MONMARTRE

[12.10.2009] We didn't leave Montmartre at all today which was fine with me. All we had planned was to explore the area and find some cute shops to buy our souvenirs. We didn't get the memo that most stores are closed on Mondays so we were pretty disappointed with our shopping selection but found some shops that were open. We were hungry since Soapy's early morning pastry shopping didn't hold us over. I ate half a chocolate croissant this morning (thanks Soapy!) and it was delicious! Extremely flakey and buttery just the way croissants should be. I wonder if the French eat them daintily without getting crumbs and flakes all over themselves like I do =/ Later after walking around a bit, we got hungry again and I halved a pizza-like sandwich thing from a nearby patisserie and ate a mille feuil (??) aka some thousand layer pastry with flakey dense crusts layered with creme. cést bon. We wandered down rue abbesses or abscess street as we call it haha.

Then after more wandering and window shopping the closed stores, we went back to the apartment to hang out, watch pop music videos and take a nap. After waking up and watching more pop videos we left the apartment to do some grocery shopping for dinner where I bought my cannelloni in a box (4,50E). The grocery store was overwhelming because it was busy and extremely small. Most of the French I spoke today was "pardon" or "escuse moi".. I haven't learned much since I came here haha. Pui asked the produce guy for some grapes by pointing to the green grapes and saying one. Then he pulled off a grape and said one? Hahahah.. then she was like noo one whole then he pulled a HUGE bunch of grapes hahah. I bet he had the time of his life teasing her.. poor Pui.

After heating up dinner in our "trusty" microwave in 4 different heat settings, we ate our gummy cheesed out lasagna, etc then headed to the laundromat. The laundry place closes at 22h and we got there at about 21h so just enough time to dry my hand-washed clothes and run one load of laundry. When we got there and stuffed our clothes in we were perplexed by the number of holes there were to put detergent in. Apparently there were 2 holes for detergent because one was for the 1st wash or pre-wash and the 2nd was for the "good" wash. We were so confused at first but luckily there was a guy who spoke english and explained it to us... but it was AFTER we dumped all our detergent into the first hole.. The owner lady who was black only spoke French but she felt bad that we put all our soap in the wrong hole and filled our second one with free detergent. She even stayed after until our laundry was completely finished at about 22:10. Verr nice. At about 22:05 the lights turned off and we were sitting in the dark waiting for the last of our clothes to finish its drying cycle. She explained to us that it automatically turns off at that time so it was ok. Cést bon she assured us =) As for laundry prices.. it costs us 4E to use the small washer and 1E per 10 minutes of drying in the jumbo dryer.

Since today was chill day tomorrow we're gonna try to see the last of the sights since we're leaving for Prague on Wednesday morning. We have planned Moulin Rouge and the "I love you wall" in Montmartre then a close up of the eiffel tower and notre dame. Hopefully I can find some more cute stores and paperies that are open tomorrow since its Tuesday..

Anyway, its about 100 here.. Bon soiré =)