The downside to visiting Montmartre, as I did this afternoon, is that around the Place du Tertre especially, it’s hard to avoid the hordes of artists, all clamoring to sketch your portrait (for a fee, of course). As with panhandlers, the usual trick is to avoid eye contact and to refuse to get drawn into conversation.
That said, I’m not sure how it happened, but I ended up having my portrait sketched; he started even though I had kept walking. So, yes I finally did stop. It is, at any rate, a flattering likeness:
(That’s my fuzzy Cossack hat, in case you’re wondering.)
