Ulterior motives

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Tuesday, Oct 23

Up late again. Have to stop reading my ereader so late at night. It does take my mind off the karaoke singers (who aren't very good - even I can tell) who seem to start up around 11 pm and go until 1 am. The sounds come in through the back window that's right over the bed. Anyway we decided our plan would be to walk around Montmartre and ponder going up the dome and then do a sketch somewhere and have lunch. I really wanted time in a few special stores in that area. Got off the Metro at a station that I thought was behind Sacre Coeur so we could walk down to it rather than hike the hill. Majorly wrong choice twice over. We came at it from the east so there were flights of stairs to get there. The first 7 flights were 22 steps each. Breathe. A younger couple was actually slower than me. Ross waited patiently at every flight. Then when we were at the top of these we cross a road and get to go up two more flights. Now down at the beginning of all this we could have just walked around to the south and taken a photo from there. Good old Fitbit was in shock - little happy sounds were coming from it for all those flights of stairs. At the church we mushed ourselves though the crowds and toured through the inside. I tried to get Ross to climb to the dome but he eschewed that. Walked and found a place to sketch (my drawing has the Eiffel Tower about 10 miles closer than it is - a wee bit out of perspective). Now on to the fun times for me. Bargain fabric stores (a few were 5 floors or more) abound in this part of the city. Hard to know how to stop but Ross managed after a couple of hours - 4 stores or more. Lots of great fun fur, feather, leather fabrics and all kinds of embellishments. Only ended up with 9 meters of fabric. We finally found a lunch place at 4pm and I did a sketch from there as I wasn't too happy with the Tower one. Ending up walking until we came across a Metro and headed home right during rush hour. After a few stops I was able to grab a seat and then listen to my feet bark at me all the way home. Too tired to cook anything and Ross anticipated this so suggested dinner out. Went to Le Plomb du Cantal just steps from the apartment. If you like potatoes you should go here - best garlic, cheese mashed potatoes ever and they pour them right from the pot onto your plate. We were stuffed. Rolled home and into bed.

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