Day 49: Montmartre

I was up early, and decided to go for an exploratory walk around Montmartre while Michelle slept in.
There were still quite a few people in the Place du Tertre, even at this early hour.  I needed to get a map, however the tourist office wouldn’t open till 10:00am so I wandered around the mostly deserted streets, heading in the general direction of Sacré Cœur.

The streets between the apartments gave little glimpses of Paris in the distance, and the shops in the narrow streets were preparing to open for the new day’s tourists as I approached Sacré Cœur with its sweeping views across Paris.  The hawkers had already built their net to catch every tourist climbing the stairs.

10:00AM arrived and now Place du Tertre was crawling with people.  I got my Montmartre tourists map, and was off dodging tour groups and delivery trucks and heading down the streets.
I could hear a pianist practicing from up high in one of the nearby apartments, as I approached a sunken terrace to the right of the street.  I stood listening to the music for a while; whoever was playing was doing so most beautifully.  Whilst enjoying my sneaky private concert, I turned and saw a bronze man, half in, and half out of the wall.

I walked down into the empty Place Marcel Aymé, and up to the statue of Dutilleul, a man who had the remarkable gift of being able to pass through walls with perfect ease.
I was caught in the moment; in a quiet Place with the sounds of the piano dreamingly drifting down from above, when a group of young school children exploded into the square.  Running towards the statue, screaming and yelling and laughing, and then stopping abruptly and politely when they saw me taking my last photo; then after I stepped aside, came forth to pull on Dutilleul’s leg, and pose with their friends for their own photos.
After their excitement subsided, they all sat down to the side in the shade and quietly listened while their teacher read them the story of the man who walked through walls.  At least I believed they were reading the story.  It is probably a little saucy for young kids??

http://www.stresscafe.com/translations/pm/

As I was leaving, a couple arrived and vainly tried to rescue Dutilleul from the wall he was trapped in, pulling on his shiny hand and taking a photo of their attempt.
Wandering the streets again, past Vincent van Gogh’s house which I couldn’t find (not the best of maps) and Le Moulin de la Galette, and then through the busier streets bypassing the boulangeries and pâtisserie and poissoneries to very happily find Amelie’s Café des 2 Moulins.  Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain is definitely one of my favourite movies.  We were actually staying on Rue des Trois Freres, the same street as Amelie’s apartment!

So this must be tomorrow’s breakfast destination.
Continuing on downhill to the Boulevard de Clichy and Le Moulin Rouge, where I stood with other groups of tourists to get a photo of the famous red windmill, despite delivery trucks parked in front.
I was to meet Michelle at the top of the stairs at Place du Tertre, so started to make my way back up the hill in that direction, past the cistern and the now very busy streets of Montmartre.

The Biscuiterie de Montmartre had now opened, so I bought my first Parisian macarons, practising my trois, and s'il vous plaît.  I think I had macaron pretty well sorted out.  Oh and yes they were delish.  The Blood Orange was my favourite.

I met Michelle at the top of the stairs right on schedule, and we walked past the restaurants and artists painting portraits to Sacré Cœur where we waited in the shady Square Nadar.
Some young girls were feeding pigeons, then getting all scared and jumping around screaming when the pigeons came close.  Um, cause and effect girls!
Today we were meeting Shan, Shaz and Ken and our rendezvous time was approaching, so we moved to the top of the steps to await the arrival of our lovely Londoners.
Harpists played, hawkers harassed, a young bride and groom posed for photographs, and countless tourists took selfie after selfie on the steps, with either the basilica or the Parisian view as a backdrop.
Then we could see Shazzy, Shanny and Ken waving from below.
Happy hugs; it was so great to see these guys again.

We went inside Sacré Cœur, which is just beautiful with its gold and blue apse mosaic towering above, magnificent stained glass windows and rose, and a beautiful statue of what looked like an angel thrusting a spear into a dragon or serpent.  Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside.
Souvenir shopping and exploring saw us well entertained until lunch time approached, and we made our way down the streets and sat outside at Le Sancerre.

I ordered pastis, and got a cheeky comment from the waiter; I think he was having a bit of a giggle that I was ordering it so early.  I thought it was always pastis o’clock!  Pastis was then dutifully followed up with a beer chaser.
The lunch here was really nice; I had a lovely and delish baked sea bass, and the others had varying types of salads.

We skipped the desserts here though, preferring to pig out on glacé and éclairs bought from the various shops along Rue des Abbesses.

We then headed on down to the Bd de Clichy, stopping at Moulin Rouge which now was no longer obscured by delivery trucks, and then jumped onto a hop on, hop off bus to tour the city of Paris more broadly.

The hop on hop off buses aren’t a bad way to get an overview of the city, if a little expensive. You get to see the main tourist sites from the bus with the option to hop off and explore more closely any places that take your fancy.  Our bus tour allowed us to get a good view of Gare du Nord and Gare de l’est train stations, both also featured in Amelia, and both architecturally stunning.

We jumped off after passing the Place de la Republique at Café Oz, a truly authentic piece of Australia in Paris, and walked through the old shopping malls of Passage Jouffrey and Passage des Panaromas.

I like to just order things off the menu without really knowing what I am going to get, especially with drinks.  Up to this point I’ve been very happy with my discoveries, however I had my first failure with what turned out to be a raspberry cordial and beer mix.  At least it was cold!  They also did a coke and beer mix...

We swapped bus routes and hopped on to the Paris Grand Tour.  This took us past most of the classic tourist must-see sites in Paris:

• Musee du Louvre
• Along the Sienne and past the Pont des Arts, glittering gold with the countless locks of love
• Notre Dame
• Down the Champs-Élysées and around the Arc de Triomphe
• Place du Trocadéro

Then we came to the Eiffel Tower.  Right, this is definitely time to get off this bus.

Oh wow, when I am actually standing in front of, or in this case beneath one of those truly iconic places in the world, it’s a feeling that I struggle to describe.  It’s like a place that you have seen in movies or pictures that you know to be real, but it isn’t truly real until you have actually been there and seen it with your own eyes; it just comes to life.
We walked under the tower and through the Parc du Champ de Mars, which was just wonderful, even though there was some stupid tennis thing going on.
We needed to get over to the Latin Quarter, so made our way down onto the metro.
As we were barrelling through the underground, I could hear music playing.  Nice I thought, buskers on the train platform.  I couldn’t see them as the train pulled into the station, but as we moved on again, I could hear the band again, this time a little louder.
Next station we stopped at, four guys climbed onto our carriage carrying an accordion, a drum, a clarinet, and would you believe a double bass!

If you can look past the lovely Shanny you will see the band playing

I am loving Paris.
Dinner tonight was in the lovely French Pouic Pouic in Saint Germain.  Complete with indifferent waitress I had a really enjoyable Angus Beef with mushrooms.  I’m getting my fill of steak in Paris.

We caught the metro back to Montmartre, and watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle from Shaz and Ken’s apartment.  A totally magnificent and especially enjoyable day.

More pictures of Paris