Parisian pad and Montmartre

Paris

Well here we are in Paris for 3 weeks. We are staying in Montmartre in an apartment owned by a French/Australian couple who live in Melbourne. The website is  http://www.parisianpad.com.au 
Thank you Manjit for putting us in touch with Julien who owns it. We were looking forward to being in one place for a time and this place suits our needs very well. And it has a WASHING MACHINE!
One of the new joys of my life is clean clothes that I haven't washed by hand. I know this may sound pathetic but after 7 weeks on the road and the hot humid weather that we now have in Paris having clean clothes, at least at the start of the day, is a luxury. And life is about simple pleasures isn't it?

This is the street view - Rue des Trois Freres.

We enter through these doors - using a code into this courtyard. 

We enter the far door, with another code and then climb one flight of stairs. one flight is good on French standards as very few buildings have lifts.

As is typical for French apartments the bathroom is petite. We were quite nonplussed at first. You need to go around the toilet to get into the shower. The shower door, when it is open, misses touching the loo by a close centimetre. Quite a physical challenge to negotiate. The gap between the loo and the wall is about 16 centimetres - not including the space for the drainage pipe. Now I haven't asked Bob to give a photographic display because some things must be kept private but I can tell you with his long legs doing his business requires some acrobatics! I emphasise that this is not unique to this apartment but, as far as I can make out and verified by other tourists we have spoken to, not too unusual in these parts.
It's been very hot while we've been here. I believe one night was the hottest ever in July in Paris. Our apartment has double glazed windows which keep the noise out but the heat in. We have several bars and cafes nearby many of which stay open until the early hours 2-3am so the conundrum has been - heat or noise with noise winning. It's just unbearable with the windows shut.
A few cafes and shops have a form of air conditioning but most have none. Most don't seem to mind and say it's only for a few weeks of the year. My theory is that so many have been out partying every night because their apartments are so hot that they wouldn't sleep anyway.
We've had several days in the low to mid 30s and in a big city that's hot.

For those of you who have seen the film "Amelie" - Rue des Trois Freres is the street that she lives on. At the end of the street is this fruit shop where many scenes are shot in the film. If you haven't seen the film I highly recommend it as a feel good romantic comedy set in Montmartre.

 These steps "Passage de Abbesses" lead to our metro station - Abbesses above. They seem to get higher in the heat and as the days goes on.
The area of Abbesses is quite happening with lots of cafes and food shops. We went on a guided walking tour of the area. We were told by the guide (who was pretty young and trendy) that it has become very trendy for young Parisians to live here. They are all professional "artistic types" - architects or graphic artists etc. They would not be seen dead in brand name clothes etc but frequent small boutiques looking for more original items. They are called BO HOs because they're a mixture of Bohemians and Hobos. There are also lots of tourists but mainly in the middle of the day so we've enjoyed observing from cafes at breakfast when it's a little more authentic.

Sacre Coeur dominates Montmartre and there is a lot of activity around it. 

We went for a walk the evening we arrived and found this concert in a small space about 50 metres from where we're staying. Lots of people dancing spontaneously.

This lady brought her instrument - yes a piano and gave a concert on the sidewalk.

Portrait artists abound and have no shortage of customers. This was one of about 30 this day.

This guy only had to bring his double base!

 
                                                        And of course a bridal party.

And there's a downside - it's not too unusual to see people sleeping on benches etc, even in daylight   and people just seem to move around them.

This was painted in a day just along the road from us. I suspect it was commissioned rather than graffiti because it was done in day light and seems quite impressive.