Montmartre, la République, Bastille...

A live performance in Montmartre

After I had eaten, I called Romain who I had been in contact with the same morning. He said he was in Montmarte, near one of the mills and that he would wait for me there. I climbed the hill and found him, as always, with a little beard. He was with some friends who were also going to watch the street theatre in the neighbourhood. We talked a while before the parade started so I was glad that I managed to catch up with him and that everything was fine.

There was about 20/30 of us watching the performance and I realised that all the actors were friends of Romain who went to Theatre School, so we were surrounded by actors. It was the best way possible to get to know this neighbourhood. In addition to it being in Spanish, the protagonist, was also a guide, so he showed us around. But he was very funny. The guide played the role of a nosey painter from the nineteenth century, a character who apparently saw a lot there at the time. It was in Montmartre that many great artists of the era worked and lived, both French and Spanish and some other nationalities too. There were lots of musicians, actors and artists in general in the neighbourhood, which was the reason it became known as the Bohemian quarter. Numerous bars, brothels and small theatres started to open in the neighbourhood, thus it became the cosmopolitan mile of Paris, the same as the Montparnasse quarter on the other side of the Seine. We went through the house where Van Gogh had lived before the ear incident, and we saw the study where Picasso had supposedly worked. We also visited many other places where many famous artists had lived and worked at the time.

In the street theatre, other actors joined in that were posing as passers-by in the streets of Montmartre; his beloved, who was a prostitute and continually broke his heart, his landlord, who never stopped chasing him asking for the money that he owed him, a friend who was also an artist and hustler... And many more characters that helped us to imagine what life was like all those years ago.

Montmartre is full of slopes, because it is on a hill, so every time we stopped to see an act of the play, we all had to sit down on benches nearby, or lean on lampposts and walls... and even I had to, after two days of non-stop walking around Paris. Finally, we were taken from the back of the Sacre-Coeur to a park where they then all began to sing a song that will never be forgotten, "La boheme". They passed the hat around so that those who had been watching could make a donation and despite it being a "low cost" holiday, they definitely deserved to be paid.

Just at that point, in the neighbourhood of painters, it began to rain, so we had to get the umbrella out again. We only had a few hours of daylight left and Romain had to leave, but I definitely wasn't ready to go home, I wanted to learn more about Paris. I went to the metro Château Rouge with Romain and after saying goodbye, I took line 4 and made my way to Gare du Nord, one of the most famous train stations in Paris, but more importantly it was where I had to take the train to Cologne from the next morning. I changed my line and took the 5 until I got to the stop, Republique in the Republic Square.

Makeshift market in the Paris Metro

It was still pouring it down but near the metro, next to the stairs, I stumbled across a class in economy, or at least how the markets work. The law of supply and demand was represented in a clear and concise way at that metro stop. Those same men selling water bottles all over Paris when it was hot were now selling umbrellas at a frantic pace, and not for a low price. It was still raining and people who were leaving the metro were rushing to buy an umbrella. I'm not sure exactly how much they cost, but 5€ and 10€ notes were flying around everywhere. Luckily I had my umbrella.

Place de la Republique, Bastille and heading home

I got to Place de la Republique and it was still raining so much, I began to take a couple of pictures and then went to find the metro so I could go to Bastille. Place de la Republique was just a roundabout with a statue in the centre, so there were not much to see. In Bastille, it was pretty much the same. Rain, people trying to buy umbrellas and a roundabout with a monolith in the middle. From what I read on the Internet, when Parisians want to protest or celebrate something, they gather in this square because it is a symbol of the French Revolution.

After I had seen everything, with my feet still soaking, being cold and above all so tired, I decided it was time to buy something for dinner. I took line 1 and made my way home to get a good shower. With all the walking I had done, I'm sure I could have reached my next destination, Germany. And after everything I saw, I definitely enjoyed Paris since I have all these wonderful anecdotes to write about. I hope to go back to Paris one day, I don't know when, but I still want to discover all the places I missed, and hopefully I can share the experience with someone next time.

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