It was agonizingly difficult to get out of bed this morning and as such neither one of us was ready to leave the apartment when Becca came by to round us all up. They were planning on hitting up Pere LaChaise Cemetery followed by the Montmartre area. We didn't want to hold anyone up so we told them to go ahead without us and that we would meet them in Montmartre. As it turned out some of the people in our group were in even worse condition and we were well on our way when we found out that they had just left for the cemetery. Alas. And we never did find them in Montmartre either so it ended up being just the two of us for the day.
We did end up walking around all day, we saw the Centre Pompidou with all of its exposed ductwork and piping. It was very cool looking but not as colorful as we had expected it to look. From there we walked over to Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame is located but the line was very long so we put off going inside for another day. The outside is very nice looking with the flying buttresses and the gothic arches.
We continued walking over to the Ile St. Louis which was very quiet and then over the Seine onto the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) to the Latin Quarter. We stopped for a crepe and a mint tea each at a little stand by the Sorbonne before catching the metro up to Montmarte.
Montmartre is a very hilly, very old neighborhood with the Basilique de Sacre Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) as it's centerpiece at the top of the hill. We wound our way through the neighborhood and up the hill into the Basilica gardens. Saw several stray cats and managed to mostly avoid the tourist crowds going up the main stairs until we got to the entrance of the church. There we had to fight our way in and then took a shuffling tour around perimeter of the sanctuary as the church has a service going for twenty four hours a day every day and has been doing so since it was consecrated in 1919.
The inside of the church was very nice but difficult to really get a feel for due to the crowds. It seemed to be very well lit and the sculpture and art pieces varied wildly by time period and by artist. It was very eclectic and very different from most other large classical churches I have been in. The organ, however, sounded dismal and we found out later it's due for a major rehabilitation.
Back outside we walked around to the side and saw a sign saying that the dome was open so we went down the stairs to the crypt, paid a man five euro and then climbed a spiral stone staircase that was barely wide enough to accommodate my shoulders up to the roof. Then we clambored over a marked trail on the roof to the dome where more switchback and spiral stairs were encountered until we got to a viewing ring about halfway up the dome. The view of Paris from up there was spectacular (and very cold since it was outdoors). We admired the view for about an hour before climbing back down.
Back in Montmarte we walked around a bit more, passed a tiny little vineyard and then had a very good meal at an Indian restaurant called Taj Mahal that was advertising a very generous prix fixe meal. We both had the lamb rogan josh - one of our favorites.
After that we decided to walk off our dinner all the way back to our apartment. It took us about thirty minutes and ended up being almost half of the city! It's very walkable and human scaled!
Kirsten called it a night at that point but I ended up meeting with Tim & Becca since their apartment is just around the corner from ours. They had a late dinner and I had a nice Belgian beer (biere) at Le Cafe Marie Stuart. A perfect way to end a perfect day.
Tomorrow we meet with Kirsten's sister Ingrid who came in from London. It should be neat to get her perspective on Paris and she also promised us dinner at her favorite restaurant. I'm excited!
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