The other day I was up in Montmartre visiting friends-one a resident of Paris, another a friend made on the Internet-and it was such a beautiful day that I decided to walk instead of going underground to the metro. Montmartre is in the 18th. Heading downhill, as Montmartre is high on a hill overlooking Paris, I walked down rue des Martyrs, which took me into the 9th arrondissement, ending up in the 2nd eventually on Rue Vivienne. At that point I decided to look for a bus and walked into the 1st arrondissement to Place des Victoires. Earlier that morning I had taken the metro, line 12, to Abessess a stop deep underground and found the elevator to the surface wasn’t working so had to climb the 200 or so steps up. Then I planned to take the funicular up to the top by Sacre Coeur only to find it wasn’t working either leaving me with 250 more steps to climb(not to mention my morning exercise too) so it was nice to finally take my seat on the bus which deposits me right across the street from where we live-I have to climb the stairs to the 3rd floor then-so I got some exercise and some vitamin D from that lovely sun.

One of two windmills found in Montmartre. There used to be many, used to grind wheat into flour. This one has a restaurant underneath now. The Moulin Rouge is further down the hill.

One set of the many staircases found in Montmartre.

A nice flower shop I passed on my walk.

A common sight in Paris-a line of children on an excursion. Sometimes they are really young, like three or so.

I have some Irish blood floating around somewhere in my body so I may go out for a drink to celebrate but it won’t be beer, not even if it is green. I just can’t drink it. Maybe a green mojito?

I was in the Belleville area of Paris the other day getting my chinese food fix-I think I could eat it every day-when I happened to notice a very colorful, very tagged street right near the Belleville metro stop.

It is apparantly a whole street that allows and encourages grafitti and almost every building side was covered in wild painting.

A kid painting over some graffiti already there.

A look at one of the walls.

Someone at work-note the mask. The whole street reeked with the odor of spray paint.

I wanted to pass this along for anyone who might be interested, or you might know someone who is. It sounds fabulous:

UNIQUE ONE-WEEK CULTURAL TOUR
3 Exquisite Destinations: PARIS-BARCELONA-CADAQUES
Dates: September 21 – September 27, 2010

If you love art, culture, local foods, dance, shopping, festivals… contact Barbara at www.ParisTALKS.com for the complete itinerary and pricing. Places are limited. (I’m hoping to go myself. Hard to beat that itinerary!)

Magical Cadaqués, Spain – Home of artist Salvador Dali

Ah, the joys of menapause. I’ve been having hot flashes for years and took some form of estrogen to try and stop all of those signs of aging. I sort of worried especially when studies from America came out placing all sort of problems on the door step of estrogen consumption. Because it made me feel so much better I kept my fingers crossed and kept taking it. Finally, our doctor in Provence talked me into quitting. It was awful-not only hot flashes and interrupted sleep but crabiness as well.

Then a friend who lives in Paris told me that her doctor has her on an estrogen gel and I decided to go see the doctor. It turned out that she is one of the experts in France on women and menapause. She told me that France had done their own study on estrogen and came up with different findings than America. Estrogen gel, rubbed on the inside of my arms every morning, does not cause the problems seen with estrogen by mouth. I also take progesterone in the evenings. It’s so nice to feel normal again. Plus, I am told that estrogen stops the aging process some and my skin will look younger. Works for me.
The doctor, a woman, insisted that I get a bone scan to make sure I’m not suffering from osteoporosis, which I’m not, and that I get a yearly mammogram since I have an aunt on my mother’s side that had breast cancer.

So far, since I’ve lived in France, I’ve had my mammograms done in the States. I still focus on the first chest x-ray I had here in France and the fact that there was no gown for this puritanical American to cover herself with. Finally, I got over it and had a mammogram done here in Paris. The tech was a guy, as opposed to the usual woman in the States, but he was great and it went very well and also very quickly. Everything was negative which is always a great feeling.
What’s next for me in the world of medicine in France? I’m hoping there won’t be any more of the French medical world to experience.

An interesting church not far from Notre Dame and located at the start of the dubious Latin Quarter is St Severin. This is one of Paris’s older and finer churches. It was built in the 13th century and in the 15th centrury acquired it’s flamboyant look seen is the great fan vault seen behind the altar looking like palm trees some say. It’s a nice, quiet church to visit, cool on a hot day and full of the ghosts of past worshipers.

The most famous part of the church.

I love the repeating arches.