A uniquely designed place of worship

We stopped at the base of Sacre Coeur to find a quiet place to call home and see how our daughter was doing. Of course, she was more interested in what her Nana and Poppa were going to take her to do that day than worrying about Mommy and Daddy being gone. We were so easily replaced...How loved did we feel?

In the section of Montmartre where we stopped to call home, across the street was the Pariosse catholique Sainte Jean de Montmartre. Unlike many churches we had seen which where stone faced, Sainte Jean de Montmartre wash brick and tile covered.

The inside was a little darker than average but it was as beautiful as the others. The tile on the outside formed a stunning look that is uniquely Montmartre, which is considered the black sheep of the arrondissements of Paris. Its a little seedier than your average Paris area.

Unfortuately, I'm not a good enough a photographer to capture the beauty of this church but hopefully I do some justice to the stunning uniqueness of this place.

A closeup of the front entrance.

A close up of the tiles.

Outside the church was a tile plaque listing those who had died from this parish in WWI. This is something that nearly every church we visited had.

Paris is a city that does not forget those who tragically left too early.

Gracious, that's a long way up! Just don't look down..

After buying our Moulin Rouge tickets for Friday night and having lunch, we headed off into Montmartre to find Sacre Coeur.

Paris' Right Bank (Rive Droite) seems to be on a higher level than the Left Bank. So the basilica Sacre Coeur, is up a hill. Way up a hill. So high up that there is a trolley bus and a Funicular.

Here in lays my defeat. I'm a terrified of heights. Panic attack sized terrified of heights. Add to that the lack of sleep from jet lag, being in a unfamiliar city and you have a very bad Mommy Jeans day.

I had been having small panic moments through out the trip but the hike up to Sacre Coeur was the pinnacle of these moments. But I really wanted to see Sacre Coeur. It was a battle of emotions and slow walking.

I barely made it up the hill and much less take any pictures. Most of the pictures taken were by my husband. You aren't allowed AT ALL to take shots inside the church. That was maddening because it was a) the most well lit of all the churches we visited and b) it was among the most grand.

After we left the church, visited the gift shop and headed back down, my brain returned to normal. I still had the fear of crossing over bridges that spanned the Seine but those were very minor compared to the trip up the great big hill.

At the base of the hill, where these fountains that are strewn throughout Paris. They are basically fountains designed to bring up water to refresh yourself. I can only wonder if that is what started Parisians to wear scarves around their necks constantly. If you refresh yourself, you need something to dry off your face with, ergo a thin scarf.

The exterior of Sacre Coeur

Just under the church arches

A zoomed in look at the center of one of the arches interior

I'm not sure what this is but it is next to the Church so I would suspect maybe a monastery or priests' quarters.

A refreshing fountain

I take you to Paris and you order a hamburger?!

After we reserved our Moulin Rouge tickets, we were starving. Its amazing when you are walking so much, how often you forget to eat...if only this happened more often.

We headed over the cafe across from the Moulin Rouge as we wanted to headed over Sacre Coeur before we headed back home for dinner.

I was starving and for whatever reason, I was desperate for a hamburger. I can't explain it but I was looking for something familar. My husband upon hearing what I wanted to order, he exclaimed "I take you to Paris and you order a hamburger?!"

Yes. that is a hamburger with an egg and no bun. I didn't order it this way, that's how it arrived. Paging Dr. Atkins? And do you want to know how much this cost? About 14€...21$US but worth every penny in my book.



There is an air vent across the street from the Rouge, that appears to be a tourist favourite. It must be a vent that pumps hot air out of the Metro below. Everyone seemed to want to stand on top of the vent and re-enact the Marilyn Monroe pose from the Seven Year Itch.

I only wish I could have stopped inhaling my burger or whining about my sore feet to get a picture of this.

Also of note, I had to pay ,20€ (about 35 cents) to use the restaurant toilet. I lost ,20€ by using two ,10€ pieces instead of one ,20€ coin. The restaurant reimbursed me. Thankfully, I was not in deperate need of the toilet or it might have been very bad.

Did I mention that just about every restaurant has their bathroom in the basement? Sore legs, having to pee and nearly 90 degree inclined stairs equal agony for yours truly.

Service with a smile

So after we walked up the Champs D'Elysees, we stopped for a brief respite to get a drink (me some water and my husband a coffee). You see the difference in price? Its also more expensive to be served on the terrace than in the restaurant itself.

We also witnessed the ring scam, as performed by young minions who artfully displayed this scam every five feet, so it was kinda obvious. One kid even had his 'found ring' taken by a smart lady and then had to run after her to get it back.
We also headed over the Renault F1 store to get some pictures of the cars.

The Champs D'Elysees was not quite as opulent as I expected. There were major fashion designers but also various other lower brands. I guess I expected the streets to be paved with the finest silks.

If you go to Paris, you must go to the Moulin Rouge!

My husband from the start of our trip planning wanted to go see a show in Paris.

The two obvious choices were the best known ones, the Moulin Rouge and the Crazy Horse.

As we walked towards the Crazy Horse, we headed up through the Fashion District that had quite a number of very well dressed folks compared to our tired and sweaty selves.

We discussed whether we wanted to see a Moulin Rouge show or a Crazy Horse show. They cost about the same but honestly, I was more inclined to see the Moulin Rouge as the Crazy Horse is known more as a gentleman's show than mixed company.

So off we went to Montmarte and the Moulin Rouge.

When I was preparing for Paris, I wanted to buy a new camera. I ended up buying a FZ28. It has a special film mode where you can take shots like those taken by old pinhole cameras. When I finally got my camera, all I could think about was what the Moulin Rouge sign would look like the lense of a pin hole camera. Stupid I know, but you know small things amuse small minds.

The shot!

So while my husband reserved our Moulin Rouge tickets, I got my much anticipated shots. The reality wasn't as fun as I had imagined but I still had fun, despite being hot and tired.

Its a fairly simple looking place. Somehow I expected something more spectular given the lavish show that is put on when you watched the revue.

There is also a huge air vent just to the left and behind where this shot is taken. I'm assuming it is air forced up out of the Metro because there is a Metro stop in the same area. For whatever reason, people (read tourists) like to stand on the vent and recreate Marilyn Monroe's Seven Year Itch scene (the air blowing up her dress).

Why isn't there a picture of that? I was too busy eating my lunch (by this time it was nearly 2pm and we had had breakfast at 9am and walked a LONG way) and trying to make my feet stop hurting as we still had to head up the street (about a 20 minute walk) to Sacre Coeur.

5 miles again...

So Tuesday we got up refreshed and just about jet lag free. But we encountered a new problem, sore legs and feet.

How do you cure sore legs and feet? Walk another 5 miles!

We headed off to the Notre Dame Cathedral that was literally a 2 minute walk from our hotel door. We had opted not to invest in the Museum pass but we didn't intend to spend a lot of time in museums. Thankfully Notre Dame has a free door, which allows you to just tour the interior chapel of the church.

Again, I was met with such an austereness when I entered the church. It is just a) huge and b) stunning. When you stop to think that this place has been built over several hundreds of years, its amazing. How can you built such stone work and stain glass without more modern methods is just mind boggling. It is a testament to the passion of those who built these structures to their faith and their workmanship.

Not too many of my interior shots have turned out well enough to show, so I thought I'd give an idea of the detailed work on the exterior of the church. For more detailed inside shots, have a look at the Notre Dame website listed above.

From Notre Dame, we continued on the Louvre, we were discovered that we screwed up again, it was closed. We toured the vast grounds that make up the Louvre and continued down through the Jardins de Tuileries.

The main entrance into the Louvre's courtyard and entrance

The Louvre itself is a few city blocks long.



The corridor that leads to the Louvre courtyard

The famous pyramids. You actually enter through the base of the big pyramid and descend down into the museum via an escalator.

The collections are housed in each of the sides of the courtyard.

Tuesday was the hottest day we spent in Paris. It was about 28C (mid to high 80sF) and there isn't a whole of A/C in Paris. We stopped at several points along the way as we were quite hot and hadn't brought any water with us. Buying water in Paris is more expensive than buying beer.

We eventually stopped at a cafe to have a drink. S got an expresso and yours truly got a bottle of water. The expresso was 4€ and my water? 6€. Dare I say that Evian is Naive spelt backwards? A traveler's tip: order your drink from the bar, it is significantly cheaper than ordering it from a waiter on the terrace. An expresso at the bar is 1,5€ versus 4€ ordered on the terasse.

Back to our story. Despite the heat and miscommunication about when the Louvre was open, we continued on. From the Jardin, we headed towards the Place du Concorde. More fountains, more Egpytian motifs (the Obelisk) and more views of the Eiffel Tower.

At the end of this shot is the Obelisk. You can also see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. Between the Obelisk and the Arc is the Champs des Elysees.

This stature marked the end of the Gardens and the starting of the Place du Concorde. My husband noted on many occasion just how amazing how you could see the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Couer or the Dome Church from various sights in Paris.

The Obelisk is quite tall...can you imagine how they ever got it back to Paris back in the early 18th century?

As we were taking pictures of the Place and the Obelisk, I zoomed into the fountain in the middle of the Concorde.

As I zoomed in to the fountain, a man stripped off his shirt and hopped into the fountain to cool himself. I couldn't help but get this on film. It was something that I would not have expected to see in a such a formal city.

You can see the man's personal items to the left of the shot. It was a sobering reminder that even in a city as beautiful and wealthy as Paris, there are those who don't share in its wealth.