MONDAY IN MONTMARTRE

I sound like a broken record, I know--but it was another lovely, lazy kind of day in Paris.

We left our apartment about 10:30 with plans to find a couple of interesting antique/junque stores I'd read about, as well explore some more of our wonderful neighborhood of Montemartre.   We easily found the first store, just a few blocks away.  Darn--it didn't open until 1 pm, so we decided to just wander the pretty streets.

The flower shops in Paris are so pretty--I love their sidewalk displays:

This house number sign was different:

We wandered down Rue Lepic, and found ourselves in front of our favorite son's favorite restaurant.  Guess where we had coffee and a snack, Matt?

Cafe de 2 Moulins, featured in one of my favorite movies "Amelie".  Matt: FYI--the gnome is nowhere to be found inside the restaurant.  I wonder what happened to it?

After we finished our cafe noisettes (VERY good noisettes, BTW) and a shared pastry, we continued our wandering up and down the pretty streets.  We did our share of window gazing, especially at some of the wonderful fromageries.

We also popped into Les Rotisseurs Du Roy, a traiteur on Rue Lepic,  to ask about a poulet roti for our Christmas dinner.  We plan on cooking a small, easy dinner in our apartment rather than going out.  We found that they'll be open of Christmas Day, so that simplifies our Christmas dinner prep.

We continued down the hill, crossing Blvd de Rochechouart and continuing south into the 9th arr.  We zig-zagged our way up and down a few blocks, but didn't find much of interest.  We agree that we like our little neighborhood better!

We eventually found ourselves over by the Montemartre Cemetery and decided to take a stroll through.  For some odd reason, we find the cemeteries in Paris beautiful and serene--and interesting!

The Montemartre cemetery was founded in 1825 and is built in an old stone quarry.  Now there is a freeway overpass going over part of it.  Edgar Degas is among the many famous people buried here--but we didn't find his grave.

A few photos throughout the cemetery:

This was an interest headstone--very unusual.  I tried using Google translate to understand the inscriptions, but didn't seem to make much sense.  Something about "resting near his mother"??

Close up of one of the faces, and I liked the "Book of Hours" reference:

 And toes at the bottom!

Wise owls in the middle:

Huge memorials and statue for Dalida.  I had to "google" her name--she was a famous singer in the 50's-80's and died in Paris in 1987.  There were many fresh flowers on her grave today.

Several of the graves have these lovely porcelain flowers permanently attached:

This seemed to be fairly new, I didn't catch the name or date, though:

The interior was filled with beautiful mosaic designs:

This old tomb held several generations of this family--from the early 1800's until the late 1990's.

After our stroll through a small part of the cemetery (it's big--25 acres!)  we walked back to check out the first "junque" store on my list.  It was open, and I enjoyed a browse around, but didn't buy a thing.  David waited patiently on the sidewalk.

By now it was time for our "late leisurely lunch", and we found a nice little restaurant right up the street.  Here's the street view of Le Basilic, at 33 Rue Lepic.

Le Basilic was very busy, and we waited a few minutes for a table--but it was worth the wait.  We had an excellent meal, the service was great and the atmosphere was wonderful.  It was a bargain-their formule du midi was only about 13E each, Entree + plat.  I think we'll be back!

Our starter--a warm lentils du puy salad with a slice of cured ham, sun dried tomato and greens.  Delicious!

We each chose the special of the day, steak with fresh green beans.  The nice waiter asked if we wanted our beef medium or well done, we must look like tourists!  We both said we'd like it rare--and it was just right.  It was delicious and tender, the char on the outside was perfect.  The haricort verts could have been a little crisper, but they were still very good, especially with the added scallions.  We ordered a carafe of red wine and, as usual, it was very good.

We shared a cafe gourmand for desert--it was just right.  An espresso, a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream, a tiny bowl of fresh strawberries and raspberries topped with whipped cream, and a molten chocolate cake with a piece of pretty star fruit on top.  It's the perfect desert--just a couple of bites of each one--we like the variety.

Here's a pic of the interior, taken from the stairs.  By the time we finished our late lunch it was almost 4 pm, and the dining room was almost empty:

We decided to call it a day--I was feeling lazy and content, and I also have a sneaking suspicion I'm coming down with a cold--darn!

It was a nice walk back to our apartment on Rue des Martyrs.  We stopped at a fromagerie for a nice slice of blue cheese, a little gourmet shop for a jar of tiny pickles (cornichons) and popped into our favorite boulangerie  for a fresh baguette---I think we are well supplied now.

We enjoyed a late night snack of cheese, baguette, cornichons and a glass or two of red wine--just perfect!

I'm feeling very content, blessed and lucky to be here…..so good night from beautiful Paris.