Sacre-Couer and Sex Shops...what was your Saturday like? July 8th

So today started at 10am by heading out to the largest flea market possibly in the world...definitely in Paris. To attend much a bazaar we took the subway all the way to north Paris and exited in a sketchy part of town that reminded me of going to the alley in Los Angeles. Upon arrival we were greeted by men selling fake designer sunglasses and purses, quite aggressively. This amused me but seemed to startle some of the other girls. Moving on from there we had to make it through a sea of tents pushing similar wares that did make me feel rather uneasy. It was the kind of place you wanted to hold your purse extra tight in. Sadly, I was too nervous and uneasy to stop and try to get Austin a Fly Emirates jersey from one of the vendors...I also didn't know if they looked fake or not. However, I would find it quite amusing if I had actually gotten him a terrible knock off...that's probably more fun than if I'd gotten a decent one. We perused the flea market, which was exactly as you'd expect a large flea market to be...and I had my belief that I don't care for flea markets reaffirmed. It wasn't awful don't get me wrong, a fun and interesting way to spend a few hours...but I don't find things I want at flea markets is all. So, we all left relatively quickly as thankfully our interests dwindled at a similar rate. Hannah then said she was planning to go to Sacre Couer while in the area, everyone agreed to tag along...me not even knowing where we were headed. Where were we headed, you may ask? Just up all the stairs in the entirety of Pairs. We climbed 4-5 groups of approximately 20 steps on 3 different sets of stairs. To get to a church. In all fairness the church and the views of Paris were quite beautiful and it was a fun experience but in that moment, my thighs. I better not have cellulite after that experience. We then headed down only one large group of stairs into a much less shady city center where we found lunch. I enjoyed my second Croque Monsieur which was much more aesthetically pleasing and more delicious overall and a mojito. But gosh, the service at this place was the kind of service horror story you hear about when Aunt Deb tells you how deplorable a city Paris is. But for real, she was rude and there were issues with other people's orders. I however, really enjoyed my Croque Monsieur as this one had much more béchamel and an overall creamier vibe than the other. 9/10 a mandatory point loss for the restaurant having issues as a whole despite the food I received being quite good. The mojito gets a 5/10 because though good, it didn't have the mojito magic I'd hoped for. It was a tad lackluster. Continuing on from there we headed down the road to Moulin Rouge and the sex shops on the street that ensued. It was quite fun popping into them as they had beautiful, albeit expensive, lingerie and those long robes with the bell sleeves and feathers and god did I want one...it was 300 euros. After that though it was barely mid afternoon we needed to head home for rest and some homework time. We did some homework and went to the grocery store where I got wine and my dinner, a microwave risotto that I purchased as a food experiment. Today I was forced to wonder why does the Franprix have a security guard? Oh well, he was nice and very complimentary of me. As for the risotto it was so so, for microwave dinner very good but flavor all in all was quite bland. Again, this isn't bad more so simply forgettable. So it gets a 6/10 for being impressive microwave pasta but loss of points for not being impressive food. Onto the wines that were on sale where if I bought two (each for 3 euros) I got a third one free. So, I used this as an opportunity to sample all the wines! I got a peach white wine, along with raspberry and grapefruit rosés. They were all very good and punch like, some were more artificial flavoring tasting than others but I won't formally knock them for that because it made them fun and easy to drink punches. 9/10 for being delicious but loss of points for not being the classiest. I ended the night by hanging out with Tori and Hannah and finding tickets for a Caberet that we will attend next week!