FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
My brother told me that the back of Montmartre is less crowded than the front side with the views of Paris from the Sacre Couer Basilica with its wide front stairs filled with lounging tourists. Yesterday Susie led me on a walk which demonstrated this. Our area of Montmartre was crowded with diners and people walking through the streets, so crowded that the cars nosed along very gingerly in order to avoid running them over.
But 100 yards down Rue des Abbesses we turned off onto a side road where there was almost no one. This led to a wide boulevard that curved around the hill of Montmartre with quiet sidewalk cafes and people walking their dogs but very few other people. I had noticed this in Prague several years ago which was so jammed on the main square that you could barely push your way through while three blocks to the side had no one. You can go to a tourist town and take three steps and be in a place where there are no tourists at all.
We walked through green leaved parks and past a steep field planted with flowers and vegetables and ivy covered walls to a cafe where we had a wonderful meal and then walked back a second wide street to Rue des Abbesses and the crowds. It was an ordinary walk in an ordinary neighborhood and was what we came to Paris for.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 