PARIS FLEA MARKET
Today is a good day for getting out. The sun is shining in Swannanoa, but it is very cold, 21 degrees. So I went to the Paris flea market, instead, behind Montmartre where Todd and Susie are staying right now. Montmartre is where Susie and I stayed for a month, nine months ago, and so it feels like home. At the top of Montmartre is the white Sacre Coeur looking down on Paris. Kathe and I spent our second honeymoon here (the first one was a rainy, illness blighted disaster) fifty years after we married. My brother guided us to the Hotel Tim, the location of which was the setting for his unpublished novel, The Nude I Knew In Paris. So it is good to be back. When you walk around Sacre Coeur and down the other side of the mountain you come to the gigantic Paris flea market which is actually seven or eight markets combined into one, ranging from the outdoor street vendors to permanent elegant shops. So this is where I went with Susie and Todd this morning. I am including some of the photographs that Susie took. Nothing has changed from nine months ago except it is a little chillier.
OWL BAKERY
The closest I could come to Montmartre this morning was Owl Bakery which has opened up on Charlotte Street. Owl Bakery has croissants which are as flaky and rich as any in Paris and so I can sit here and close my eyes and I am on Montmartre about to walk out and see Paris.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 