Friday October 26, 2018

Today we head off to take the open air bus tour around the main sights in Paris. It will give Suzanne a chance to see the bigger historical buildings and hear a short bit on their history.

We sat on top but it was cold and windy. Everyone had jackets, gloves and hats on. Suzanne had to go back downstairs and sit inside. I waited a little longer but as we got closer to the end of the route, I went down to join her and plan our next move.

We started at the Opera and got off at Madeline. In between we drove past the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, the Petit and Royal Palaces, the Eiffel Tower, Trocadoro, down the Champs Elysses, around the Arc de Triumph, and back towards the Opera district.

I chose to get off the bus at Madeline because I’d never been inside and didn’t know the history. The Madeleine Church was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon’s army. It has no windows but three large skylights which give it its only natural light.

Next was our scheduled walking tour of Montmartre, which is maybe my favorite area of Paris.

We met our tour guide at the Blanch metro stop which sits at the bottom of Montmartre. It is across the street from the Moulin Rouge.

Some history on that. Toulouse Latrec created some terrific art which was actually advertising for the Moulin Rouge. The MR had the first electric light bulbs in Paris which was a huge deal. It was a party place and people of all financial status came to party. There was a wall which defined Paris. Inside the Paris wall all goods brought in were heavily taxed, but the outskirts were not. The wall was in front of the MR making it outside of Paris and therefore a great place to party.

Our guide had more information on the ladies that danced the can can as well as the prostitutes who were part of the scene. The can can dancers dressed provocatively for the time as women did not even show their ankles and these dancers were showing their legs and other parts. The Moulin Rouge became an overnight success.

The Montmartre neighborhood has remained a close knit area and residents do their shopping close to home to help keep the small shop owners in business. The restaurants are good and we noticed the souvenirs were somewhat different and priced better.

There are two remaining windmills on the hill, and a vineyard. The area used to be covered with vineyards. The one remaining has terrible wine but it is priced high simply because it is the only one.

There are several water fountains throughout Montmartre and around Paris which were paid for by a man from England I believe. He was visiting Paris and could not believe the conditions of drinking water for those people without money. They still work today as demonstrated by our guide.

The original house to showcase music and dancing girls was Au Lapin Agile. The famous French singer Edith P used to frequent the house to sing and party. Today it sounds like a worthwhile place to enjoy music or even poetry, which would be difficult if you didn’t speak French!

As we continued to climb the hill, we came around the back of the Sacre Couer Church. It was the last church funded by the French government. An innocent guard was shot and killed in error by the French military on the site and to make amends the church was built.

A little history on the site…

The first Christian chapel was built on the site circa 270 AD in honour of Paris’ first bishop, St. Denis. According to the legend the Patron Saint was beheaded there by the Romans. After his execution the body of Denis would have picked its head up and started to walk while the mouth was delivering a complete sermon. The body stopped its stroll somehow and at the site where he fell completely dead was later erected a small shrine: the present-day St Denys-la-Chapelle. The name was eventually anglicised as Sydney.

…Copyright © French Moments Ltd unless otherwise stated. Read more at https://frenchmoments.eu/top-10-facts-about-the-sacre-coeur-paris/ .

The tour ended and I really enjoyed it. Our guide grew up in the neighborhood and other than university and a couple of years away, he still lives there.

We stood in the short que to get inside the church. It was very pretty and large. I’m not sure who painted the ceiling but it had blues and gold and sparkled.

The view from the church grounds looked out over all of Paris. You can see just how large this city is.

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the cold!! We are literally freezing and all we can think about is shopping for sweaters and jeans. On our last day we found jeans, which I needed anyway. Sue did as well. Despite the extra clothes, jackets, scarves, and jacket hood, we were both shivering. An occasional dash into a store or cafe helped.

We were looking for a place to eat and came upon this large group of guys. We noticed that a lot in Europe… there would be several men enjoying a meal and having fun. I just don’t see that here in the US. Do you?

Since we were finished with touring for the day, cold and hungry and in an amazing area, we found a warm restaurant, ordered a beer and a bowl of French onion soup and sat back to enjoy. Delicious, filling and we are officially warm but dreading going out.

The rain had started so we carefully hustled down the mountain (Montmartre – the mountain of martyrs) and ran into stairs as part of our route back to Metro. Poor Suzanne! At the end of the day we had walked 33 floors and 6 miles with a lot of standing around and a 2-hour bus tour. Tomorrow will have more walking I do believe!

#enjoythejourney