Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Paris Diary: Day 2, Montmartre and Basilique du Sacré-Cœur


After returning from Versailles we had a nap and then hit the subway to Montmartre. The area is my favorite in spite of being totally packed with tourists at all times. And the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur is, for me, much more moving than Notre Dame. I think that's largely because they don't allow photos and reasonably well enforce quiet. There was a huge black man just inside the door suspiciously eying everyone who came in and periodically saying in a very deep voice: "No photos!".



The views of Paris from the steps of the Basilica are very cool (see the Wikipedia page linked above for a panorama).

We walked around the Montmartre area a bit. Mostly too tired to go far after Versailles. We were up there too late to visit any of the galleries or famous artists' hangouts. I tried to remember the name of a particular restaurant that was recommended as not being totally a tourist trap. I saw La Crémaillère in Place Tertre, thought that was the one so we ate there. Not sure it was the one I was looking for. We ate outside. It was good fun watching all the people go by but it was really too early in the season to be outside at 10:30pm. Even with the heaters they had, we got very cold.

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