Art in Montmartre, Our Last Day in Paris. July 19th

Today we took the Metro to the Montmartre district of Paris. It was the mecca of the artists of past and present in the city so we wanted to experience it on our last day. We joined thousands of others on this Sunday that wanted to do same as the many Metro trains we took were cram packed. We have gotten pretty good at catching the correct subway trains and pride ourselves at never once getting on the incorrect one.

from the Dali Museumthe wrong train or making the incorrect transfer here in Paris.

Montmartre was a great place to visit and we thank our neighbors, Patti and Bill for suggesting that we see this area of the city. The streets were something out of a movie with hundreds of artists showing their paintings along with hundreds of tourists having sittings for portraits everywhere. The streets were packed with shoppers and the cafes were buzzing with people sipping wine and eating crepes. Quite a delightful scene.

We walked by the original Moulin Rouge before heading up the hill to the art district and the busy Sacre Couer Bascillica which was another crowded spot in the district. It is a beautiful church sitting on the highest hill in Paris. From there we walked to the Salvador Dali Museum to view his rather unique sculptures and paintings. We were familiar with this modern surrealist artist and his unusual work but it is very interesting when seen in person.
We took the funnicular down the hill and walked the lower section of the district before taking the Metro south of the city to go to the tallest building in Paris, the Montparnasse. We got our tickets to ride the elevator to the 58th floor observation tower and it was a wonderful view of all sides of the city. We were able to look out at all the places that we had visited during our fabulous stay in this beautiful city.

We had a marvelous French dinner at a neighborhood cafe called Chez Papa. Donna ordered what she thought was a salad and it turned out to so much more and different than any salad she had eaten as it was a large bowl with a little lettuce and wonderful home grown tomatoes and then filled the rest of way with blue cheese and roasted potatoes. John ordered an omelet which was stuffed with blue cheese and he ordered wine. The dinner also included a basket of hard crusted bread and a slice of other bread with two types of melted cheese.

There was so much food that neither or us could finish this dinner. After walking for a few blocks to try and help this meal to settle in our stomachs, we went back to our hotel at about 9 and packed our suitcases in anticipation of our next city to explore, Brussels. We have scheduled a taxi to take us to the train station early in the morning so we can take the high speed train to Belgium where we will spend another 4 nights. The adventures continue.