Day 35 - Paris: Sacre Coeur and Luxembourg Gardens

11:30pm - Paris

Our first full day in Paris got off to a slow start.  We spent the morning sleeping in, catching up on laundry and planning what we were going to do with the rest of our time here.  It was after lunch before we collectively realized that unless we took action we'd have "wasted" a whole day sitting inside our apartment.  We set out at 2:30pm.

We decided to save our six-day Paris Museum Passes for a day we could actually start in the morning and so we set out for Montmarte and the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur.  I hadn't been before, but I was eager to visit and it seemed a good place to give an overview of the city.  It was definitely too far to walk to from our apartment, so we got our first group Metro experience traveling to that part of the city.

You know that feeling when you get off a subway in a strange city, climb out to the street and look for the way to go?  It's always a little disorienting for me.  We got off at the Barbès–Rochechouart station and walked to the bottom of the hill.  Since today was Sunday, most of the shops were closed and the with the construction going on, I was beginning to think I was lost.  But as we turned the corner at Rue de Steinkerque to walk up the hill, I knew we were in the right place.  Besides being able to see the basilica, we had to run the gauntlet of souvenir shops and shell games.

We soon started the climb up the hill and were rewarded with successively better views the higher we got.

After taking a turn inside (which was lovely)

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we decided we needed to scale the dome for a proper panorama

Naturally, having seen the top and the middle, we had to see the bottom, too.  So we also toured the crypt.

Once the girls realized that that was NOT a tomb, but really just the underground "basement" of the church, they were cool with that too.

We left the basilica and wandered through the Place du Tertue on our way back down the hill.  It was packed with artists willing to do portraits.

My girls, of course, found another cat to befriend.

At the bottom of the hill, we came upon the Église Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre, an Art Nouveau church built around the turn of the 20th century. Its tile decorations were really something to see.

 

After that, we decided that the kids needed a "sightseeing" break so we hopped on the Metro again and headed for Luxembourg Gardens.  Among other things, this park has a pretty cool play area.  Our kids went nuts inside it and focused most of there attention on the zip line.

While the kids played, Laura and I did some research and selected a nearby restaurant for dinner, La Maison de Verlaine.  With a quick phone call, we made reservations.  We rounded up the kids and set off for dinner.

Dinner was enjoyable and good.  After which, we made our way back to the apartment as it started to rain.

It was a good, full day.

Tomorrow is Katie's 11th birthday and we have some special things planned for her.