2007.02.25  Weekend Walks: Montmartre  

Well, we've been in Paris for almost a month and it feels like we're still just scratching the surface of what this
city has to offer.  We've been trying to explore the basics in each neighbourhood to get an overview of what
the city has to offer before we pick our favourite haunts. 

Last weekend we went on a meandering walk through Montmartre up the hill to Sacré Coeur. The church itself,
a modern creation, was a disappointment compared to the fine gothic beauty of Notre-Dame, but the walk
through the artist neighbourhoods was amazing.  We popped into a few galleries exhibiting digital photography
and other contemporary work.  Rod and I found ourselves looking at real-estate ads and dreaming of owning our
very own little studio in the charming quartier.  We ate our sandwiches in a cute parkette and watched the kids
with artzy parents trample around, unaware, on the same dirt that Van Gogh and Picasso once tread over. 

The Place du Tertre was a super-touristy pretty cliched version (some of the artistes wore berets) of what it
means to be an artist in Paris.  The many painters crowded into the tiny square were mostly doing landscapes
of Sacré Coeur and other typically French scenes.  Although you can hardly blame them for working whatever
sells in a city where art is so abundant. 

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