Day 3: Sunday, June 4 I can’t get over how small the city of Paris really is. Small and so compact. One can literally walk from one end to the other in just a few hours (not including the suburbs, of course). All the monuments and interesting places are all so close to one another;
Day 3: Sunday, June 4
I can’t get over how small the city of Paris really is. Small and so compact. One can literally walk from one end to the other in just a few hours (not including the suburbs, of course). All the monuments and interesting places are all so close to one another; it is a city definitely made for walking. Sidewalks are wide almost everywhere, and crossings are safe, abundant and well designed.
Sightseeing double-deck buses are available, of course, but if your health permits, by all means get a good pair of walking shoes, a few billets de métro for the times it is really more convenient to hop from one place to another, and Paris is yours.
With the Butte de Montmartre in full glorious view from our hotel window, we can’t resist going there any longer. It is a hazy day and the view from the Eiffel Tower (which was supposed to be our next stop) must be pretty limited anyway. One of the advantages of being so footloose, plans can be changed at any time…
Being such veterans of the Métro now, we are there in just a few minutes. We could have walked there from the hotel in less than an hour (even though we are in a Northern suburb) but I know there is much walking waiting for us since we intend to walk the Butte from top to bottom (and the girls are balking at so much walking anyway).
You catch a glimpse of the Sacré-CÂœur as soon as you get off the Métro. It is all UP from there, stairs and stairs until you get to the wonderful basilica. We take the funicular up – all it takes is a métro ticket. The Sacré-CÂœur is stunning. With the Eiffel Tower, it is probably the best known symbol of Paris, although it dates (only) from the end of the 19th century, and in fact was not even fully completed until 1910. We enter the basilica to find it mostly barricaded inside for renovations. More than half is inaccessible and a sign indicates that the renovations will continue until the end of 2001. Strangely, after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, all the other churches pale in comparison, no matter how wonderful they are in their own right.
So, we take off for the – very, very crowded – streets of Montmartre and the Place du Tertre. I can’t believe the sheer amount of tourists, mostly British, German and American. Of all the places we have been, this has to be the most crowded. You literally have to elbow your way through some of the most popular streets so we take off for the less traveled streets, going up and down, and up and down again (to the girls’ great chagrin!).
We find several plaques indicating where Picasso had his first ateliers and Kimberley makes it a point to take a few more steps in front of them. Mom, did Picasso really paint here?
Le Lapin Agile, where Picasso, Renoir, Verlaine and others used to discuss the world
It takes us several tries, up and down, to find The Lapin Agile, the famous hangout where Picasso and lots of other upcoming artists used to meet and redo the world. Pity, it’s open only at night. But it feels nice to be able to just sit in front of it for a while anyway.
Back at the Place du Tertre, the girls finally win out and have their portraits drawn by street artists. They have been looking at them all morning and we find two Italian guys who are quite good, actually. Tiffany has her portrait drawn in an abstract way, and Kimberley in a more traditional way. It’s amazing to see how these artists capture the essence of the girls. I think it’s worth the 300 francs ($42) apiece I have to pay for them.
We eat at a charming restaurant off the Place du Tertre, chosen by Kimberley solely because an artist is playing the cello there, and surprising well she confides (she plays the violin, so I guess she knows). So it’s by sheer luck that we end up having a pretty good lunch, albeit quite expensive, but not anymore than at any other restaurant in Montmartre.
Paris, by the way, and France in general for that matter, are quite expensive. Frankly, I don’t know how the French do it. Their disposable income is under the average American disposable income and yet, they seem to enjoy many vacations throughout the year (they get 5 weeks paid vacation). They seem to eat out a lot. Their grocery bills are atrocious, compared to ours. They are taxed to death, although their taxes cover their health care, which is quite good and comprehensive, and includes vision and dental. But still, the French seem to live very well. When I get to my family in July, I’ll have to investigate the ins and outs of everyday life.
But, back to Paris. We continue walking after lunch and end up discovering every single street of Montmartre. The girls are amazed to see the houses “glued” to one another and so very close to the street, with almost no individual homes anywhere. We hop on the métro and go back to Paris, exiting at the Place de l’Étoile. The Arc de Triomphe is right in the middle of it, with 12 streets radiating from it. A rond-point par excellence, and not one I would ever attempt. The Parisians are quite good at navigating it, however, I am sure it’s a matter of habit.
The weather is so overcast, we decide not to go on top of the Arc, but we walk all around it, seeing it from all the angles. After a snack on the Champs-Elysées, the girls decide to go to the movies and we go see Mission to Mars. Interesting to see that all the movies at this theatre are American movies, in original version with French sub-titles, except one that is dubbed in French.
By studying the métro map, we find that if we walk to the next station (just two blocks away), we are on a direct line to St-Denis. We have become real pros!