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Today was the first day I ventured out of my immediate neighborhood: I headed specifically for the Bazaar de l’Hôtel de Ville to find adapters for my computer & speakers. Which I found, along with a (French) power strip and a few other little odds and ends. Then, since I was in the area anyway, I wandered over to Notre Dame de Paris.

Even midday on a Tuesday, it took about 10 minutes for the line for entrance to the cathedral to make its way inside. Is this just still the holiday season, or is it like this all the time? And what a nuisance for those for whom this is their "home parish." But it’s as lovely as I remembered.

And now that I have my adapters, I can get set up again with my own Internet access. Yippee!

A quiet day today, a bit at loose ends. I made it to the 11 AM Mass at Notre Dame de Clignancourt and went for another walk out towards Montmartre. This time, though, instead of going up on the hill, I just followed Blvd de Rouchechouard out to the Place Pigalle, where it turns into the Blvd de Clichy. Which in turn is where Paris’ strip clubs congregate. This was another area full of tourists: I counted over a dozen tourist buses parked along the street.

While Sacré Cœur is a lovely church, it wouldn’t be way handy to attend it on a regular basis. Fortunately, there’s another parish just a few blocks away, Notre Dame de Clignancourt. I attended the Sunday evening Mass there this evening.

It looks as though there are no regularly scheduled ministers. Instead, there was a middle-aged lady who went among the congregation about 15 minutes before the liturgy began to recruit lectors (one for the first reading, one for the second reading, and a third for the prayers of the faithful) and people to take up the collection. I was one of the people recruited for the collection: I tried to demur, but she was having none of it. All I had to do was take my little basket up the center aisle and take the collection on the right and bring it to the back of the church. So I dutifully took up my share of the collection. And resolved *not* to show up early to Mass, at least not until I’m a little better settled in!

I went out this evening in search of someplace to have dinner and possibly turn into a regular hangout, and I think I found it.

The Table d’Eugene is just a little ways away, and it looked as though near about everyone there is a regular. It’s the sort of place where the patrons think nothing of getting up to get a bit more bread or being asked to help translate the menu for a hapless pair of tourists (not me; another table). The food and wine are tasty and reasonably priced. The proprietor is very genial, with a bit of a Richard Dawson complex.

I went out to pay my first visit to Montmartre & Sacré Cœur: this was my first visit ever, as I had never made it out this way on my earlier visit to Paris.

I wonder what the appeal of carousels is? They keep turning up on various plazas.

Sacré Cœur, and Montmartre generally, was mobbed: I don’t know if it was because it was a Sunday or because of the holiday. I picked up a schedule of services, and saw that Vespers was to be sung at 4:00 PM, so I wandered out for a late lunch (at an overpriced crèperie) and came back a little before 4:00.

The notice about services mentioned that the Benedictines of St. Pierre de Montmartre are making their annual retreat right now, so they were singing. It was a lovely service. I thought about staying for Mass, but Vespers ended at 5, while Mass was scheduled for 6, and I didn’t want to linger that much longer.