An australian in paris

Remember the opening scene from moulin rouge? Replace the suave Ewan mcgregor with a rather dishevelled image of me weighed down with luggage & in need of a shower & sleep after a 12 hour train ride & you have my morning. Like baz luhrmann's pennyless poet I also have an attic room in montmartre with it's own little balcony that seems to be specifically designed for one to stand upon looking wistfully down the street for sightings of the muse. Unfortunately I clouldnt check into my room until 4 & my train got in at 9, so I stowed the hermit shell that is my backpack & set off to explore montmartre with the enthusiasm of a kid on their first day at hogwarts. I started with a traditional French breakfast: a crossant & chocolate chaud at a funky little cafe halfway up the hill to sacre-coeur (all right so I couldn't make it up in one go, that hill is damn steep!) then I got into some serious sight seeing. First up sacre-coeur, which is pretty impressive as far as churches go, but for me the interior had nothing on the views of the city offered outside, you can pretty much make out all the major landmarks, it's really breathtaking! Next I wandered down to the Dali museum, which I've been wanting to see sine I watched hitchock's Spellbound when I was 14. This was probably the highlight of the day for me, they had over 300 of his works on display! I particularly liked his Alice in wonderland series. After that I made my way to the cimetiere de Montmartre, and let me tell you, I thought the folks down in new Orleans romanticized death, but they've got nothing on the Parisians! The crypts looked like mini cathedrals, and some of them aren't all that old. For fans of the Gothic cimetiere de Montmartre is the mother ship. I was feeling a little gloomy after looking at all the graves so made my way down to the covered passageways for some retail therapy. Didn't buy anything, but had a yummy baguette for lunch & killed some time sipping coffee and trying to look incredibly Parisian chic while reading in a cafe (side mote: finished halucinating foucault & absolutely LOVED it!) after that was finally able to check into hostel! While my room is a writer's dream with aformentioned balcony and a little writing desk, my shower floods the bathroom & my computer doesn't like it here, so this work of literary genius has been typed on my phone! Am now absolutely exhausted from sightseeing & attempting to communicate with the little vocab I picked up in yr 9 French. Hopefully a goodnight's sleep will restore me; tomorrow I take on the opera district! Au revoir mon Amies & a kiss for each cheek! X & X
margs