First Visit to Monmartre

On Wednesday I rode the metro all by myself (actually very easy) to visit my new friend Will in Monmartre, where she has lived for 35 years. Will lives in a tiny apartment - made me feel very spoiled - and I was amazed at the number of beautiful quilts she has stored there. She kept pulling out boxes of finished quilts as well as tops - it was a wonderful show and tell and we didn't even make it through all of them.

Will is going to start her own blog maybe next month, so you'll be able to see all her lovely quilts there. But here is a preview, a Courthouse Steps in rich browns, maroons, greens with a hint of blue. (Yes, she's a fan of antique quilts and repro fabric.)


Monmartre is built on a hill, so you get great views down to the rest of Paris, which was once again very gray. There were hoardes of tourists, but I managed some pics without them. I have to admit I was feeling a touch superior - there I was with my own marvelous personal tour guide AND I can come back on a beautiful sunny day for better pics.

Why is it I love to take photos very close to buildings looking up? Here is the front of the Sacred Heart Basilica, which I think is located on the highest point in Monmartre.

Vandals have splattered it with red paint, but it doesn't show up too much in this pic:

I was thrilled to find gargoyles:

To clear up a point from a previous post, since my husband works for the State Dept we get U.S. mail delivered here, tho it is much slower. That's why we continue to get Netflix but without the two day turnaround. More like a two week turnaround. I want my next Freaks and Geeks now, not to mention the next discs of Stargate Atlantis and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. That last is a much see for anyone who enjoyed his Cook's Tour. It's more of the same, only longer and more graphic - it shows the actually killing of a pig for instance. Sometimes I don't want to know where my food comes from - it should just be nicely packaged in styrofoam, thank you.

Another perk to the job is getting to use U.S. military facilities. Yesterday my sweetie and I rented a mini-van with one of my husband's co-workers and drove up to Belgium to use the commissary and PX. It's about a 2 and a half hour drive and I don't think we can count it as actually having visited Belgium (just like airport transits don't count). The drive was lovely when it wasn't raining - green budding fields and haze. Reminded me of England. We bought a LOT of cat food (which costs twice the amount here than it does in the states) and kitty litter as well as some hard-to-get-here food items such as Salsa Verde and pickled jalapenos.

I know, I know, I need to forget about making familiar dishes and learn to cook with just the French ingredients, but that's going to take a bit of time. I'm making Nicoise Salads (without anchovies!) for dinner at least, that's French. And I bought a huge artichoke to make for lunch, mmmm. Since it's already 2pm I better get going on that.