So it turns out I went to bed without setting my alarm to 7:30am as such I was in for a rude ‘awakening’ when I eventually woke up at 8:30. At least I finally came to a conclusion on where to have a good French breakfast after what seemed like an aha moment when I looked at the metro map.
Now I had woken at 5:30 am both out of anxiety and to use the loo and my researching on google led me to 2 favorites for breakfast- Eric Kayser and Laduree . I chose Eric Kayser.
I realised that Commerce was on my way to Blanche and so made the brave decision to stop at the Eric Kayser boulangerie there (which lies right in front of the metro exit). I grabbed a croissant and pain au raisins knowing fully well that it would mean having to jump the clock to arrive Blanche on time. But it was soo worth every second of it- the croissant was so soft and crumbled in your mouth whilst the pain au raisin was ohlala – you could literally taste the soft custard as it melted with the bread and in your mouth.
Time of arrival- 10:50 am (am I a don or what?…lol)
Saw the moulin rouge right in front of the station, and was happy I hadn’t dragged myself over the night before.
Olivier our tour guide arrived after 5 mins and by 11 we were good to go the grp of 19 with a Brazilian guy from Rio who had a quasi american accent joining us a few mins later. Ok tmi…lol
We made a few stops the first being in front of a restaurant, cafe des 2 moulins where the movie, Amelie was shot.
Apparently the staff there don’t like when non-Montmartre people come in and can be quite rude (kilo ko mi).
He then showed us the few organic stores highlighting that the locals tend to be very boubou-bourjour and bohemian at the same time. U know the mind of ppl who are rich but don’t show it and like to wear save the planet t-shirts, eat organic food and act all artsy. We then went on a quest to find a real boubou as well as distinguish the homes between the real Arists and the boubou people the simarities being the front if the Houses covered in leaves and the difference being the north facing windows, somewhat messy apartments and paintings on the walls in the houses of the real artists.
We then stopped to see picassos former studio which had been burnt down and replaced with a facade as well as the actual former house of a singer called Dalida- a half Egyptian and half Italian lady who grew up in France and committed suicide at age 25 after 3 of her lovers had died young. Her former residence, although clocking 1million euros is fairly cheap for the area, the reason being the superstition of death that surrounds the house’s history.
Besides Dalida, there were a bunch of other artists/musicians who lived in the area. Unfortunately, a lot of them had drug problems and some wise doctor decided to cash in on the situation and build a psychiatric hospital which eventually closed up after all the patients died.
We visited a few more sites but don’t want to bore you with the details or put discover walks out of business. What I’d say however was that the tour ended at the spectacular basilica de sacre cour which is quite the fusion of architecture from different time periods.
Now Olivier was a very good tour guide but sometimes you had to wonder if he had an excess of oxygen or total lung capacity as he spoke in 20 sentences at a time sans break as if he had memorised the whole tour. But that being said I still feel he was original; I totally enjoyed the tour and would recommend it/him.
I was really famished at the end of the tour and so went back to the Latin Qaurter where I had some lunch, blogged and eventually caught the bus back to the airport for part 2 of the tour.
Dami-Long-Legs 