The day dawned bright and beautiful! We began the day with a lovely Parisian breakfast in our apartment.
It was a stunningly beautiful day, blue skies and no clouds.
It was perfect weather to go and see something important that I hadn’t yet seen.
So when I got there, I took lots of photos of it. 🙂 It is a massive structure close up.
It was such beautiful weather!
I took my photos and then we moved on!
It was a little unsettling to see these soldiers at all major tourist spots in Paris, complete with machine guns in front of them.
We bought a couple of apples from this shop.
Then we hopped on the Metro and headed to Montmartre. The metro stops were mostly pretty nice like this one, we only saw one that was grungy and had lots of graffiti.
Upon exiting the Metro we saw this man roasting chestnuts!
Accompanied by an accordion player. Nice!
We walked through the streets.
Until we reached these steps up to Montmartre.
Ah, just the luck o’ the Irish to have a pub near the top of the steps!
We went up a few more steps and admired the view from the top.
And there was the basillica of Montmartre.
After looking in the church we walked down the streets of Montmartre.
It was a Sunday and it was busy. There were people everywhere, and these were roads that cars were trying to get through!
Soon after I took that photo, a police car with its siren going, slowly made its way through the people on the road! Eventually we got to Place du Tertre.
And what an amazing little square this was! Full of amazing artwork and artists.
The artists doing drawings and paintings of their subjects on the spot were really impressive. Here’s a few:
Such throngs of people everywhere! And these are roads that cars were going up occasionally! We decided to have a late lunch in the cafe on the left, Le Consulat.
Mike was happy with his plate full of mussels!
And I had a yummy bowl of French Onion Soup.
By the way, the French Fries in Paris were unusually nice, and always shaped like this which meant they were cooked evenly:
As we were sitting there I happened to glance out the window at people passing by and saw this bright green cap:
Then I realised who was wearing it: Brian! I went out and said a quick hello, then they came by our window and waved before they carried on:
Note the huge bus that was coming up the hill and about to try to get through all the people!!! Here was Brian’s view of us from outside the cafe:
How amazing that we saw them again, in a city the size of Paris, and among all the huge crowds of people in Montmartre that day! Very cool!!!
Since we were at a cafe, it’s worth mentioning the amazing chocolatiers and patisseries in Paris.
Places like this were common, and the food in them always looked amazing like this:
And eclairs… of all different kinds!
And of course, nougat. Of all different types.
And while I’m mentioning things for sale, here’s what was most common in tourist stores here:
What colour would you like? And would you like it with lights or without? 🙂
On our way back down the hill we saw this interesting wall.
Down the bottom of the hill was the Moulin Rouge:
Here we got back on the Metro and headed to the Marais area. Mike liked this building that we saw when we exited from the Metro; the Pompidou Centre, built in the 1970’s.
Here’s a few snapshots from the area as we walked around.
And the town hall:
We slowly headed back to Île de la Cité.
We passed these electric cars being charged up.
And an old Citroen that used to be very common on the streets of France!
The Louvre looked so pretty in the late afternoon sun and there were lots of people out for an afternoon stroll beside the Seine!
In the evening we headed out for our final meal in France.
“Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.”
– Benjamin Disraeli