Monmartre

Saturday.  Our final full day in Paris and we had one more check to mark on our list - Montmartre.  Famously known as the home to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and the Moulin Rouge, and we were there to see them both.  And yes, we realize that we are mixing religion and debauchery into one morning.

The area of Monmartre sits 430 feet (130 m) above the city of Paris.  It is a stunning view but also one that takes a lot of stair climbing to get to.  If you want, you can opt to take the funicular to the top and avoid the leg work out, but we have never been a family to take the easy way out.  Up and up and up we went.  But it proved to be the for the best because the streets are where all the action is.  Artists painting portraits in the middle of the road, people having coffee in small cafes tucked back into little nooks, a random antique car roaming the streets.  It was a visual feast, and one that we would have missed had we just gone straight up in a cable car.  

Our first stop - Sacré-Cœur.  Perched on the highest point above the city, the basilica is the second most visited monument in Paris and is both a political and cultural monument.  And I can see why...

Back outside, we walked down, down, down in search of some lunch and a wee bit of air conditioning...

And then we were off to take a quick gander at the Moulin Rouge before heading back into the city.

We still had some time left in the afternoon and decided that the Louvre would be the best place to spend it.  We have all been before, but it's one of those places that you can go again and again.  So back to the city and the air conditioning (I did tell you they were experiencing a heatwave in Paris, right?) to take in some art and history...

MadHatter has a traveling buddy that we photograph in the cities we visit.  His name is Squigy and he is a septapus (seven-legged octopus).

It was nearing dinner time, and we once again had plans with family that had just arrived in town.  At the request of the littlest of us, we headed back to L'Entrecote.  Seems that she loved it just as much as we all do.

 The girls and I called it a night (B went out with the visitors for a quick drink).  We were off to Amsterdam in the morning, and I needed to get some packing completed.  As always, Paris sure knows how to show a girl a good time.  A la prochaine Paris!

Paris Underground

After spending two days walking and biking and generally just covering Paris from side to side and with nothing on the books until late afternoon, we took it slow and just saw where the day would take us.   That just happened to be the Musée d'Orsay.  As my all-time favorite museum in Paris (or ever) I wanted to show the girls why it topped my list.  From that clock!  To the Matisses' and Degas'!  To the furniture and sculptures!  I just can't get enough.  

The girls were getting a bit restless, so we ventured off to something that we thought would hold their attention (and still let them learn something new in the process; we can be mean like that sometimes).  Bonus points for the fact that we would also be able to beat the heat at the same time.

Underneath the heart of Paris, lie the skeletal remains of over 3 million Parisians.  What kid (or adult) could resist something that is equal parts creepy and fascinating?  Not our family!  We descended 131 stairs down to a depth of 5 meters (about 5 stories) before beginning our story and our walkthrough almost a mile of tunnels which started off as quarries.  Abandoned when they were stripped dry, they became useful again when the black plague swept through Paris in the late 1700s.  The cemeteries were overflowing in churches all over the city, and the decaying bodies presented a health crisis.  Hence the decision to relocate the contents underground.  Today, the ossuary is the largest in the World and has been open to the public for over 200 years.  Like I said, creepy and fascinating...

The black line was the only way to not get lost in the labyrinth that is the old quarry.

The entrance to the ossuary.

It got a little tight at times.

Walking back up (this time only 112 steps) we took a minute to let our eyes adjust to the light.  With an hour or so left before we had anywhere to be, we decided a walk down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, past the Arc de Triomphe...

finally ending up at the upside-down pyramid underneath the Louvre where we met up with...

The Cousins!

It had been 6 years since the kids (or I) had seen B's brother and his family.  But when we found out that they were also visiting Paris before the wedding, we knew we had to catch a drink and dinner.  And where else would we go but to our favorite restaurant, L'entrecote and then to the crepe guy!

Fun fact - this is the hotel B, and I spent part of our honeymoon 13 years ago.  It is across the street from our favorite dinner spot.

We retired to our Airbnb for an after-dinner drink and then bid the cousins adieu until we met again in Amsterdam a few days later.  Exhausted from another day of fun, we were off to dreamland in no time and woke the next morning ready for our final day in Paris.

The House of the Sun King

The next morning, after a bit of miscommunication that sent B in one direction and the girls and me in another, we finally made it to our meeting spot for our day tour of Versailles.  It is another must-see while in Paris, but somehow we had skipped it all of the previous times we had been, and it was high on my list of things to do.  But the grounds of the Château are so overwhelming that walking them on foot is a monumental task and one that would take ALL day (if not more) and it just wouldn't be as much fun for the kids.  Instead, I booked us on a biking tour!

We grabbed a train to the end of the line and walked a short way to the bike storage to pick out one that was just right for each of us. We set off to the town market to pick up our picnic lunch of a baguette (soooo fresh), some cheese, sliced meats, and a lot of water.  There was a heatwave on after all.

We also found fresh crepes in the market square.

All fueled up and ready for some adventure, we braved the streets of Versailles, dodging cars that seemed to want to run us over and trying not to run over other tourists on the bike paths.  And then suddenly we were in the gardens, and the stress levels subsided immediately.  Wide-open roads loomed before us, and the kids (we had 3 more on tour with us, and they were just our girl's ages) could roam free.  

Our first stop was the building of the Grand Trianon.  Commissioned by Louis XIV (the Sun King) as a familial retreat, he preferred living there to the grand palace.  It was a gorgeous building, but I didn't stop to get many pictures as it reminded me of so many other marble palaces from that age.  But I did take a few of our next stop, the gardens behind the Grand Trianon and next to the Petit Trianon.  This spot is known as The Queens Hamlet and has a pretty compelling and bizarre story. 

Marie Antoinette had this fairytale village built so that she could pretend she was in a small village in the French countryside.  The "townspeople" were all servants, and when she was in residence, they all had to make-believe that they were residents of this small village.  There was a farm where there were actual crops and animals that needed tending, and there were shops and roadside stands that other servants would shop at.  Much of the village was left behind and decay during the Revolution, but it has since been restored to its former state, and now the farm is a place of learning for schoolchildren.

We stopped to feed and pet some of the farm animals...

And we took some time to smell the roses (literally).

Right next door, we toured the Petit Trianon which was commissioned by Louis XV for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour.  At this point, we did a bit of biking around the gorgeous gardens and finally stopped along the grand canal for some lunch.

A bit more bike riding through the estate before braving the streets and dropping our bikes back at their shed...

Back on foot, it was time to head into the Château and get a good look around.  After all, this Palace is one of the most famous in the World, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and just all-around impressive in its stature and history.  What started as Louis the XIII's hunting lodge is now 2,300 rooms spread over 63,154 m2!  There is more history in this building, than I can go into here, but if you want to learn more, it's just a quick Google search, and you will have reading for days.  

First, an obligatory handstand in front of the gates.

The famous Hall of Mirrors.  There are 17 arches filled with 357 mirrors (21 in each arc) that overlook 17 arched windows looking out into the gardens of Versailles.  But that is not the most interesting fact about this room.  The most fascinating thing is that before this room was installed no one in France knew how to make a mirror (and most had never seen one).  To have this room constructed, the King kidnapped several mirror makers from Venice (where all of the master makers were) and had them complete this room for him.

Having walked the length of the palace and having biked much of the gardens, we were ready to call it a day.  We stopped quickly outside the grounds to fill up our water bottles (and our mouths) and hopped the next train back to Paris. 

Still a bit jet-lagged, we grabbed an early dinner and fell into bed at a reasonable hour.  Having no concrete plans for the next morning meant we could get up at our leisure and take the day as it came!