La vie est belle: Our Days in Ole Paree - Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, Dinner, Hotel, Louvre, Eiffel Tower

We rose early (5ish) for the long journey into the city. Kurt had planned it so we would arrive just when all Parisians were sitting down, leisurely enjoying their 2 hour dejuner’ (lunch). We thought it would be a smoother drive through Paris.

Wrong.

Never seen anything like it. They don’t use stop signs, instead there are roundabouts at every turn. It was confusing enough when there was only one lane in a roundabout, dangerous when there were two, but sheer pandemonium in Paris… There were no marked lanes and it was wide enough for 8 cars, so the Parisians crammed in about 10 cars, 6 motorcycles, 5 taxis, 4 Vespas, 3 cyclist, 2 pedestrians and a city bus…all going in opposite directions! None of them considering the others while crossing, merging, turning, edging their cars right up next to the others. Kurt, who is always calm, cool, and collected said “Once we get this car into the parking garage, it will not be moved until we leave Paris on Friday”. Oh, great! I would be driving it then.

Coming out of the Parking garage, we realized that our hotel was right next Arc de Triomphe. Location, location, location. Kathy and I had booked the hotel late one night and had mistakenly paid an outrageous amount for one night, thinking it was two. “Oh,well”, we thought, “It will be nice to stay in a swanky hotel in Paris.”, so we booked it for the other night, as well. Ya only live once, right? We checked in and were really surprised at our rooms. They were small and nice enough, but certainly not what we were thinking.

I guess we really were just paying for the location, location, location. It was very nice to be right in the middle of things. Kurt, Chelsea and I had a couple of hours to wait until Kathy and Mom arrived, so we enjoyed our Parisian style two hour lunch, just sitting there people watching.

Lunch at a little Bistro in Paris

After they arrived, we decided the first place we wanted to see was Montmartre’, because Kathy and I love paintings and they were calling for rain the next day. The artists set up their booths outside and paint and sell their beautiful creations. It was a LONG walk, all uphill. Mom said we were trying to kill her, but it almost killed all of us. Up hills & steps, we reached The Place du Tertre’, where the artist fill the little town square. Worth every single solitary step! Kathy & I looked at every booth and made our choices.

Montmartre' Kathy buying paintings? Go figure!

With armloads of our paintings, we toured the Sacre Coeur,a beautiful old Church at the second highest point in Paris. There are no cameras or talking allowed in the church. The nuns were singing and it was beautiful. Gave me chills.

Sacre Coeur Carousel in my favorite movie, Amelie

Outside we enjoyed the amazing view of the city, then started our trek back down.

View of the city from Montmartre'

Chelsea, happy in Paris

You’d think that would be easier, but the walk was long and we were all tired from our day of traveling. It had been threatening rain the entire way and we worried about our paintings being soaked by the oncoming downpour, but we made it back to the hotel just as it started to sprinkle. We unloaded our haul in the room and walked across the street to enjoy a lovely Italian feast of Frenchy pizza, spaghetti, ravioli with truffles and Kurt had some fishy pasta dish.

Blurry shot running across the street to our hotel in the rain, but I love it

Our Italian dinner in Paris

Kathy imitating a Parisian designer we saw.

The next morning, we planned to get to the Eiffel tower an hour before it opened because we had heard about the long lines. Took a taxi van since there are five of us and were disappointed to see that our one hour early should have been two or three. The lines already weaved back and forth so we decided just to walk around and enjoy it from below. It is a truly amazing piece of work.

Feeling brave, we decided to find the Louvre on foot. Another long walk that was worth every step. Inside we enjoyed room after room of beautiful sculptures, culminating in the viewing the Venus de Milo. Then on to the paintings. My favorite part of the Louvre in 2008, had been the Histoire du Louvre, a room filled with paintings made hundreds of years ago of art viewing visitors, in their period clothing, doing just what we were doing, loving and appreciating their works and the works of the artist before them.

I love all these roofs...

But this is the one I want on my next house.

Julie at the Louvre

Trying to figure out the electronic tour guide

The Hardwood Company needs to start doing this.

Chelsea and Mona

Listening and learning at the Louvre

Kurt at the Louvre

Street Vendor Crepes

We took our time and walked the Champs Elyees, with our eyes on the Arc de Triomphe all the way back. For dinner, it was Tex-Mex at a restaurant called “Indiana”, then to bed dreading what was to come in the morning, with me driving us out of Paris. Lord, help!