Our Travels: October 10th, 2011

For our first day out after the sick days we did something I’ve wanted to do since we got here, we went to Montmartre. Montmartre is a very cool part of Paris, it not only houses the Sacré Cœur Church but also it is also known as the art district. There was a time when seeing Monet, Picasso or van Gogh was the norm.

The Sacré Cœur sits at the top of the “mountain” and when you arrive it is the first thing you see. Well that is not entirely true, most people see the church first but Nicholas saw the carousal at the base of the steps first. I think all the rides are why Nicholas keeps saying he loves Paris! He got to ride the carousal while Brendan was busy taking pictures. Today was the first day Brendan brought our big new camera out; he is taking his self-appointed job as official photographer very seriously. Because taking pictures took a while Nicholas got to ride the carousal again. For the second ride he choose a horse that moved up and down to ride, turns out he didn’t really like that; Brendan had to save him while he was attempting to get off.

Walking up the stairs worked better for Nicholas although by the time we were almost at the top he was tired so we had to sit down and take a rest (his favorite thing to do when we are walking but he is getting better and taking longer to request a break). As soon as we made our way to the top Nicholas wanted to go inside the Church and right away promised to be very quiet, I guess our talk at the Norte Dame really worked. The inside of the Sacré Cœur is really beautiful, I think every church in Paris is beautiful but the Sacré Cœur is unique because it is so bright inside. I wish we were able to take pictures so we could show everyone but they are not allowed so you’ll just have to take our word on how beautiful it is.
By the time our mini-tour of the church was done we were all ready for lunch. Nicholas requested a hot dog, really a simple request but not at all simple in Paris. Every hot dog here is covered in cheese in a baguette, not really what Nicholas considers a perfect hot dog. We were able to appease him with pizza while we had our second restaurant experience. We had lunch in an outdoor restaurant in what would be considered the courtyard of Montmartre. We ate pizza, crepes and French onion soup and had a wonderful but expensive lunch.

Brendan spoke French with our waiter, he had a real conversation and I was insanely jealous. I have been practicing French, not as much as I should but still practicing but I act like a huge freak when I need to speak to people. I can do basics like ask for things but overall I’m not fantastic at it. Hopefully I’ll only get better!
After our lunch we walked around and looked at all the art artists were selling. We thought we might like to buy a piece of art as a keepsake of our trip but we couldn’t find anything. We spent a little more time walking around while Brendan took more pictures until the little one was too tired to go on.