16 April 2007
Today Virginia started school and it was a pretty nervous morning. She walked down to her school and took a series of tests to see where she would be placed. In the end she wound up in a class with five others, four of whom were from Switzerland and already spoke good French and one Japanese girl whose French was pretty limited.
After packing V. off to school with a filled baguette for lunch, I decided it was time to use my new Carte Orange. There is a small electric powered bus that runs through the Montmartre area. I hopped on board and went to Sacre Coeur and wandered around the outside of this massive church. While the size is impressive, it doesn't cut through to the soul the way Notre Dame does. The best part of going there was the accordionist playing just outside the Church.
The Place de Tertre is an interesting square. It is filled with artists; some good, some bad and most indifferent. It is a real tourist trap with people offering to sketch you or cut out a silhouette of you as a memento. On the one hand, it is really awful, but on the other, there is a certain charm about it; particularly in the morning before all the spruikers arrive. After wandering around the Place de Tertre, I walked back down to the area around the Marie for the 18th Arondissment. There is a lovely church just opposite the Marie (Town Hall)and plenty of places to sit, have a drink, and watch the world go by.
Since I wanted to check e-mail, I caught the Metro to the Place de Clichy and thought that as long as I was in the area I would wander along the Place Pigalle. It is an education in itself; at least as far as commercial sex is concerned. Shops with inflatable nude dolls, rubber nurses outfits, pornographic films and books, etc. It is absolute sleaze! I walked down as far as the Moulin Rouge in order to take a photograph and then back to the internet cafe.
Virginia was due home around 1.30 and I went back to the flat to wait for her.
She arrived back exhausted from her first day at school but after a rest we went out to do the shopping that needed to be done. We bought a couple more bottles of the wine we mentioned earlier. It's hard to pass up at such a bargain price. After dinner, V. settled down to do her homework and I read.
Tomorrow we have some exploring to do. I'll tell you about it in the next letter.
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