Au revoir Mon Cheri

  Montmortre, France
Monday, February 25, 2008

Third day in Paris and the final day of our trip. It's kind of heavy-hearted to acknowledge that.

We were struggling whether to go to Versaille or not, but at the end, we decided not to, because we needed to catch our plane this evening, and we didn't want any more dramas to happen, especially during our last day here. But then, it shall be one thing we regret up til today. 

But we didn't just waste the day, we went to Porte de Clignancourt, all the way at the end of Metro line no. 4.
The place might be off from the tourist trail, but our purpose there was to go for the Marche de St Ouen. It's known as the biggest Flea Market in Europe. I haven't been to much of the other flea markets in Europe, but it's surely big and stretches through out several streets.

We didn't actually buy anything in here, as it's more for the locals to bargain. However we bought mostly the souvenirs we need in Montmortre. There are plenty of souvenr shops with cheaper price (if compare with other places in Paris) here just under the hill of Basilique du Sacre Coeur along Rue de Steinkerque. Save your breathe for bargaining at other places and cut the risk of being scammed by the street salesmen, just come here and you'll get all the souvenirs you want to bring home.

Submerged in the bargaing and shopping spree, we nearly forgot that our purpose here was to visit the Sacre Coeur. Stood up high at the hill overlooking the city of Paris, Sacre Coeur is inevitably the tourist magnets. Besides that, it's also a perfect spot for tourist traps. Just be aware for those who offers to tight a string on your finger and claims that it will boost up your love life or whatever, and even those who try to paint you without your agreement especially on the price.

Later we had our lunch around Place du Tertre. It wasn't one of the pleasant experience i shall say. Not much comment on the food and the pricy menu, but the service was certainly still much to be improved in order to be level with the price. Or perhaps was my mistake, but the waiters were surely busy enough on every seconds that it's hard to get a decent request.
 
Squeezing every seconds left for us in Paris, we managed to have a short stop at the Moulin Rouge and returned back to the Eiffel Tower again. Call us Eiffel-Tower-fanatic if you want, but we just can't miss to have a look on how the Eiffel Tower looks like during daytime. And bidding our farewell from where we began. Au revoir!

And the rush was all worthy as we reached Aeroport-Charles de Gaulle with no time to spare. And the rest was just another 17~18 hours of flying and transit waiting before we finally got home.