Exact change only, please!

Our day started our day with errands and shopping to do. The pharmacy was our first stop to pick up some more Sudafed. I seriously think this is the only country I’ve been turned away to buy something because I lacked correct change or minimum purchase. Oh wait I take that back, there is a gas station in Lynnville that refused my debt card once and I got so mad I found out that they can’t require a minimum for Visa purchases. Anyway, we had cash but not exact and she said she wouldn’t be able to make change, sending us to a florist to make change, who said we should go to a tabac but there wasn’t one around. We decided to try the post office as we had a couple postcards to send, but guess what?! They didn’t open until noon today. Why? We don’t know but it wasn’t quite noon so we gave up and headed to do a little shopping for Jason. Our first stop Office Depot to picked up a bunch of “French” paper. It’s their normal paper, like our normal college- or wide-ruled paper but different because the lines are different. Anyway, we got it here because it’s cheaper than buying it from home and having it shipped. Jason teaches the kids how to write French cursive. Yes, I know it sounds weird but it’s true: all French people learn how to write exactly alike, unlike in the US where we can’t even get a whole school to share the same method of writing instruction or paper use. We also picked up some fountain pens and ink. After that we hit another “post office” but it was just vending machines that only took credit cards. Give me a break….. We had seen a paper store sign and decided to stop in, but that actually turned out to be a book store! On our way back to the metro to head to the apt, we saw another paper store; this time it was a real one. Jason found a really cool fountain pen, but it didn’t take international ink or something like that. Honestly, I’m pretty clueless on the whole subject and their discussion was in French. He ended up finding a pen he liked and we headed home, stopping by our now open post office and the pharmacy with exact change before dropping everything off at the apt.

Look how cute and happy he is with his new goodies.

I always pick the escalator in the Metro

Next we debated what to eat since we didn’t have too much time and opted for a store sandwich at the Franprix while we walked up to the Sacré-Cœur. We had planned on going up in to the dome but it was cloudy again today and I didn’t think it would be worth the money so we ended up just walking through the sanctuary, which was filled with tourists, and stopped at the gift store to look for a coin with St. Perpetua and Felicity (for a family friend). They mentioned a place on the other side of Paris and since we had a couple of hours before our big evening plans, we decided to go for the adventure – down the endless steps of the Butte de Montmartre and into the métro.

Yum sandwich while walking up a hill... perhaps not the best decision.

We stopped at a park half way up to finish our lunch.

Kissy Kissy. :)

The Hummer of Montmartre.



For 125 years, day and night someone has prayed to the Lord



We ended up by Ste-Sulpice and found a neat store run by nuns. The first nun acted like she knew exactly what we wanted, but a second Italian nun came to get her and stayed behind to help us. She wasn’t successful in finding it and sent us down the road closer to the church where we thought we’d struck gold. This lady wasn’t exactly clear if this was the correct saint or not, but it was called Perpétuel secours and so we bought the medal in hopes it was correct. After we got home this evening we learned it’s not exactly it… so I guess I’ll keep it. I haven’t really bought myself anything so I guess now I have.

My navigator

By that point it was time for the Cirque d’hiver aka the Winter Circus. I became super excited about this after seeing the awesome building online. We HAD to go… and so we did. It was neat to just relax and enjoy the building, families and children. The circus was a little different than what we have in the US; way less animals and clowns but more acrobatics and all in a smaller space. I’ll let the pictures talk for themselves but some of the acts that surprised me were hula hooping, roller skating. My favorite acts were the tight rope and the jugglers. Jason really like the water act, which was a lady in the air on a circle with water all around her. It was okay but the kids were lost… I think it was designed for the male folks in the audience. ;)

The circus!!!

Hulas

Horse bowing to the crowd.

Barbe à papa

My cotton candy aka Barbe à papa and Jason's beer.

She carried him across

He carried her down, while she sang.

The roller skaters on their platform. They only skated in that circle.

Jaso'n's water lady.

The jugglers. 3 males 1 female.

The great circus band.

The circus stop.

Dinner tonight was especially yummy and under 5€ for both of us. It was haschis parmentier and green beans. Jason prepared it.

On our little elevator.