Montmartre

I can generally be trusted not to make the same mistake twice, at least not twice in two days, so today I left the hotel with a small group of fellow students. We were headed for Montmartre and after a short metro ride headed off up the hill towards Sacre Coeur, dodging the street vendors selling their miniature Eiffel towers and souvenir tat. Cameras everywhere, of all shapes and sizes - are there any pictures even worth taking in this city? What if there was some way of keep track of all those images - like a massive virtual photofeed?
My day had started a little earlier than usual as I went out before breakfast to photograph the stall holders setting up in the local market. Lots going on although many of the people didn't want their pictures taken when I asked if it was ok.
Anyway, back to Montmartre. We admired the views across the city for a while and listened to a guitarist bludgeon his way through a few classics, before moving on to explore a bit more. Watched a couple of English-speaking teachers trying to count their class outside the Eglise St Pierre - they must have re-started counting at least half a dozen times as the boys wouldn't keep still and kept milling around. Eventually they confirmed that they hadn't lost anyone. Don't know if they were visiting, or if they were an English speaking group who lived in Paris.
Although we'd briefly lost J we found somewhere to have lunch - sitting outside we watched the world go by as we ate. J re-joined us and after lunch we headed westwards through Montmartre. P bought some novelty glasses in the shape of a bike from a rather odd shop - full of all manner of odd items - like plastic doll heads - deliberately quirky.
We were headed for the Montmartre Cemetery. A peaceful place after the bustle of the streets. We wandered about looking for one or two graves in particular - like Truffaut - but also just looking at the graves of ordinary people. Reminders of the Holocaust on several graves - family members who were deported and died in the camps. Hot afternoon and we sort of gathered together on one of the little streets in the cemetery and sat on the kerb, talking and relaxing. Eventually we moved on, saw a cat enjoying the sun on top of one of the graves and finally left the cemetery. Headed for Pigalle and walked past the Moulin Rouge. Some on-street food but then a few spots of rain persuaded us to get on the metro instead of walking on. It had stopped before we got back to the hotel.
P and I went for a meal in the Place des Vosges before heading for the metro where we met up with S (eventually !!) and headed to Champs de Mars where we joined some of the others and sat on the grass chatted about where we had been and what we had seen and watched night fall and the lights come on on the Eiffel Tower.