Zucchini, Montmartre, Sacre Coeur

Thursday, August 5, 2010 Day 36
I got my secret code in the mail today. I haven’t even bothered to try it out yet – I have been leaving most of the banking to Roger. We went to the market today intending to buy a rotisserie chicken but there were none. Roger said that on Sunday there were three vendors. So we stopped by the grocery store and picked up half a chicken there, along with a few other things. At the market, I saw some zucchini and some yellow squash, so we decided to fix Creole squash. I selected two modest-sized squash of each variety and handed them to the clerk. She began to chat away in French, and when I told her I didn’t understand, she asked me if I spoke English. When I told her yes, she deferred to her younger assistant, who argued back that she didn’t know how to say it either. Anyway, she finally conveyed to me that the much larger (18” or so) squash were cheaper, and didn’t I want those? I probably should have said yes, but I find that in the States, larger squash are pithier and tougher and have bigger seeds, and we don’t want the for our Creole squash. If I had said yes, I might have learned that some of my preconceptions are incorrect, and perhaps the squash would have been cheaper and just as delicious. Maybe next time. Somehow I ended up buying three kinds of tomatoes at the market. Our local grocery sells a container of cherry tomatoes which are pretty good snacking tomatoes, so I picked up a box. Then at the market, I was in line to buy tomatoes to go in the Creole squash. I happened to see a box of red and yellow cherry tomatoes and, forgetting I had bought some cherry tomatoes at the grocery store, I bought the red and yellow ones as well. The latter are really, really good! They are a wonderful snacking tomato, and they would probabely be good in a salad as well if there are any left when I get around to making one. Excellent buy! Those of you who know me know that it isn’t really a problem that I bought three kinds of tomatoes. I won’t let any of them go to waste, just to my waist. My former secretary once said that I was the tomato-lovin-est woman she knew.

On the way back from the market we dropped by the post office and picked up my package. It contained a Michelin travel guide for France, along with some maps and notes from Heidi, whom I met in French classes in New Orleans. She and her husband came to France about two weeks before we did, but they were here only for a vacation. She offered me the maps and books. Thanks, Heidi! We really appreciate it.

After the daily laundry and lunch, we left for a walking tour of Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. For yesterday’s tour, I had found a nicely-written tour by a native English speaker and it was quite good. Today’s tour is of the 18th Arrondissement and is merely a translation of a French version of a tour. It was not as complete and was sometimes confusing, as in “the mound Martyrium Mons became a place of pilgrimage dedicated to Saint Denis, the evangelist of Parisians who was beheaded by the 3rd century would then walked up to the present site of Saint - Denis, where he was buried.” Did he walk up to the mound for his burial after he was beheaded????

Anyway, we tried to follow the suggestions of the tour, but because they were sometimes rather vague, we may have missed a few spots. But we walked our way up to Montmartre, which is the highest spot in Paris. There were several series of 50-60 steps up the hillside, but we chose instead to stay with the streets, which offered a gentler slope up. It is an older part of Paris, also not subject to Haussmann’s redesign of Paris – I don’t think it was a part of Paris at the time. When we arrived at the top, we entered the church, made quick work of the interior, then located the access to the basilica. There was a charge of 5€ each, and the woman taking our money made sure that we understood that there were 300 steps and no lift. Access is round and round and round – probably 200 steps up a narrow spiral staircase. The steps were quite worn from a century of tourists going up and up and up. Once we reached the top of the staircase, there was a narrow platform where we could look out over a bit of Paris, then more staircases, and finally the top. What a lovely view! We walked around and enjoyed all the vistas. Then, of course, there was the climb down – another 300 steps, much of it round and round and round. When we got down, Roger asked “Is that all? Are you ready to go again?” I said yes, but we didn’t go. Instead we took the funicular down, found some ice cream, then took the subway home, skipping the Moulin Rouge and the rest of the tour. An interesting side note about Sacre Coeur – it is built of travertine stone and constantly exudes calcite, which ensures that the basilica remains white even with weathering and pollution. It is certainly a lot whiter and cleaner than many of the buildings we have seen on our jaunts. The politics involved in building the church remind me of Louisiana!

We had Creole squash for supper, along with pasta, a chicken quarter wine, iced tea and chocolate for dessert. Nice way to end the day.