Paris, France: A day in Montmartre

Our first full day in Paris was predicted to be a very rainy day but overnight the forecast changed to a lot less rain and we decided to spend the day exploring Montmartre. Montmartre is the home of the highest point in the city, Sacre Coeur, as well as local artists and lots of graffiti. The streets are very steep and winding. We rode the metro up to Anvers station. I prefer Anvers to Abessess because Abessess has tons of stairs just to get out of the metro. With Anvers we walk up one street to the base of Sacre Coeur. Another advantage of the Anvers stop is the crepe store that’s at the end where Danny likes to stop every time and get a crepe. I love the carousel located at the end of the street as well. We began our climb up the many many stairs to beautiful Sacre Coeur, the Roman Catholic Church at the top of the hill. As  we climbed we stopped to take in the view  as well as listen to a beautiful harpist.  The girls also took pictures with a mime. I need to check old pictures and see if Brittany and Maddie also took pictures with the same Mime. We had to go through security and show inside our bags before entering the church. I have never had to do that before. There is also a sign saying “no photos” but there were so many people taking pictures inside that we just joined in. No one was asking people to stop? There was a service starting when we left and we were able to hear the beautiful organ playing. After leaving the church we shopped at a couple of places on our way to Place de Tertre where the artists ring the square. We walked all the way around until we found an artist whose artwork we Individually liked. We made a few purchases and then walked to Koff for lunch. It was good! The girls and Laurie ate quesadillas, I had a grilled chicken sandwich, debbie ate a hamburger and Danny ate what he thought was a traditional goat cheese on toast sandwich. He was super surprised to see iceberg lettuce for his salad! We all agreed it was a good lunch and gave us a moment to rest our feet! After lunch we continued to hunt for street art and walked uphill to La Maison Rose, the “pink house” so frequently visited by tourists for photographs.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Montmartre for street art, eating gelato at Amarino and popping into a couple of stores. We arrived back to the apartment around 5 for a little rest. We ate supper at Bistro Victoires which we all agreed was delicious and the prices couldn’t be beat! Our jet lag is improving and I believe we are all ready to tackle a day trip to London tomorrow. Until tomorrow!!!