February 3 Sunday
Our plan for today was to explore the Montmartre and Sacre Coeur area. We spent a little time planning how to get there on the Metro and looking at the recommended walk from our guidebook. The book recommends using a different Metro stop than most tourists would use, so that is what we did. We rode to the stop Lamarck-Caulaincourt. Exiting the station, we made our way down some steps and along a residential street and then after about three blocks, Roy realized that he had guided us in the wrong direction. Retracing our steps, we climbed up the steps and found Avenue Junot. This lovely avenue was very nice, and we saw the building where Edith Piaf entertained her lover Yves Montand. We also admired a nice cul de sac called Villa Leandre. We walked up the avenue some more, overshot our right turn, then again retraced our steps to find the Moulin de la Galette. We took a few photos and then walked along the Rue Lepic, which was entertaining to us because a restaurant in San Francisco has this same name. Next we were supposed to find the Vigne de Montmartre, but we passed on that. We then came across the very touristy core of Montmartre with its myriad tourist shops and bad looking cafes. We did find the central square where artists display their art. Most of this art was painted scenes of Paris, okay if you want that sort of cliched souvenir. We were looking for something more sophisticated, not touristy and then we found it. An artist named Vivienne had two small, lovely still life paintings of flowers in vases, which seem quite nice to us, so we bought them for 35 euros. Vivienne was charming, and we had a nice, basic conversation in French. She asked where we were from and when we told her, she emphasized how much she loves Americans — that was so nice! I told her my name was Roy, and she said that she could never pronounce that!
We made our way to the church and admired the views. There is no view of the Eiffel Tower from here, but you can see the Pompidou Centre and Notre Dame. Also, there are police with machine guns. Then we entered the church. Sacre Coeur was built in the 1870s as a reaction to losing the Franco-Prussian War. The style is Roman Byzantine, somewhat patterned after St. Mark’s in Venice. Inside is very beautiful. It is decorated with tiled mosaics. Rob was reminded of the blue interior of Montreal’s cathedral. Silence was required inside, and we made the circuit around the church, taking photographs then exiting. We walked down the large staircase in front of the church taking lots of photos, including a selfie! At the bottom, there were more tourist shops and cafes for about one block.
We then walked west along the Boulevard de Clichy. This neighborhood, while not exactly seedy, is filled with sex shops and strip clubs. We wouldn’t necessarily want to be here at night, although it is probably safe. We made our way to the Moulin Rouge, probably not the original windmill. Anyway, we took our requisite photos. There was also a club called Le Chat Noir, but the original is clearly long gone. We kept walking and made our way past the Gare St. Lazard (very nice with a “pay” bathroom in a neighborhood called “Europe”) and came upon the Grand Boulevard Haussmann — and grand it is! The architecture is exactly what you want to see when you visit Paris. Le Printemps department store is gorgeous. We continued walking, and then we saw the back end of the opera house (Garnier) and the Galaries Lafayette, another big department store. It was a nice walk with many people on the sidewalk. After a while, the avenue, while still grand, started to look a little “work-a-day,” so to speak, not so nice. We continued on and then came upon the Porte St Denis, a massive arch that stands where the original Paris city wall once stood. Interestingly, google maps identifies it as Porte St. Martin, but the photo doesn’t match — not 100% sure which one is which. We made a right turn here on the Rue St. Martin, which took us back eventually to the Pompidou Centre area.
From here, we turned left on the Rue Rambuteau and headed back to our apartment (we stopped for some wine at Nicolas, where I accidentally said “por favor” — ugh!). We also found some okay cookies.
For dinner tonight we strolled to the east to the restaurant recommended by Barry called Au Bourguignon du Marais. The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere, and our young waitress was very nice, but the food was disappointing. Roy started with French Onion soup, which seemed bland. Shouldn’t the onions be more caramelized? Rob had a ham terrine, which he did not finish. For mains, Roy had an entrecôte with frites, which was really gristly and the frites were greasy (even Roy did not finish them). Rob had shrimp in a saffron sauce with green beans and broccoli. It was okay. Our side order of green beans were very good, though. Oh well, we really liked the restaurant, except for the food!
We made our way to the church and admired the views. There is no view of the Eiffel Tower from here, but you can see the Pompidou Centre and Notre Dame. Also, there are police with machine guns. Then we entered the church. Sacre Coeur was built in the 1870s as a reaction to losing the Franco-Prussian War. The style is Roman Byzantine, somewhat patterned after St. Mark’s in Venice. Inside is very beautiful. It is decorated with tiled mosaics. Rob was reminded of the blue interior of Montreal’s cathedral. Silence was required inside, and we made the circuit around the church, taking photographs then exiting. We walked down the large staircase in front of the church taking lots of photos, including a selfie! At the bottom, there were more tourist shops and cafes for about one block.
We then walked west along the Boulevard de Clichy. This neighborhood, while not exactly seedy, is filled with sex shops and strip clubs. We wouldn’t necessarily want to be here at night, although it is probably safe. We made our way to the Moulin Rouge, probably not the original windmill. Anyway, we took our requisite photos. There was also a club called Le Chat Noir, but the original is clearly long gone. We kept walking and made our way past the Gare St. Lazard (very nice with a “pay” bathroom in a neighborhood called “Europe”) and came upon the Grand Boulevard Haussmann — and grand it is! The architecture is exactly what you want to see when you visit Paris. Le Printemps department store is gorgeous. We continued walking, and then we saw the back end of the opera house (Garnier) and the Galaries Lafayette, another big department store. It was a nice walk with many people on the sidewalk. After a while, the avenue, while still grand, started to look a little “work-a-day,” so to speak, not so nice. We continued on and then came upon the Porte St Denis, a massive arch that stands where the original Paris city wall once stood. Interestingly, google maps identifies it as Porte St. Martin, but the photo doesn’t match — not 100% sure which one is which. We made a right turn here on the Rue St. Martin, which took us back eventually to the Pompidou Centre area.
From here, we turned left on the Rue Rambuteau and headed back to our apartment (we stopped for some wine at Nicolas, where I accidentally said “por favor” — ugh!). We also found some okay cookies.
For dinner tonight we strolled to the east to the restaurant recommended by Barry called Au Bourguignon du Marais. The restaurant had a very nice atmosphere, and our young waitress was very nice, but the food was disappointing. Roy started with French Onion soup, which seemed bland. Shouldn’t the onions be more caramelized? Rob had a ham terrine, which he did not finish. For mains, Roy had an entrecôte with frites, which was really gristly and the frites were greasy (even Roy did not finish them). Rob had shrimp in a saffron sauce with green beans and broccoli. It was okay. Our side order of green beans were very good, though. Oh well, we really liked the restaurant, except for the food!
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