I left the hotel really early in order to explore another area of Montmartre that I hadn't been to before the tourists came out. Which meant that I was at my first destination for the day just after 8am. It wasn't the best morning for photos, as it was grey and miserable, but at least it wasn't raining!
From there, I wandered down to a place in Pigalle that I had wanted to visit for ages. It was a basketball court, yes, but boy was it something!
I picked up a pain au chocolat on my way around, and ended back at the Sacre Coeur again. The sun was trying to break through so I went back to La Maison Rose to get a better shot of it, it was such a cute place!
It was starting to get busy in Montmartre so I wandered down to a train station to avoid the hordes of tourists.
I jumped on a Metro out to Saint Ouen. I'd been to the markets out there once before with a walking tour, and decided to brave it myself this time. It really is the most incredible market - you can buy so much stuff there. From reaaaaaallly expensive art and furniture, to little knick-knacks, to giant sculptures and things for the garden, to all manner of second-hand goods. I loved it there. Of course, though, I was enjoying visiting all the little areas of the sprawling market when it started bucketing down. And I mean it - I got soaked. I was standing underneath some shelter but the wind was just blowing it in and, when it finally stopped, I emerged, bedraggled. I walked back to the Metro and left for a museum - guaranteed shelter!
My chosen museum was the Musée Nissim de Camondo. I didn't know much about it before I got there but it was one of those really cool small museums in Paris that I'd wanted to go to for ages. It turned out that it was thoroughly enjoyable. The museum had been a family house that was left to the Les Arts Décoratifs (a museum group) by its owner, who specified that it was to remain in exactly the same condition and to be opened as a museum. It opened in 1936. The owner had such a tragic story, losing his son (who the museum is names after) in WW1 and his daughter in WW2, and he died alone. I'm so glad they have respected his wishes though, as it was a beautiful place and I very much enjoyed learning the history of the house and the family. Highly recommended.
From there, I walked down the Boulevard Malesherbes. Nothing was open and all the shops were all boarded up due to the riots on yesterday. The only place that was open was the patisserie Pierre Herme, which was good because I really wanted to try their macarons! I popped in and started chatting to the woman serving at the counter. She must have had a proper boring day, as there were very few people around and I'm sure people thought they were closed simply because all the other shops nearby were. Fair enough too, as I walked past so much broken glass, graffiti and lots of things needlessly smashed. I talked to her for a while, bought some macarons, and she gave me a free one, then I left. She was really lovely.
I wandered down to the Opera, and it seemed almost back to normal around there, thankfully, as it is a beautiful building and I would hate to see it ruined. I'd had enough of walking by then, so I jumped on the Metro back to my hotel .
I went back to the hotel, made a cuppa and sampled my macarons! The two I tried were delicious!
The sun was setting outside my hotel room window so I popped out onto the balcony to have a look over the rooftops. I got ready for dinner, which I had at a nearby restaurant, before returning to my hotel room for a relaxing early night!
