Thursday Still no list but more walking

I had some Canberra admin to do this morning which meant I was not in the least bit interested in sitting inside and deciding what i wanted to do for the next few days. I just thought roughly of my route and set off. I am staying in  the western part of Belleville. I have heard it described as the most ethnically diverse part of Central Paris. It used to be one of the poorest. I had a coffee in one of the new coffee shops that were appearing when I was here in 2019. There are lots more now, that is if this area is anything to go by. But I have the same whinge. They only seem to serve banana or carrot cake and a few biscuits. Not French delicacies. They are also expensive. This area, around me  is obviously not as poor as it used to be. There are quite a few new apartment blocks. There are fancy wine shops, flower shops, bread shops with things with different grains, coffee shops, restaurants, not many clothes shops.  I stopped for coffee in a new place combined with a cycling shop. As I got further east I went through a north African area,  based on the food shops mainly.  Then as I was getting nearer to Belleville Park there were a few quite busy small restaurants. I was quite pleased with myself. I passed one which looked nice but was 3/4 full. In the past i have not been comfortable going into almost full places. I walked on, but saw nothing for  a few blocks, so rather than go on and get hungry  and make poor decisions ,  I went back. There was a seat at the bar which faced the street, not into the restaurant.  The lady was lovely. She asked , in French, if I would like her to talk to me in  English. I said  in French, slowly in French please. There were about 6 tables outside and 10 inside. I am fairly sure that there was no choice.  She told me the menu of the day and I agreed to it,  but I think everyone had the same.  The 3 courses were not big but all delicious and cheap.

I walked on, through the park and kept going  eastwards and upwards. It is quite hilly. I have read a series of detective books based in Paris. Each one is in a particular area. I am almost finished rereading the one set in Belleville. The author  mentions an area near the highest part where there are individual houses.  There are about 10 townhouses , 2 or sometimes 3 stories high, not like the surrounding apartment blocks. Then I caught the metro back.

Over the past few days I have seen that  bicycle riders and drivers of shiny black cars with opaque windows think that they are not obliged to obey stop signs, red traffic lights, one way streets or pedestrian only streets. 

If you stand on the 10inch wide balcony off my lounge room and turn 90 degrees sideways you can see over the road a sporting complex and , in the distance about 1/3 from the left hand side,  a spire. That is the Eiffel Tower, apparently.  Not the tall , closer spire on the right.