Sacre-Coeur (part 1 of 2)
Let’s see, where were we now? Oh yeah, we went to Jardin du Luxembourg Park for a puppet show (that was horrible). On an earlier evening the park was nearly empty, but not on this day. The park was packed with people willing to pay to let their children play on the equipment. I’d never seen such a thing. Of course my kids also wanted to pay to wait in line to ride on regular playground equipment as well so they did. Actually, I paid for them. And I paid to pee. More on that in a future blog entry…
After a rather miserable experience at the park we decided to follow the recommendation of the crazy New York lady and go to a fondue restaurant near Sacre-Coeur. We hopped on the Metro and made our way to the area. Amazingly enough we found the place. Unfortunately, the fondue restaurant was closed for a week or two for vacation. This was actually a situation we encountered in Copenhagen and Paris many times. Some restaurants just close up shop for a few weeks during the summer for vacation.
The Montmartre area, where Sacre-Coeur and our closed fondue place are located, had a different feel to it. Moulin Rouge is also in this area. The streets are usually narrower and more inclined compared to the other areas in Paris (and especially compared to the flat Copenhagen we had grown used to). I was reminded a bit of parts of the Cinque Terra in Italy but without the Mediterranean Sea.
We grabbed some food to go at a nearby shop and headed for the grassy hill leading up to Sacre-Coeur. We ate on the hill. Here I was reminded of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Not so much because we were on a steep incline with people walking up steps on either side of us but because of all the foreign hawkers of goods. Many weren’t selling wares as much as they were tricking people into having “friendship bracelets” tied onto their wrists. After the colored string was woven tightly around the gullible person’s wrist payment was demanded.
After eating (and watching sucker after sucker have to pay to be left alone after getting stuck with new wristwear) we climbed to the top where we had great views of the church and…
great view of Paris from the church…
To be continued…