived safely at the Abbesses metro station near our hotel.

After checking in our baggage we repaired to a local cafe to plan the rest of our day over a second breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat.

To start our few days in Paris we elected to explore Abbesses and Montmartre on foot. We spent the day happily wandering cobbled hillside streets in the late summer sunshine. We climbed up to Sacre Coeur with its marvellous view over central Paris, then wound our way down narrow crooked streets offering at least three boulangeries in every block, complemented by epiceries and boucheries and clustered speciality stores.

While we were strolling through an area entirely given over to fabric wholesalers and retailers we were surprised by three gendarmes on bicycles chasing a gaggle of fleeing teenage girls: faire du shoplifting, possiblement? Sadly by the time I had my camera out, the girls had disappeared down an alley, followed closely by their pursuers, arguing heatedly among themselves between blasts on their whistles.

A boulangerie was unavoidable when lunch rolled around, along with the peachiest peach I’ve ever tasted. We ate it in one of the many small neighbourhood parks, which have small areas of grass you can’t play on and large areas of clay where you can. Unaware that things are completely different on the other side of the world – at least when it comes to being on the grass – the children play happily anyway.

Then we walked through the more upmarket end of Montmartre and, when we reached the bottom of the hill, visited one of three historic cemeteries in the area. Star Trek fans will be pleased to learn we now know where to find the Picard family tomb. We encountered more than one reference to Paris’ time under the heel of the Third Reich, with plaques and street names ensuring the era isn’t forgotten.

Richard and I decided to follow our noses in the general direction of Pigalle. When Pigalle declined to appear on the horizon it took us ten minutes to realise just how lost we were, despite having two maps and all Google’s resources at our disposal. Leaving Pigalle for another day we walked slowly back to our hotel and the infinite comfort of a hot shower before setting out in search of dinner.

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