Welcome back to Montmartre

Tuesday 17^th May

Montmartre, Paris

After a seemingly forever flight from Singapore to Frankfurt, and then a short 45 minute flight from Frankfurt to Paris, we are finally here. Seems that German businessmen have a real problem counting to 1 – how many pieces of hand luggage? 1 only - or 2, or 3….. There was a rush to get on board probably to make sure that there would be room for their bags in the overhead lockers.

No real problems getting from the airport to the hotel, apart from the uncertainty of direction at the Gare du Nord station, and then alighting at the station near the hotel – which way to turn.

A bit early to check in to the hotel so a short walk through Montmartre and a shared baguette for lunch – I guess they are the equivalent size to a foot long sub. We are only a couple of minutes walk from the funicular to Sacre Coeur and the street over the road has all the fabric shops. Not a lot of cotton patchwork though but I’m sure a piece or two will find its way into the suitcase.

The hotel is a very old one but quite comfortable. Unfortunately 2 flights of stairs but we only need to do them a couple of times a day. It’s a spiral staircase and our room (plenty big enough) is tucked around a corner – and is not just a plain square room. The bed seems to be fairly hard but is actually quite comfortable. We finally collapsed this afternoon and had a couple of hours sleep and have just returned from dinner. Not a totally French meal though we did start with French onion soup, and followed it up with pasta. 

It is hard to adjust to the longer days – it was 9.30pm walking back from dinner and still light in the sky to get a nice photo of Sacre Coeur.

This photo was taken at 9.30pm - beautiful light in the sky.

For those who are waiting - this is as close as I could get to the dog of the day photo in Singapore. Only saw one dog on a lead and didn't have the camera. Other doggy thing we saw was an ad in a lift for a dog petting place.

Wifi seems to be a bit flaky at the hotel and extremely slow so blog posts may not contain many photos unless I am finding it super speedy.

I am just finishing breakfast - super moist flaky croissant and baguette with nutella. Yum!