montmartre

i want to visit the basilica, i tell HOM. we missed montmartre the last time. 

so we take the metro to abbesses, per google. i find out later that abbesses is an historic station, the deepest of them all, and access is usually via elevator. BUT GOOGLE DID NOT TELL US ALL THIS. which is why HOM gallantly pulls me up the butt-cramping never-ending spiral of steps to the exit.

the view is stupendous. the basilica is magnificent. the buskers are variable. the artists' square is full of portrait vendors. the street magicians are seedy as promised. Le Babalou delivers on its pizza, per yelp. plus, as a result, the iphone says i climb 45 storeys today.