I wrote in my last blog about my awful experience with Le Village Montmartre hotel. This morning started with my making a complaint to them, getting absolutely no help whatsoever and being basically ignored (which was to become common in all my dealings with them). So I went back to my room to pack up, find a replacement hotel on Booking.com and I took all my stuff over there. What a difference in this new hotel... I told the lovely man at the reception that I was coming from another place nearby that had been awful and he was so helpful! I left my luggage there, as it was too early to check in yet, and went exploring again.

I started off looking around Montmartre, as it was still early and not too many people around. I first went to visit the Sacre Coeur, my favourite building in Paris. It's such a lovely church. I'd already been inside before and climbed to the top (definitely do that if you're in Paris, the views are great), so I just kept on going and zig-zagged my way through the area. I'd never really spent a lot of time in Montmartre when I'd visited Paris before, so I made sure I took my time.

The tourists started coming out in Montmartre, so I decided that it was time to leave. I walked down the hill towards the city, as I wanted to visit some of the covered passageways in Paris. I walked past this lovely shop called A La Mere de Famille, which served sweet things and had a really amazing window display, before wandering into Passage Jouffrey and Passage des Panoramas.

It was very quiet this morning in Paris... If you remember back to December 2018, it was the time that the Gilet Jaunes were out protesting in France. The weekend before I went to Paris was the one that was really violent, with shop windows smashed and looted. I wandered down towards Les Halles, where there were security guys on the doors, and decided that the probably safest place I could be was over on the Île de la Cité and on the other side of the Seine, as the protesters were mainly around the Champs Elysees, the Louvre and that area of Paris. I had to stop on my walk there to let a very large group of protesters walk past. They seemed peaceful enough.

But everywhere was closed and there were a lot of places boarded up for the weekend. Even lunchtime was a bit difficult, as a lot of the restaurants were closed. I ended up at a place called Aux Anysetiers du Roy on the Île de la Cité, which is a 17th century restaurant that served traditional French food. I had their onion soup for lunch - it was rich and warming and just what I needed.

I crossed back to the right bank and wandered around the St Paul's area. This was a huge mistake; not only was nothing at all open, but the shops looked like they had taken a battering. The Metro stations were all closed here. I kept walking along the Metro line to try to find one that was open. Finally I ended up in Sully-Morland station. The walk there had been a little scary, with protesters all around and lots of shouting, so I got on the train back to Montmartre and safety.

I checked in to my beautiful new hotel, the Timhotel Montmartre. I think I was upgraded as well, as I had lovely views out of my window. I was supposed to go to the opera tonight, but it had been cancelled and refunded. I was really looking forward to it too but the protests had everywhere in Paris spooked. So I wandered around Montmartre at night, and went to a little French restaurant called Le Cabanon de la Butte for dinner. It was delicious. I went back to my hotel and had a good night's sleep - a million times better than at that awful other place!