Le moulin rouge, sans Nicole Kidman
Today we went to see the Moulin Rouge. Yes, it's there, it's red, with mill wheel and all. What you don't see in the movie are the dozens of tour buses dumping their passengers off in front to take silly photos standing proudly in front, or wander around reading the illustrated history in the entrance.
What was funnier, I thought, was the surrounding region. It was apparently one of the less-nice areas of Paris, and the entire street was lined on both sides with very loud sex shops, even more so than the street I remarked yesterday. "Cuir, latex, lingerie, poppers, poupées en 25 modèles, jouets..." In one rather amusing spot, a poor post office was surrounded by at least 5 sex shops on either side rather loudly and fluorescently advertising their wares. And these nice middle-American tourist families who would probably never bring their kids to an equivalent region in the states were happily strolling the street, looking at their tourist maps to find Sacré Coeur or the Moulin Rouge.
Random people sighting: a woman dragging along a small girl, aged perhaps 3 years, who ducked with the kid through the bead curtained entrance of a porn shop. The bead curtain was decorated with the image of a naked woman. Above the door was a sign saying "strictement interdit aux mineurs".
Random sample product in window: "Pâtes à zizi: grandissent quand cuit." Being, of course, penis-shaped pasta. That, along with the similarly themed soap-on-a-rope that we discovered in a kitsch-y shop yesterday, made me think fondly of my friends at home.
Sacré Coeur was depressing for the same reason that Notre Dame was a few days ago. There were tourists everywhere, despite the fact that 6 o'clock mass had just started. Actually, I was surprised by the number of people praying at the feet of Mary or St. Peter, and crossing themselves with holy water... it's good to know such a beautiful church still holds meaning for some, even if most of the people were just waiting to take the elevator-tram back to their tour bus.
Another people sighting: a very small girl kneeling in front of a chair at the church (outside the normal pews) with her hands folded in the prayer position, very intently staying absolutely still.
Later we met up with some of Gabriel's friends and went out for dinner at a Japanese place. I haven't had much in the way of Chinese food since coming to Europe, let alone Japanese, so it was nice. Apparently eating with chopsticks is a less-known skill in Europe than in California. I don't think I've met anyone since I've been here who really felt comfortable with them. (I'm only speaking from personal experience here, I'm sure there are large populations of Europeans who are perfectly adept with chopsticks. I just haven't met any of them. So, erm, don't get offended by my massive generalizations. You know who you are. ;P)