Montmatre and the Louvre

Wednesday 29 April, 2015 - Montmartre

We caught the Metro to Montmartre (the highest point in Paris), where we learned that if there is a choice between an elevator and stairs, one should take the elevator!  Because the Metro follows the same elevation, by the time you arrive at the Metro stop, you have a good 200 stairs to climb to get out of the station.  You then have more to climb to get to the Funicular, which takes you near the steps of the Sacre Couer, which has its own set of steps to climb.

Sacre Cour is a more square church and although large seems more "homey" if one can describe a church in those terms.  Because of its design, it also lets in more light.  It was built to celebrate the deliverance of Paris from the Germans after the Franco-Prussian war and was financed completely by the people.  We then took a little tourist train around Montmartre taking in the famous and infamous sights such as the Moulin Rouge.   We saw where artists such as Pablo Picasso, Renoir, van Gogh, Matisse and Degas stayed.  It is certainly a colourful area with artists everywhere - and many ready to sketch you at a moments notice.

On the way back to the Metro we had a well deserved lunch at the "Villa des Abbesses", trying to recapture some of the calories we had burned off.  We then took the Metro to Place Concorde and walked through the Tuilleries Gardens to the Louvre.

The Louvre is truly amazing.  As a building it is massive with a kilometre of halls of displays on each of 5 levels - for a total of 5 kilometres!  We did see the "Mona Lisa" among many other paintings and statues, but barely scratched the surface in the 4 hours spent there.  The architecture and finishes of the Louvre are masterpieces in themselves.

From there we headed back to the rue Clerc neighbourhood near the Eiffel Tower and had dinner at "au-petit-sud-ouest" which features duck from the owner's farm in the south west of France.  You can have any kind of duck you want - as long as it is duck!

Hurrying our meal - because it was nearly 10pm, we went over to the Eiffel Tower to see the light display that happens at the top of the hour.  Not to be missed!