Sacre-Coeur

Here is today's travel tip for those who have not yet been to the continent.  Bring over the counter drugs with you as well as a first aid kit.  The pharmacies still have a lock on selling ibuprofen and band aids.  These things are not available at discount stores, only at the pharmacie. The lack of competition is evident in the prices.

Today we went to Sacre-Coeur, it's a minor basilica.  It's on the hill in Paris.  The subway stop for it is old and very deep in the ground.  One climbs many steps to leave the metro. There is nothing like five flights of stairs to let a person know how out of shape they are.  Upon arriving at the church, we elected to take the funicular up.
Once on the grounds, we were approached by a "deaf college student" wanting us to sign a petition.  We waved her on, she made a very rude noise.

The view from the ramparts is magnificent.  It's unfortunate that the light was so bad.

This is a fabric store.  We went in on one of our previous trips.  It's just amazing what is in there.

Sacre Couer.

Ruh-roh.  Looks like we will not be going inside the basilica today.

The gargoyles are impressive.

Look in the center of the photo.  That's a pretty cool building.  We walked by it later, but it was closed and there was no signage.

We walked down the hill to see what we would see.  One thing we saw were men playing Three Card Monte, or some sort of variant.  The guy keeps moving the three things on the table,  the person being fleeced is betting they know where the target went, they guy with the money in his hand is betting that you won't.  He was not enthused about having his picture taken.  In many places this game is illegal.

The area below Sacre Coeur is somewhat sketchy.  Again we were targeted by scammers.  A tall guy was walking in front of Jim, and occasionally looking over his shoulder at Jim.  There was a compatriot on Jim's left.  Suddenly the compatriot "dropped" his cell phone in front of Jim (actually it was more like a toss).  One's usual response might be to pick it up and hand it to the person, but since we are at defcon 1, Jim yelled at them and we just kept going.  I think that cell phone has been dropped a lot.
Upon returning via Metro to our neck of the woods of Paris we again were targeted by a guy doing the "I found an 18k ring on the ground and want to give it to you."  We told him to go away.  He was incensed that we did not believe him.
My theory on the frequency of the scams is the high level of unemployment, the fact that we have gray hair, and I am wearing a stupid looking hat.  I think the scam artists are seeing us as an easy target.   So far they are not winning with us.

This is a florist shop near the hotel.  It's unfortunate that the reflections on the window kept me from getting more of the interior.  It's just lovely.

Internet access has been very flaky for me.  Much cursing was required to get a connection this afternoon.  If I don't post, it's because the cursing has stopped working.