The "Last Village of Paris" and a Basque Lunch

Today we did a walking tour of Butte Bergeyre which is billed as the "last village of Paris."  It's a small warren of streets near Butte Chaumont, tucked high on a hill, and it gets little auto traffic except for the residents.  It can be reached either by street or by three long, steep staircases.  At the time the houses were built, zoning laws didn't permit buildings higher than 4 stories, so the size of the buildings also contributes to the village feel.  There's a community garden, a small vineyard, and a beautiful view of Sacre Coeur in the distance.  It looks and feels very different from most of Paris.

By the way, we met a man in this area who advised us that the wine for 2015 is going to be particularly good, so keep that in mind when you're stocking your cellars.

After this challenging walk, we took the Métro over to Butte aux Cailles in the southeastern part of Paris.  We had lunch at Chez Gladines, a Basque restaurant - salad with bacon and chèvre for me and salad with ham, Comte cheese, potatoes, and an egg for Bill.  We shared an order of ile flottante ("islands" of meringue and a "sea" of creme Anglaise).  The outside of this restaurant is decorated by the well-known (in Paris, anyway) graffiti artist Miss Tic.

 Don't worry!  I remembered to buy the baguette for this evening.