Day 5

Last night (Monday night), we just relaxed for a while, I finally finished my homework, and we headed to dinner at a delicious French restaurant. I tried my first “croquet madam,” and I loved it! Hill had some pasta, but Andrea’s was totally the best. It was a “salty pancake a fromage.” It sounded a little iffy, but it was basically a crepe (not sweet) filled with three or four types of melty cheese, including bleu cheese. Yum! I’m hoping that walking everywhere will burn off all these calories we are consuming, it seems, every time we sit down!

On to today……it was amazing!! By far one of the coolest things we’ve done. Andrea and I got up early-ish for us (7:30am) and got ready. We took the metro system (not as bad as I thought! Very clean and fairly easy to use) to the Sacre-Coeur Cathedral. It was amazing! I thought it was even prettier than the Notre Dame Cathedral. We hiked up so many steps…I’m telling you, I better come home with a toned bod! We got in trouble inside the church for taking pics and then not having our shoulders covered because we wanted to sit in the pews. So, we headed outside to climb up to the dome. It was a narrow, dark, scary staircase that seemed to go on forever again….but the views from the top rivaled the Eiffel Tower. Very beautiful. The sky was blue and had a few clouds scattered around…it looked like a postcard! And, the best part was that we saw a few nuns (in habit!) heading to church as we were on the top. I had never seen a nun in habit, and it almost seemed like a movie.

After heading down the hill from the cathedral, we started a walking tour from our very handy guidebook (thank you Dad!) with 21 stops. First stop was another church, the Church of St. Pierre-de-Montmarte. Nothing too memorable, but the next stop was a cabaret, the Cabaret de Patachou. This walking tour was partly touristy, partly residential, and it was definitely not like the place we are staying. Everything was cheaper, but some parts of the tour we walked through were a little seedier. There were a lot of cabaret-like places, or little cafes where famous people, mainly artists and writers used to hang out. We walked up to an artsy area where people were painting portraits and landscapes of Paris. Some of the paintings were adorable—they were of this little square where we were, and were of the actual flower shops and cafes. I wanted one (it would look cute in a bathroom or on a shelf), but didn’t want to haul anything around. We had lunch at a little café there—a pizza with a fried egg on top. It was actually delish! Also in this artsy area was the Salvadore Dali museum, L’Espace Dali. We went in there and saw some amazing pieces. My favorites were his take on Alice in Wonderland and Romeo and Juliette. After the museum, we headed toward the more residential areas and saw an adorable pink café named La Maison Rose Restaurant. The book said the food was terrible, but Utrillo, Picasso and Gertrude Stein used to hang out there. I liked it because it was ballerina pink with green Perrier umbrellas.

We kept walking and saw Paris’ only remaining vineyard, complete with rows and rows of teeny tiny grapes growing on the vines. Andrea and I decided we wanted to get married here (not to each other, of course!) and decided we’d look into that. Next, we walked by Renoir’s home and a cute little park with a statue of St. Dennis. The legend was that St. Dennis was sentenced to death by the Romans for spreading Christianity. They were walking him up to the top of Montmarte to be executed, but they were tired, so they chopped his head off where this park is now. St. Dennis’ body rose up, grabbed his head, and continued walking for three more miles. So now, they have this lovely statue of St. Dennis, holding his head out, while children run and play around it. Kind of morbid, but they looked happy. Then, we continued to a crowded street and saw Picasso’s studio and Van Gogh’s home. We also found some super cute little shops to bop into (imagine that) and some beautiful flower shops. They had tons and tons of orchids, and bright blue roses!

Finally, we made it to the seedy part of town…and the Moulin Rouge. We couldn’t go into the theatre, but we got to see some of the pictures and accessories (think rhinestones, feathers, heels and headdresses). Looked like it would be quite a show! This was definitely the racier area—there were “love shops” (if you get my drift...), peep shows and all sorts of nonsense all over the street. This area was called Pigalle, or “Pig Alley.” By this time, it was 4pm, our feet were tired, and we still had to navigate the metro home. Luckily, the man at the window down in the metro was very nice and very helpful, and we made it home with no problems. Actaully, everyone I’ve met so far has been so, so nice, and really not rude at all. I think it helps that Andrea and I are always smiling like idiots and trying to use the French phrases, although we’re butchering them terribly. Half the time, Andrea is speaking Spanish, and though I’m not sure why, it sure is hilarious. Now, we got home, organized our pics, and are resting until dinner. I will try to post pics while we are here, but it takes forever because you have to load them one by one. If I don't get them done while we're here, I will get them up whe we get back!