St Chapelle and Montmartre (May 11)

The St Chapelle area is known for its strongly African ethinic flavour.  As soon as I got out of the metro, there was a different energy about it.  Many of the shops had food spilling onto the street.

 The jewellery is different

 and the batik fabrics are very stiff - African's apparently love heavily starched fabrics.

 Travel agents cater to the local clientele.

Of course there's always something interesting to be spotted...a mural

 the way sand is delivered to a building site

 perhaps this means you can get half a big Mac here?

Lots of shops cater to the wedding market with everything from clothes and jewellery and trinkets, to the seating for the couple at the centre of it all.

I found a middle eastern pastry shop and bought a coffee macaron

and what was called a nougatine.  It turned out to be hard toffee packed with almonds - delicious!

By now I'd walked to the sex shop part of Montmartre.  The Museum of Eroticism entry.

This is Moulin Rouge territory.  At the end of the road there's a large apple sculpture on a plinth, with the map of the world etched into it.

 There we are.

Lunch was at Indiana - a restaurant we ate at 4 years ago when we were staying in the area.  I thought steak tartare would be nice.

I retraced my steps to Montmartre until I got to the Places des Abbesses.  There's a small park nearby with a wall covered in 311 ways of saying "I love you".

Here are some of my favourites

Down one of the streets - it was indeed a cavern!

 Tasmania - the least well-known capital city of Australia.

If you hear "mice, mice, mice!" don't worry - it's not rodent on offer but freshly grilled corn - mais.