Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

“This hill though high I covent ascend; The difficulty will not me offend; For I perceive the way of life lies here. Come, pluck up, heart; let's neither faint nor fear. ” - John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress

The other day, I decided to go to La Basilique du Sacré Coeur, which is a famous landmark here in France. It's a Roman Catholic Church and it's name in English translates to The Basilica of the Sacred Heart (of Jesus).

Unfortunately, I had to walk through Vanity Fair to get there.

aka: Paris' Red Light District.

You know you've ended up in the sketchy zone of Paris when you step out of the metro and are instantly greeted by this.

and this

Because I'm so brave (read sarcastically) and because it was still daytime, I walked around to see the neighborhood. It's my first red light district, so you can't blame a girl for being curious.

I found the famous Moulin Rouge!

 

History 101: The Moulin Rouge is the famous cabaret founded in 1889. Moulin Rouge means ''red windmill'' (look* at photo). It is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance, which was a seductive dance performed by the courtesans. Moulin Rouge continues to perform musical dance entertainment (no, I didn't stay to watch).

Speaking of can-can, I found a cemetery (Montmartre Cemetery) nearby that contains the burial place of Jacques Offenbach!

Appropriate place to be buried

Others buried there included

Edgar Degas, the painter

Literally walked between it and the plot on the right while searching
Genius, Sherlock...

Adolphe Sax, the creator of the saxophone

I'm not a sax player, but WOWW SO COOL!

 And Hector Berlioz, the composer of Symphonie Fantastique!

After my walk in the cemetery, I started my way up the hill towards Sacré Couer. The entire city is built on a hill with the basilica at the pinnacle. The main road is basically sex shops, strip clubs, and adult movie stores. How pleasant.
Once you start walking up the sketchy smaller roads, it's actually not as bad (or maybe I'm just too clueless). There were a lot of little stores, cafés, bars, and who-know's what all the way up. As you get higher, the streets get quite busy, with tourists and scammers everywhere. I kept my bag close.

That's a lot of stairs...

At the base of the stairs to the Bascillica, you notice these black guys hanging around with coloured string in hand. (BTW I am not racist. They were all black. I am stating a fact.)

I noticed that some girls had stopped and the guy would be making a bracelet out of the string. I started to walk past them, trying not to make eye contact. Not sure if that makes me less noticeable or makes me more of a target, but I figured if you intentionally don't look at them you're sending a signal that you don't want to be bothered.

Either way, it didn't help. One guy was very pushy trying to get me to stop. I said ''No, thank you'' and walked past him. He then grabbed my arm and said ''Respect me.'' I turned, looked him in the eye, bared my teeth, and hissed.

Full out cat hissed.

That's right. I'm a cat. Or a vampire. A vampire would explain a lot.

I pointed my finger at him and very loudly said ''Do not touch me.'' He stepped back and put his hands up in the air at that point. I looked hard at him and then turned and walked up the rest of the way.

Don't mess with the little white girl.

Made it up the rest of the way without any issues and had a great view of the city. Huzzah!