Day Five / Montmartre

Day Five/ Montmartre

The forecast for today was bright sunny skies with a high of 61 degrees...perfect for visiting Montmartre! This is the largest hill in Paris and is known for its bright white basilica Sacré-Coeur, and its history of being a hotbed for artists like Renoir, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro, Degas, Modigliani, Vincent VanGough and many others.  So today I put on my art history nerd hat and happily headed out on the metro!

The last time I was in Montmartre was in 2001 when we came with the boys.  Gary threw out his back the week before we left home. He was a trooper though and fought through the pain for most of the trip.  He did have a total melt down on the day we went to Montmartre, and I'll never forget how scared and hopeless I felt in his moment of crisis.  That may be why we never returned to this area of the city on any subsequent visits to Paris.  This is the day to change that bad mojo!  But I almost had my own melt-down today!  Once I arrived at the Abbesses metro station and headed for the exit, I was confronted with an eight flight spiral staircase.  Remember, I was underground in the metro...trying to work my way to the top of the largest hill in Paris!  I was 36 meters underground and slowly worked my way up to the surface, going rounding round on the spiral staircase.  Somehow I ended up in the middle of a group of Spanish tourists about my age...we were all laughing at the ridiculousness of our situation; we HAD to keep going but our knees were saying "NO!!"  I willl say, the walls of the staircase were decorated with pretty murals, so there was something nice to look at as we all periodically rested! 

We kept thinking we were at the top, and suddenly we were met with another circular flight of stairs.  (Don't worry, I got smart and when it was time to return I found an elevator...sure hope my Spanish friends found it as well!).   Once on ground level, I figured my knee had seen enough steps, so I took the little finucular up to Sacré Coeur!

The views over the city below were great and there was a guy sitting on the stairs playing his guitar.  I sat near him to admire the view and his rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".  My daughter in law taught me that you always have to put money in a buskers hat/basket.  So I put  5 euros in his hat (thanks Iren!), and I listened to his next song "I did It My Way".  Hallelujah almost always makes me cry, but then the next song got me too, cuz I was so proud of "doing my trip MY way" and I really started crying!  I'm not sure if I can get the video to load here so you may just have to use your imagination...good looking young guy sitting on these steps playing an acoustic electric guitar, and me sitting next to him crying...it was quite the sight!

Hopefully the throngs of tourists were too busy taking their own selfies that they didn't notice the gray haired lady from California sitting on the steps of Sacré Coeur crying tears of joy and gratitude!

 I had torn out the pages for Rick Steves' walking tour of Montmartre (didn't want to carry the big fat book all day!) so I followed his suggested path.  There were seriously so many tourists (I know, I know...I'm a tourist too!).  I was getting a little annoyed at how oblivious so many of them were so I decided I better sit down and have a cup of tea and croissant - that definitely improved my frame of mind!  I found a great little spot on Place du Tertre where I could watch all the artists.  I remember sitting here in 1964 with Oma and Opa.  I loved one artist in particular and insisted Opa take my photo with the painting I loved (I'd like to think my taste in art has improved since I was 8!). Was it the shared haircut that made me so enamored with these paintings?!?

8 year old me at Place de Tertre on Montmartre

Artists today lining Place de Tertre

Break time!  Not THAT'S a proper croissant!

I walked past La Maison Rose and Le Consulate which Instagram has made so popular with Influencers posting perfectly posed photos, that you can hardly navigate the narrow streets!  There were several young ladies in long flowing ball gowns having professional photos taken!  (Personally I thought it was ridiculous...but if it makes them happy, who am I to judge?!  Well, I might have judged just a little bit!! 😉)

I was on a mission to find the Museum of Montmartre.  It is on a little cobblestone street in a house where Renoir once lived.  This was a great non-crowded museum that really told the history of the Montmartre area...from the Maquis to the rise of the cabarets, to the free thinking artists that found acceptance here, to the building of Sacré Coeur (which was no simple task as it was built on top of land that had been a quarry and needed innovative foundation work).  Renoir's home was a lovely tranquil setting.

As I moseyed down the hill, I was on a mission...walking along I came to 54 Rue Lepic...the home where Vincent Van Gough and his brother Theo had an apartment for 2 years.  We read a wonderful book in Book Club called The Secret Life of Sunflowers about Vincent and Theo during this time period and I just had to see the house!

All that walking had made me hungry, so  I was on the hunt for a good spot to get some Onion Soup (remember, in France it is just called "onion soup"...not "French Onion Soup"!!).  I found the ideal spot on Rue Abbesses! It was so perfect just sitting at the cafe watching the world go by!  I decided this is my new favorite street in Paris!  It is so "neighborhood-y" feeling, with so many shops and restaurants. If only I can find an AirBnB here some day!!

I love sea food and am always in awe of the street-side open air fish markets in Paris!

It was time to head back to my hotel.  On my way to the Metro stop I stumbled upon "The Love Wall which was crated by 2 artists and is composed of 612 tiles which all feature the phrase "I love you" in 250 languages.  All the "major" languages are represented, but also rarer ones like Navajo, Inuit, and Esperanto.  The way I found it (It's kind of tucked off the main street) is because I heard a woman singing an Opera aria.  I followed her voice and she was standing in front of this wall singing.  Once done, she just walked away (she wasn't even busking for money...she was singing  just to sing!).  It was just one of those very cool moments that you can't plan!.  I carried on to the Metro Station, finding the elevator this time...not wanting to mess with all those stairs again!

Back to the hotel, where I found the housekeeper had left me all these towels (plus 2 more in the heated towel rack!). Not sure what she was thinking but it sure made me chuckle!

See the 2 pups in their beds under the stairs?!  And that is the chair where the old lady usually sits.  My new theory is that she is perhaps the owner's grandmother who had dementia and having her sit with the dogs all day, is a way for him to keep an eye on her?!  

Off to dinner now~

My lightest day yet...but I felt like I walked as much as the other day?! (as always, please excuse any and all typos...I'm too tired to keep proof-reading!)